The first thing that is important to understand about Philadelphia (for anyone who doesn’t live here) is the tremendous amount of [architecturally] beautiful homes there are here.   The second thing to know is just how many of those homes are falling apart because the neighborhood is crap or because it’s just plain difficult to keep up with old houses.   Anyways, the beautiful homes are one of my favorite things about this city.  Everywhere I turn there’s always a more beautiful house…that I wish I lived in.  (I mean, I didn’t name this blog House Obsession for nothing.)  Everyone that knows me well, knows that I am constantly saying “Oh, I wish I lived there!”  Maybe that’s why I’ve moved so many times in my life.  There are always more houses to decorate, after all!

At any rate, today N and I took a walk to the “nice part of the neighborhood” so that I could torture myself with falling in love with every house.   I’m sure the people who lived around there wondered why we were taking pictures of their houses, but it’s just something I like to do – dream of what the insides of those houses must look like.  Anyways, here are my favorites from today’s walk.

I mean, how cute are those shutters?  I can’t even stand it!  I love them so much!

Is it possible to burn with porch envy?   I imagine sitting out here drinking tea and rocking in a rocking chair.  I think this is a former twin (like mine) where the person actually owns both halves and has turned it into a single home (not like mine).   I also love that they painted the brick.  I’m not usually a fan of that, but this house just looks so good in person.

This house is one of those that is so ridiculously huge that you have to wonder just who originally built the house.  Was he an inventor or a banker?  Nevertheless,  I certainly wouldn’t want to have to clean this huge home…nor would I want to pay the gas bill, but oh what I wouldn’t give to get to live there just for a month.   The owners must get lost in there sometimes!

There are so many things to love about this house, such as the curved porch and the two-color brick accents.   It’s hard to see in this photo, but it also has real leaded glass windows too.   Again, who built this house?!  It’s enormous!  I think you’d need an army to fill it (and clean it), but I’d love a house tour.

Okay, so this is not a photo of a house…but it IS a squirrel lantern in someone’s yard.  It’s a shame that whoever owns this house has let the lantern (and the rest of the house too) get into this condition b/c it’s seriously one of the best pieces of lawn decoration / lighting that I’ve ever seen.  The house itself was in such disrepair that I didn’t both taking any photos of it.  Such a shame…it breaks my heart.

I can’t explain it, but this one is my fantasy house of the day.  I love it’s lines…the porch…the stone wall in front…the overly bulbous top.   I hope the owners love it as much as I do.

Walking through the neighborhood window shopping like this lets me forget about all the renovation projects for a moment in my own house, and just dream about the endless possibilities of someone else’s space.  Now if only I could pick this house up and move it to the beach.  Now THAT would be a real dream house!

Oh, and completely un-related, we also saw a really cool custom hood ornament while walking today.  Pretty nifty, right?  It was on the hood of a small Ford pickup truck.  It looks very art deco.  Definitely not something I’d expect to see on an old pickup truck.

And we also saw the house below.  It was hard not to stand and stare because there are just so many things going on here.  First, the double doors on such a moderately scaled house jumped out at me immediately.  Add the hulking gargoyles on either side of the doorway and you know the people that live inside must have a real sense of humor.  (Hopefully, right?!)  And then top it off with the craftsman light fixture and the 70s aluminum siding…and you’ve got a mish-mosh of nuttiness.

At least their gargoyles made me laugh.  I seriously hope that someone in that house plays Dungeons & Dragons!

Last week, I got the chance to go back home to Georgia for almost a week to visit my family and friends.  It’s always nice to see them of course, but the time I spend there never seems like enough and inevitably I feel guilty for being an only child that lives so far away.  When these thoughts come upon me, I begin to think thoughts like, “If I moved back home, what kind of house would I live in?”  And for a few moments, I allow myself to revel in the idea of finally getting to own/live-in my favorite style of house…the American Craftsman.

These four are just a few of my hometown favorites.  The first one is my particular preference (even though it’s in a sad state at the moment b/c it’s been a rental for the last several years) because I LOVE the huge front porch.  A friend growing up used to live in a very similar house, and it was phenomenal on the inside.  The details…the layout…the enormous space.  My dream is to one day own a craftsman just like it.  Hopefully it will be on a really quiet street where I can enjoy sitting outside on my porch in the afternoons.

The rest of these are fabulous too.  I’d gladly take any one of them.  I don’t know what it is about a house with a porch, but I realized not that long ago that every house I’ve ever owned has had a porch.  (This is my third.)  I don’t know what it is about them…  Maybe it’s my Southern roots showing it’s colors.

But for now…I live in Philadelphia.  I’ll just keep these images in my inspiration file in case one day…things change.

Today someone requested pictures of my old house in a comment.   When I read the comment, it occurred to me that some of you didn’t know me via my previous and now defunct [personal] blog that had all the pics of my last house, so I thought…what the heck, why not?!  Even though I’m not giving up any snaps of the new place, there’s no reason I can’t show you the old one.

More photos after the jump

Keep in mind that this is no longer my house.   The wonderful people who purchased it from me have made some mods, and it looks fabulous.  I got the opportunity to check it out at their housewarming, and I love the new color of the living room in particular.  Good job guys!

I’m a blogger that is obsessed with my house. I find that writing about it on my personal blog doesn’t work out my never-ending angst to discuss the topic. So I figured why not create a space to discuss my home…and yours too. After all, it’s what I do best.