Wish I had some neat old photos like yours! Our cottage was built in 1940 by a local developer who was the "cheap and dirty" type. We're sure of this because our BIL has the developer's own house, and it's even worse built than ours was, LOL.

The style is clearly a cheap knockoff of the Arts & Craft bungalow, showing a front porch with only a few stairs up. As the lot slopes precipitously down the hill, this allows for a garage and full floor underneath the main floor. That main floor contains the LR, DR, kitchen, 2 bdrms, and 1 bath. The garage, or ground level, now contains our laundry room and a full master bedroom suite remodeled from an illegal 2-room apartment.

We turned the back bedroom upstairs into a dining room, then changed the interior with an open floor plan and cathedral vaulted ceilings. We stayed within the original footprint, however, so you'd never know how different it is until you walk inside.

I have a photo from when we bought it in 1989. I don't believe it looks substantially different from when it was first built, though - maybe different colors, that's all. We're only the third owners.

One elderly person told me that the developer who built our house, as well as several others along the street, bulldozed all the trees on the lots plus the ones that used to line the street! It must have looked very pretty once, and much more rural. Almost everyone has cottages in our neighborhood, and you can see the "waves" of development in the different styles: 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960 and later.

1989:
{{gwi:634582}}

2006:
{{gwi:634583}}

Wow! jkom51! doesn't even look like the same house. lovely picture.

We have a common style of 20's wooden bungalow. Most of the houses in our area built at the same time are very similar. It is the smallest of these type of houses built at that date, with no hallway. These were very affordable when they were built. I know a bit of the history of the particular home, but not really of the homes in general here. We live on property that was a cattle farm, and before that fields where the Battle Of Atlanta was fought.
We are currently changing the footprint again. One room was added, and the back sleeping porch and canning kitchen had already been converted to a bathroom, and stairwell. We are moving the stairwell. The basement was partly dug out, we are currently digging more of it out.
Like yours Nell, our home has double hung windows, wooden siding and at least now has a fair sized porch (partly screened, partly not) but the front porch is a later addition that the 2nd owners put on in the early 70's. Lucky for me they were not very hep on current styles and the porch looked fairly 50's/60's.

GGG

Ours is a Victorian Bungalow with the Queen Anne trim at the tops of the "sisters" . Our home was built by Mr Abbott..this known as the Abbott house. He was the first Opelika photographer. His widow disposed of all his negaives and equipment at his death. The neighbor who is now the Opelika photographer said he and his Dad followed the truck to the dump and tried to save the history...they weren't successful. We have tried to restore the downstairs and reinterpreted the attic space to compliment the rest. I think you do what you can and hope the "ghosts" are appeased. Caroline

1930 Brick Bungalow - the first one of it's kind built in this area for a doctor and his wife. This was also his office. We actually have the original blueprint of it. I think I liked it better before "improvements " were made.

It is the only house around with a basement. Basements are not too common in Oklahoma because the ground is so unstable and shifts so much.
There are six windows in the basement that were boarded up many years ago for some reason. I would like to remove the boards and restore the windows. The coal shoot was also boarded up. The walls in the basement are the natural metamorphic dark red sandstone, what some of the locals call "ironstone". It is very heavy.

The house has two chimneys - one from the fireplace in the livingroom that connects to the one in the basement and one chimney in the kitchen built for the kitchen stove that is still in the kitchen. It's a real dandy. The house was once heated from the basement with a coal furnace. I find chunks of the coal in the garden from time to time, especially after it rains. It must have been where the coal was once stored. I keep them for interest.

I've heard stories from the local elders about the old doctor and his wife and this place.

~Annie

Nell, what a beautiful place you've created over the years!
I'm enjoying the other photos and cottage histories too. Very interesting!

PattiOh (my "cottage" is a 1950 ranch. Built by my Dad)

I designed it after a Louisiana planter's cottage.
1996
{{gwi:648412}}

2005
{{gwi:648415}}

Those brown /white spots near the ditch, just left of the stone path, are where Daddy parked the motor home and burned the grass.

This is my first house and how it looked when I first moved in. I don't think it would classify as a cottage per se since it was a typical ranch style house, but the cottage look was what I was aiming for.
{{gwi:648419}}

Here it is in it's third season -
{{gwi:648421}}

I'm at a new house now - and this is my first gardening season. And I'm starting from scratch. More pics to follow!

My cottage is a typical American farmhouse. Not the grand variety with big open porch but the utilitaian type built with survial only in mind. It was constructed by Rick's (by marriage), Uncle's father and grandfather in 1903. Originally it was two rooms and a pantry. All the cooking was done in the LR over a wood burning stove. Later an enclosed porch and kitchen were added and the wood stove was moved to the kitchen. In later years it was lived in by a family named Serr whose decendents still reside in the area. It is said that they sold the property to my in-laws because Mrs Serr was so fearful of the river. The banging and crashing of the ice in spring nearly made her a mental case and she refused to live here any longer. Over the years hired hands and their families lived in it and at one point it was windowless and doorless and the cattle were allowed to take refuge in it during storms. When Rick married the first time it was once again converted into a house. A basement was added and the pantry was converted to a bathroom, laundry room and closet. It is still the same today except that the wood stove has been removed, the chimney rebuilt and a wood burning furnace was added to the basement. The hole still remains in the kitchen wall where the old stove used to sit. I hung a decorative metal flue cover over it. The attic space upstairs in the A of the roof is still unfinished today. It's still just three rooms and a loft...and the outhouse is long gone...thank goodness!

Here's a picture of my 1948 brick bungalow style home:

{{gwi:648423}}

It's a work in progress but I'm enjoying the process. Most of the yard was covered in ivy when I bought it 2 years ago. Now I'm really getting into the gardening part since most of the ivy is gone. The front yard faces north so it's shade gardening out front. I plan to make a stone patio in the front yard inside the fence since grass won't grow well in shade.
bloominganne

Strange. None of you have cottages.

Actually there is no definitive answer on what constitutes a real "cottage".

There's an interesting discussion that popped up when I did a Google search:
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=64950&gsessionid=syn42zMZTc8

"There are very different architectural traditions in the New and Old Worlds regarding cottage
design.

The Oxford English Dictionary's primary definition is very
straightforward: "a simple, humble abode". "

Now, simple and humble US cottages might look awfully lavish and upper-class to a dirt-village Third World resident, but architects accept that "cottage" is a relative term ONLY.

I may have a $600,000 cottage, but the fact remains it's a 25x38' relatively small, 2bd home, whereas most Americans are looking for that 3bd 2ba, or 4 or 5 bdrm homes. So by local definition, yes, I do think I live in a cottage.

Do I live in what we'd term here, a SHACK? Nope. Most of those were cheap, temporary worker housing, and have fallen down/bulldozed into oblivion. "Earthquake cottages", for instance, built after the famous 1906 San Francisco earthquake, have almost entirely disappeared; there are less than a dozen, maybe only half a dozen, remaining that have been verified.

The house I live in looks like the type of building we call a "cottage" in Canada. That's one of the reasons I love it.

GGG

Here's a quote from realtor.org on English Cottage:

English Cottage: Fairytale Ending

... You might hear them referred to as a Cotswold Cottage, an Ann Hathaway, or even a Hansel and Gretel cottage.

The English cottage is considered a subclass of the broader Tudor style, so the exterior might feature stone, brick, or stucco, and half-timbering isnÂt uncommon. A low front door leads inside to rooms generally of irregular shape.

These fairy-tale houses are easily recognized by characteristics including:

Sloping, uneven gable roof
A feeling of being low to the ground, no matter how many stories
Asymmetrical
Prominent chimney made of brick or stone
Casement windows of leaded glass
Small dormer windows

So, here's what we call our "English-influenced" Cottage:
{{gwi:558838}}

We had to modify the style to support passive solar, hence the deep south-facing front porch and added garage to form an L-shape to block the western sun. It would have been nice to build it all in stone, but that was cost-prohibitive.

Everyone's cottages are lovely! I think of a "cottage" as a homey type home where folks are at ease and it's not about being uppity. Just MHO. I had a house that was a "showcase" and I didn't like it near as much as I like my humble abode that I now call home.

lavendrfem, your cottage is looking great! What a transformation. What a difference the flowers and rock edging make.

I like your home, wonbyherwits, as I've always liked houses with strong roof lines or sloped roofs, especially Tudor style homes. Your fence is great too.

I've seen cottage style gardens around all kinds of houses, well, maybe not a ultra modern home but anything's possible.
bloominganne

I suppose it's not a "real" cottage, but it is our home. A very simple 1950s bungalow that suits our 3 person(plus 2 pets) family just fine. We originally thought we'd only be here for 5 years or so, but we are now in year 7 and don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. I never took any "before" shots of the house, as I have only become camera crazy in the past couple years.
This pic is a year and a half old, but everything is mostly the same. I replaced that crumbling timber wall last spring.

{{gwi:648426}}

Maybe not technically a cottage, but my 1970 ranch is relatively modest and compact, imo.

To me, it's the garden that makes a home a cottage. I also agree that it's about a cottage feeling at ease and comfortable. I think everyone here is evoking the feel and sense of cottage, regardless of architecture. Cottages have 'heart' IMHO.

Cameron

1950's starter home. I can't imagine how my neighbors raised a whole family in one of these :) It's just the perfect size for one!

I don't think I have a before pic...I'll have to look...Oh, thanks to the county tax assessor, I have an earlier photo, but not one from the beginning. There was NO flowers in the front when I moved in. The back yard was a different story. The lady apparently was a gardener before she got too feeble to take care of it. So I had some basic beds in the back.

{{gwi:648428}}

{{gwi:648430}}

We live in a 1980 brick ranch home, but with some twists, such as cathedral ceilings, a wet bar, and large ceiling to floor windows. Only one large window is visible from the street with the rest of the house being oriented to the back to take advantage of the wooded area beyond our property line.

The architecture may not be cottage-y, but our gardening and decorating style is. The first owners only lived in the house 6 months before the husband accepted a job transfer to San Antonio, so we basically had a blank slate when we moved it. The only landscaping was what the builders had installed,and there wasn't a lawn or flower beds at all.

It's been a real trial and error journey along the way, but an enjoyable one.

Marilyn

We live in a two-story, cedar, A-frame house, with a rock (or stone) chimney. It's probably the same kind of stone Annie was talking about at her house. We live in Oklahoma too. We have a small side porch, a small front porch, a large lower deck and a small upper deck. We have a very steep roof. We live "in the woods" so it's hard to get good pictures because of the trees. There are some real decorating limitations to living in an A-frame house. Hard to hang pictures on slanted walls!

There were no flowerbeds here when I moved here and I really like the cottage flowerbeds, so that is what I've been making. I've made three big flowerbeds so far. They are outlined with the same kind of rock as our chimney. And we have a curved rock walkway leading out to the circle drive in front.

We live close to a lake, so our house is probably more of a lake cabin "style". But I like the cottage look so much, this is my new favorite forum. I have really enjoyed reading about and seeing pictures of everyone's cottage.

Susie

Our little cottage was built around 1950. There are lots of them in our area. As we've done repair and remodeling over the 34 years that we've been here, we've seen how our place was built, using old used wood, etc, from the military base that was torn down back then. We even found a beer can in the walls. Our cottage is very tiny, 20'x25', with a utility room now turned scullery that is about 7'x10, and the enclosed little front porch, now library/computer cubby about 6'x8'. It is paid for and we are enjoying it more as we've done the different remodeling projects. We have cottage gardens and outbuildings on our 1/4 acre also. It is our humble compound, our haven, and home sweet home.

FlowerLady

I skipped this thread, thinking, oh, I don't really live in a cottage. I am so glad I took the time this morning to read it. I love hearing the stories behind the homes. The comment about not being cottage prompted me to add mine. Our home is a late 70s typically California starter subdivision home. I did manage to get a design with only one window to the front, so I could pretend I had the craftsman bungalow I wished for. When my kids were hitting their growth spurt and there was no room in the living room for all the feet, we added our garden room. We have lived happily here for 28 years.
The other day my sweetie was talking to bil and asked me, what style do we have in our home? I said, cottage? He said no. I said, craftsman? He said no. I said, lodge? He said, yeah, that's it. It isn't really of course, but we live a cottage lifestyle with a great love of the outdoors and our home is mainly decorated with twigs and pinecones and shells and rocks whatever other pretty things we find as we travel, with lots of heirloom fancy work thrown in for good measure. The front yard isn't even cottage, but we intend a major overhaul of that one of these days. I love love love the real cottages shown here, and those I've seen in other posts, but cottage is about where your heart is, right?
{{gwi:648432}}

Since I have a ranch styled, 1970's house there isn't much that is "cottagy" about it. What I've tried to do is incorporate some Arts and Crafts movement styled features to the house as I update it. All the lighting fixtures have been changed, the address letters on the house, and soon the front door will get a painted facelift.
We have also changed the pathway to our front door from being a straight shot from the driveway into a sweeping curve.

Landscape wise, I've expanded all the existing beds, planting a lot of cottage-type plants next to the pathway and along the front.

I know my house will never look like a cottage no matter how much I change it, but my plan is to make it as inviting as I can.

Heather

American vernacular, which is to say, no recognized style. It was built on 3 separate foundations starting in 1938, so it just kind of evolved in whatever fashion was cheapest and most convenient. It's long and low, and I am trying to emphasize whatever Prairie house look it might have (somewhat related to Craftsman but more informal).

My foursquare might not be a cottage but I decorate it like one both inside and out. {{gwi:648433}}
The chicken coop in back is on tis way to being a mini-cottage {{gwi:648435}}

I bought my little house in 1995, after all my kids left home. Here's the 'bare house'{{gwi:648438}}
and here's last spring-
{{gwi:648441}}

mao_tse_mom, what a pretty house! I really love the way you have it painted. I've got house-envy! My "cottage" is basically a concrete box, NOT cottagey, but I'm doing my best to at least give the garden some character and beauty.

Hi,
I've really enjoyed looking at everyone's homes. It is great that some of you have before and after pics. I do have some early photos but I did not have a digital camera back then. My house is a ranch from 1959. This photo doesn't show the whole house, but it shows more than any other photo I have.
{{gwi:648444}}
Remy

My house started life in the early 50's as a brick ranch-style house about 4 miles from its new location.

{{gwi:648447}}

The brick was stripped and it lost its garage before the move.{{gwi:648449}}

Now it's a little closer to "cottage", and when we install the picket fence and arbor, and my flower beds mature, we'll be even closer.{{gwi:648451}}{{gwi:648454}}

wow, pameliap, what a great transformation! Please post photos when your beds start flowering, I'll bet it will be just gorgeous. You did a wonderful job!

This has been an interesting thread to discover and read and see all the many pictures. I like this definition from a previous post, "The Oxford English Dictionary's primary definition is very straightforward: "a simple, humble abode". So then ours definitely qualifies! We have a small typical 3/2 tract home with a stucco exterior on a 50 x 100 ft lot, built in 1966-67.

But we pretend its a little english cottage- that how we treat the exterior gardens and the interior decorating!We are totally besotted with English Garden/Cottage Garden style here! Here is very recent pic of the front yard (taken standing in the next door neighbor's driveway) from the side if you were walking down our street coming up towards the house:
{{gwi:648456}}
Uh, I think the minivan kinda gives it away that its not REALLY in England, and the fact that there is a concrete driveway... We are in No. Calif. Here is pic of the front yard taken in late Feb, before the roses busted into bloom:
{{gwi:678}}
To see more pics of our front, back and side gardens and recent landscaping projects, ck out my Picture Trail:

careytearose

Here is a link that might be useful: look at the Landscaping Projects 2007 and Favorite ROSES we grow albums