The plans for our house were published by Gustav Stickley in the March 1905 issue of The Craftsman magazine. The design was charmingly entitled: A Cottage Planned with a Special Idea to Economical Heating. Ah, Mr. Stickley–clearly a man after Cherie’s heart. We liked the simple, informal layout, the adaptibility for modern life, and the size.

The updated drawings were done by the talented and tolerant Todd Stanley of Stanley Gordon Architecture.

The Original Stickley, Exterior

First floor

Second floor

Our house, exterior

We made some minor alterations that, sadly, did change the look of the roofline.  However, it also added a good deal of living space, so we accepted the trade-off.  We raised the roof several feet, which in turn resulted in a five-foot knee-wall on the second floor instead of a two-foot knee-wall.  This added lots of added usable space but means we lost the nice slope to the roofline.

Our house, interior

The changes we made from the original are pretty minor: a half bath off the dining room, a built-in desk by the stairs, and a wood stove by the stairs instead of a fireplace against the kitchen wall. We tried to keep the Craftsman ideals of clever and creative use of space.

Our house, second floor

We added a laundry room on the second floor and enlarged the master bedroom closet, but otherwise it’s pretty much the same as the original.