Bad mansard featured in St. Louis Post Dispatch

What happens when you put a boxy mansard atop a cute south city cottage? This. Read the August 27 article in the Post Dispatch by clicking here.

According to the article, the homeowners added the mansard to add more square footage to the house. It would have been more attractive to leave the original roof and park a mobile home in the back yard.

That said, the window box and garden are so cute I am going to forgive the roof.

I have gotten numerous citizen's bad mansard arrest warrants on this. Thanks to Patsy, Amy and Jeff for letting me know about this one.

Note- this picture is from the Post Dispatch. Betcha didn't know Badmanard has degrees in law, journalism and amateur architecture. Do you subscribe to the Post? You should. Print journalism is becoming a lost art. That, and all the good coupons are in the Sunday paper.

My day as an avocat Ste. Genevieve

An avocat, by the way, is a lawyer. I am sure you know Ste. Genevieve, Missouri is one of the oldest French settlements west of the Mississippi River. I think this is the most mansardy courthouse in Missouri.

A nice mansard, although I am not crazy about the shingling on the taller part of the building. The church spire is part of the Ste. Genevieve Catholic church.

I thought I had been to most courthouses in Missouri. That is, until I scrolled through this list of courthouses and realized that at most I've been to only 30 of the roughly 120 courthouses in our state. I spent way too much time scrolling through the great photographs and histories. Be sure look at the photo of the above mansard with its original cresting and roof.

Two things I can relate to

Orthodontics and a bad mansard backdrop. If you cannot read it, the sign says, "Grandchild needs braces, buy this truck." The mansard is one of my all-time least favorites featured back in 2009.

As for the orthodontics, my almost 9 year old daughter is doing a 'palate expander' which is a fancy cranking retainer that has been lost at least 5 times at $170 a piece.

The other daughter is almost 11 and has lovely teeth that are perfectly straight. Cool, no braces. Wait. She is MISSING her bottom permanent first molars. Her baby teeth should hopefully hold through high school at which time she'll need titanium implants. Those implants will probably cost more than braces.

It's always f. something.

Bad mansard, good beer

This has been a summer of many road trips. On my work trip to Wisconsin we went to a lovely town, Stevens Point. "Point", as the locals call it, has three industries: education (there is a U of Wisconsin campus there), insurance (why I was there) and beer. Did you know that Schlafly here in in St. Louis bottles most of its beer in Point? I enjoyed a Spotted Cow, which really isn't a Point brewed beer but very good Wisconsin craft beer. The mansard speaks for itself.