Blue Springs, MO

A bad mansard shopping strip on the other side of our fair state of Missouri.  Photo taken during a road trip to KC for an office party.  Happy new year to all.  

Somewhere in St. Louis

Here's a mansard with a construction dumpster in the driveway.  Excited projects abound, I'm sure of it.

Snug Harbor, NY

Former Old Sailor's Home in Snug Harbor, NY.  Now the Snug Harbor Artists in Residency house.   It's a beauty.  Thanks Richard!

Amsterdam, that's a good looking building

Thank you to R.S. for sending a picture of the Het Scheepvaartmuseum (National Maritime Museum) in Holland.  Constructed 1656 as a naval warehouse.  A handsome mansard, for sure.  

Hardscaping & Landscaping

I've been spending a lot of time at Kirkwood Material and noticed this great little mansard.  Kirkwood Material is a magical place.  All the stone, blocks, walls and bricks you could ever imagine.   And of course, I buy all of our plants and flowers come from Sherwood Forest.

It's been an 18 month backyard repair project and we're about finished.  We had thought we were going to build a carport, but learned we'd have to take out our only remaining big tree so we passed for fear we'd burn up in the summer.  It took a long time to get to this point.  We moved into our house 15 years ago.  We planted some stuff in the backyard and a lot of it became overgrown and had to be ripped out.  The brick patio seemed to sink and the beds around it spilled onto the brick.  The grass died.  The fence and porch railing needed repair and paint.

My husband and I did almost all the work ourselves, except as noted below.    We did put in good trees back then - 3 Japanese maples and a red maple.

what we did:
ripped out Viburnum
repaired fence
repaired porches
painted fence (paid a guy to do this)
put down sod
kept Lion's Head maple, 2 ornamental Japanese Maples, large red maple
neighbor repaired and painted the white garage
repaired and relaid the brick patio
relaid the brick in the gangway
built retaining wall in gangway
put down limestone blocks/built retaining wall on patio
added two new flower beds with a fish pond
dug a curvy path to improve drainage
edged and filled path with gravel (paid a guy to do this)
got some proper furniture

before.

before

after

after

Fairest of them All

Two mansards from Fairoyal Subdivision in Des Peres.  There was a third but the neighbors were starting to wonder why I was driving so slowly in my crappy old van and taking pictures of houses.  Love this neighborhood off Barrett Station Road.  It's hilly and cute and full of nice families.  

Brookfield, WI

I love you Wisconsin.  You never disappoint.  Great food.  Nice people.  Excellent beer.  Lovely towns.  And bad mansards abound!  This is a Methodist church in Brookfield, WI.  Pretty sure this is a mansard?  Are there any Methodist architects who could confirm?  

KÖLN Mansard

Richard emailed me this winner mansard from Cologne, Germany.  He mentioned mansards in Germany are hard to find and I think he is right.  When I visited in 2011, I found very few mansards.  When my husband returned in 2012, he could find no mansards.  You'd think with all the post war construction, there would be more bad mansards. But no.  As long as we're talking about Cologne, I am sharing a picture of my grandfather outside of the Cologne Cathedral right after World War 2, probably early 1946.  Somehow it stood even though the surrounding areas were destroyed.  He would have been on leave during occupation duty in Germany.  Thank you Richard.  I appreciate that you were able to find me some material in Cologne!  

  

Fishtown district in Leland, MI

Continuing with the vacation theme.  Julie and her family recently traveled up to Michigan.  I might add that she left the morning after she most graciously opened her home to 25 guests for a girl scout party celebrating the end of 9 years of scouting.

Julie's astute architect eye spotted this mansard melee in the historic Fishtown district of Leland, MI.  Thanks Julie!

Up next!  Mansards from Europe.

this mansard is no butte of any joke

The theme for bad mansard this summer is vacation pictures.  My neighbor Kent sent me this beaut from Butte, Montana.  Kent loaded his family up in the family van and road tripped to Oregon in what could have been one of the longest road trips ever attempted from Soulard.  He was nice enough to send me this picture of the Hotel Finley.  Up next:  mansards from the European motherland.

Saddest shovel in St. Louis

As seen in the doorway of the Union Trust building at 705 Olive (7th street entrance).  It's supposedly going to be renovated into a boutique hotel.  Yay!  It's a neat building

I worked in that building from 2009-2011.  I had an enormous office with a chandelier and lumpy couch.  My boss had a bar in his office.  Good times.

Hopefully this shovel gets some work soon. It's been sitting there about 2 yearss.

Little Shorty

I generally don't like to post out-of-season pictures like this pairing, clearly from the late winter.  But, alas, I'm forgot to post this picture when I took it so enjoy.  And be thankful the days of wintering grass and gloomy skies are behind us.  Today is going to be sunny and great.  

Phoenix

A quick trip to Phoenix for spring break.  Sorry for bad photo quality.  On 16th Avenue.

Central West End

Just before the cold air returned and ruined the Saucer Magolia tree blooms. 

SWIK

SWIK = SomeWhere in Kansas.  Thanks to my friend JPW for sending the pic, and for picking my kids up from school once a week, carpooling for various sports, and for throwing great parties & other gatherings.

Marshfield, MO

What can you do with an old mansard Pizza Hut?  Put a State Farm office all up in that mansard fabulousness.  

Eureka!

Medical mansard, for sale or lease.  Eureka, MO.

Going a different direction

My running bud Otto in Lafayette Park.

I don't have an easy time with change, and especially change of routine.  I don't feel bad - routine is the only was to run a household of 2 adults, 4 kids, 2 cats, one dog.  I've used the same mascara since I was 15 years years old.  I hate trying new recipes - they usually fail.  I run the same routes I've been running since we moved to Soulard 14 years ago.  I swim a mile the exact same way - 35 free, 10 breast, 10 back, 10 free - as long as I can remember.  My minivan is 10+ years old.  My laundry system makes no sense at all, and yet the baskets remain the same haphazard way.  Why is that chair/vase/picture where it is?  I have no idea.  That's just where it "goes."

I buy the same apples (Gala at Schnucks, Jazz at Aldi, Honeycrisp sliced at Sams), juice, ceral, bagels and yogurt I've bought since the kids were little.

My current hairstyle is entering year 18.  I use the same begonia, geranium and tulip color every spring.  I had the same job for 20 years.  Notice I said "had." Earlier this month, I took a leap and left the firm where I started when I got out of law school.  Actually, I did work at Neiman Marcus holiday 1996 so I could get a discount on a lawyer lady wardrobe before I started.  But I left the firm and now my routine is definitely different.

And I also took a new running route, running through alleys and weird side streets where I found this groovy neato attached pair of houses.  About those alley runs.  Don't worry.  I run with a very large dog.

2017 NHL Winter Classic

We love hockey in this house and the last week (and the next week) are all about the 2017 Winter Classic festivities here in St. Louis.  Bridgestone ran an ad with PK Subban and, what do I see?  An NHL mansard.  Hope you enjoy these pictures are much as we loved the activities.

Bad mansard video!