FINDING yourself in the doghouse? We should all be so lucky.
In a brilliant marriage of our national obsessions – dogs and real estate – here’s an opportunity to buy or build a home for Rover that looks exactly like your house. This month’s issue of This Old House magazine features five custom-built doghouses modeled after classics of American architecture, ranging from a Greek Revival farmhouse -with a wraparound porch, of course – to a Craftsman bungalow with wood-shingle siding.
The canine castles are complete, scaled-down versions of iconic American homes, down to the casement windows in the Tudor doghouse to the bricks-and-mortar (really!) of the Georgian.
Though the estimated retail price is some $6,000, through July 7, you can bid on the pooch palaces online at http://www.ebay.com/thisoldhouseauction. Proceeds benefit the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
But, this being This Old House, the magazine also includes instructions on how to build one of your very own – provided you have enough time on your hands.
“Oh, God,” replies craftsman Dale Joliffe – who designed the houses with his brother Mark -when asked how long the project took. “We probably spent four days on each house.” That’s with a crew of eight people.
Nonetheless, the doghouses, says Joliffe, feature “good, simplistic design.”
“Simplistic” is loosely defined, of course.
“Well, it’s simple when you build houses for a living,” says Joliffe, who volunteered his time for the project. “It’s easier if I don’t have to get on scaffolding. If I can do it standing up, it’s easy.”