STAKES HOUSE This was the first of my houses to be published by Better Homes and Gardens. It was a 1,200 square-foot house for a young bachelor who was tired of paying rent and wanted to build a house. The result was a “contemporary saltbox” built on Long Island’s South Shore. It was first published in 1969 and then many times over several years. It became their “Readers’ Flexible All-Time Favorite” and described as “one of the most universally accepted houses they ever featured.”
The house was built with a ten percent fee. This was less than a builder was going to charge for an undistinguished “Cape” with a shed dormer on the second floor. So Joey used to tell people “You can’t afford to build a house without an architect!”
Another issue of BH&G’s HOME PLAN IDEAS featured their “Ten Most Popular Houses of All-Time.” The Stakes House was number one, but two others were also mine – and both were also saltboxes!
Following the publication of the Stakes House, Better Homes and Gardens asked me “to incorporate your ideas into some alternate versions of the same basic house.”
So seven variations were published in the Summer Issue (1983) of HOME PLAN IDEAS.
