By Pat Allin

Why do people love bungalows?

Take a look at one from the sidewalk. Often situated on tree-lined streets just outside the town center, bungalows have a very relaxed and inviting appearance. Their exteriors frequently have different roof lines and more than one siding material. Lots of detail in wood, such as exposed rafter ends and dormers, adds more interest. Their wide porches with stout columns say welcome and speak of a time when people enjoyed relaxing there and chatting with neighbors.

Bungalows have an air of solidity, a sense of shelter and a neighborly quality. They are built of natural materials-brick, wood and stone. They seem rooted to the ground.

On the inside, the bungalow is informal, warm and cozy. You are surrounded by the warmth of wood floors, wainscoting and built-ins. There is always a fireplace - often beautifully tiled with bookcases and windows on either side. The living room connects to the dining room to the kitchen in an easy flow. Activities are separated into rooms but are open to each other. Window seats, breakfast nooks, stained-glass windows, panel doors - all this attention to detail and the quality of finish give the bungalow its comfortable and enduring character.

Marge Phelps bought her 1924 Arts and Crafts Montrose bungalow two years ago to serve as her real estate office. The apartment upstairs would provide income. Phelps hadn't given much thought to bungalows and had not lived in one before but was intrigued by the previous owner's books on Arts and Crafts homes displayed on a table for prospective buyers. The house was in great shape.

Phelps loved the quality of craftsmanship in the building, especially the woodwork. She loved the size of the rooms and the windows. She said the house felt solid as rock. She made a minor repair to the foundation and painted the exterior. Phelps added an Arts and Crafts style stencil design above the original picture rail in the living room. The original tile and built-in bookcases with glass doors surround the fireplace. The wood floors are original.

The dining room has a pretty bay window and is open to the living area. The kitchen has been updated: some original cabinets remain and new ones kept to the original theme. A small, sunny room behind the kitchen leads to the outside. There is a dumb waiter to the basement. In a hall, a built-in cupboard with drawers probably was a linen closet. A system of chains still in the hall was linked to the furnace in the basement and allowed the owner to adjust the damper. Light switches are still the original push buttons.

Marge Phelps fell in love with her house and moved into the apartment upstairs. Now she is looking for another office space so that she can occupy the whole house. "I'm home," she said. "The porch has changed my life." It is way to connect to the community, a lively spot where people often stop by to chat.

Walt Hill is a designer of new homes, but he has lived in his 1914 Delta-Brick bungalow for fifteen years. You enter the house by the front porch and through a sunny, plant-filled, enclosed area. Hill renovated his house extensively, making the house suit his family's needs. In the living room, he raised the hearth and added an efficient fireplace insert with a new tile surround. He replaced the windows but maintained the Craftsman-style vertical muntins in the upper sash.

Hill believes that the division of activities into separate rooms creates intimacy and privacy. "We all need private space," he says, "a place for work, a place for sleep and a place for children to play." Hill mentioned the porch as his connection to the community and loves it in the same way Marge Phelps does. He enjoys being able to walk everywhere.

Hill always kept the Craftsman ideals in mind. He said that bungalows came from the philosophy that one should live simply. These houses are honest, simple expressions of architecture, he said. They have such a good feeling. The workmanship is pleasing to the eye. Nothing is artificial. Houses should be comfortable, affordable, and provide a sense of safety. Bungalows do this. They are inviting but not ostentatious, Hill says.

A bungalow simply says "home".

Published in The Monitor, Montrose, CO. Copyright © 2005 by Pat Allin

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