Customer Reviews

500 Bungalows

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Wow... well I must say that I really feel "taken"!! Both Taunton Press and Keister have done excellent work in the past, so I did not think twice about purchasing the book... Unfortunately I did not pay attention to the SIZE! I fully expected this to be a picture book because that was how it was advertised. But I assumed it would be 8"x10" like similar Taunton publications. Did it do what it set out to do? Yes. It is a picture book about cottages. I did not expect the book to be 5" x 6" -- less than half the size of normal books. This is a "post card book". Buyer Beware-- This book is tiny!

The photos are beautiful and they're all color, but...

This book is a mere 6" by 4" which was a surprise. Plus, the great majority (probably 90%) of the photos are from California. A better title might be, "500 California Bungalows."

The non-Californian photos are from Bellingham, WA, Lincoln, NE and Nashville, TN and a couple from St. Paul, MN. Those are the only other non-CA cities represented in this book.

The book features several photos of kit homes from Pacific Ready-Cut Kit Homes of Los Angeles, but with nary a mention that these are indeed kit homes. For example, the houses on pages 248, 436 and 500 are gorgeous (and classic) examples of the 40,000 homes that Pacific Ready-Cut sold throughout California.

Page 163 features what appears to be a Sears Ashmore, but it is also not mentioned as being a kit home. It's a fun book and as mentioned above, the photos are all crisp, clear and colorful. While it's long on photos, it's way short on text. Two very short pages in the front of the book answer the question, "What is a Bungalow?" and that is the full extent of the historical info.

It's more a miniature coffee-table book, with its pretty, pretty bungalows, outfitted in a dazzling array of bright California colors.

Rose Thornton
co-author, California's Kit Homes

This book is wonderful if exterior bungalow photos are what you are looking for. As a remodeler who specializes in 1920's bungalows, I often need reference photos for ideas. This book is ideal for this purpose, or if you just want to dream about ideas for your own home. One small complaint is that we found some duplicate photos within the book. And I don't mean different views, for instance a front and a side elevation. That I understand. I mean the same house fifty pages later with a different title. Kinda weird in an otherwise beautiful and exhaustive collection of bungalow facades.

This book has a large variety of examples of bungalow homes. It's an excellent resource for getting ideas for design when doing remodeling, new design or even landscaping. The pictures are all of exteriors and there is no text, except for captions noting city and state of the home.

This book provides lots of good examples if you're interested in painting a house. Good value for the price

The author just drove down streets and took pictures of 500 houses. No plans, very little script. Drive down the streets of your town and take pictures. It will do you about the same amount of good.

Be aware that the book is 5x7, but it is a good quality book with great pictures. My problem is not really with the quality of pictures but that i wanted a book with more two-story bungalows and some ideas on blue prints. I want to build a house in the next 5 years and i want some ideas and some blue prints that i can either use or manipulate. This book did not help with these issues. To me, this book will be an idea coffee-table picture book but thats about it; and although the pictures are great, i personally have seen better bungalows that deserve to be in this book. sorry:(

Nice clear crisp pictures. No text-- tells nothing about the house except the location for most pictures. I at least expected a year of construction and a name for the house.

I purchased a bungelow about six months ago and have been buying up books in hopes of finding the exact model and floor plan of my house. While this book didn't go beyond photos of bungelows, I found them to be interesting to review and am glad that I have it in my library.

Terrific little book where each page shows a bungalow. I was interested in colors and general architecture of bungalows and what are their defining characteristics. This picture book provided the answers I was seeking.