During the early 1900s, for as little as $3,500 a family could have an inexpensive, well-designed home offering privacy and independence.  Today, we spend $3,500 rewiring those very bungalows.  While we applaud the creativity and practicality of the people who built our homes, and honor them with Historic Designation plaques, don’t you wonder what they would think of our commitments, financial and emotional, to these simple dwellings?

From before 1990 until the 1930s, bungalows were built everywhere in the

I decided to write this article for a couple of reasons and I will tell you those reasons soon, but first I want to say what is not my reason for writing it. Here it is— the BIG disclaimer — I am not an expert, nor do I ever hope to be.  My knowledge of the subject comes from living in a big old house with drafty, rotting windows and a 90-pound dog who doesn’t like the FPL meter reader (another story for another time). My expertise comes from perhaps having done 10 or so windows in the past two years.

So when you see something here that you disag ...

Recently, the Sarasota County Commission passed an ordinance allowing some tax relief for improvements to historically designated properties. The new law allows owners of historically designated properties to avoid an increase in property taxes that resulted from renovation or improvement of their properties. The property tax abatement lasts for 10 years and can be a big savings for the owner.

The basic steps in the process are:

Jim and Helen Miller are the proud new owners of the historic landmark Spanish Oaks apartments on Oak Street.  Looking to leave the bustle of Washington. DC and settle into “semi-retirement” in Sarasota, Jim and Helen were struck by the beauty of these charming, two-story townhouses which were used as a resident hotel in the 1920’s, and which today house a variety of working singles and couples, artists, and Ringling students.

My wife, Terry, and I bought our 1948 concrete block home at 1919 Morrill Street in April of last year, and spent the following four months remodeling it and coming to know it intimately. Being in the business of remodeling houses, I often find myself wondering about the people who were responsible for the original project. Naturally, during the remodeling and repair of our own home, my curiosity was piqued.

Just as we were about to move in last July, Vince DeMays, the former occupant of fifteen years, presen ...

The time has come to speak up for an often unappreciated and maligned minority in our neighborhood: the concrete block structure.

This humble Laurel Park denizen has become a topic of jokes, an object of scorn, often perpetuated by the biased viewpoints of some of this neighborhood’s own residents.

The concrete block home, or Florida Ranch, is represented in small numbers in Laurel Park, where the wood frame bungalow is the predominant style. Mixed in are a few Spanish or Mediterranean Revival homes. ...

Drive through Sarasota and you’re likely to so be struck by the romantic Mediterranean designs of the 1920s or the grandiose mansions of today’s suburban enclaves.  But scattered throughout the city are hundreds of examples of another kind of residence, often underappreciated and even ignored.  And that’s unfortunate, because the humble bungalow, infrequently as we notice it, has a history, and a harmony, all its own.