[StBernard] Louisiana Speaks Pattern Book

[Westley Annis]

I picked up my free copy of the much promoted, long-awaited LA Speaks
Pattern Book today from  Lowes.  It's a lovely booklet on LA architectural
history, site planning, community planning, and is full of nice artistic
renditions, landscaping advice, etc.  But I think the public's expectation
is that this would contain sample floor plans, cost estimate guides,
elevation views, much like a Southern Living house plan book. In other
words, ideas for house designs that reflect our unique architecture on a
scale that the average homeowner could afford to build, i.e. 1,200 to 2, 000
square feet that fits on lthe narrow existing lots we have already.  
 
The closest the booklet came to this expectation were a few pages about how
modular homes and conventional tract houses could be customized with
shutters, decorative moldings, columns, etc. to convert them to look like a
Louisiana or southern home.
 
Get your booklet from Lowes by all means, but you'll gain much more
information by contacting a modular home manufacturer directly or searching
the web for houses with floor plans that meet your budget and needs, and
then see how large shutters, the right columns, addtional moldings, and the
right roof could give it a charm without costing much more.
 
Until we get more modular home manufacturers advertising their products, the
choices at the moment appear to be limited to what you see here already.
Rumor is that one or more manufacturers is re-designing their products to be
more like a Creole cottage or as we call them, shotgun houses.
 
Deborah Keller