Las Vegas Homes Worthy Of A Second Look

            If you have a home sporting a cedar-shingled volcano, I'm going to take a pic of it

It takes a special breed of human to set down roots in Las Vegas. The word "esoteric" has been whispered politely to describe the taste of those who chose to dwell in a city of over a million flashing lights. Some of the personality and character of these rather interesting people is reflected in their architectural leanings. Driving around through neighborhoods old and new, a few adjustments to the standard ranch home floor plan were spotted.

         If you have a giant shoe in front of your house, I'm going to stop and take a pic...

Some of the residents live in relatively normal appearing homes, but that does not stop them from displaying whatever eccentric tendencies that they may harbor. Like the casinos that have dedicated four stories of signage to juggling jesters and twirling teasers, there are homes in Las Vegas that revel in front yard ornamentation that is a little beyond the pale.

         If you have a wishing well and car part sculptures in your yard, I'm going to take a pic 

There are also those homes that like to mix up their curious interpretation of what is proper for yard decor. Maybe it's input from two very different people, one much more conventional that the other. The house pictured above was spotted in a very plain suburban neighborhood, and one side of it's front yard blended right in - well tended lawn, pretty trees and manicured shrubs, with the opposite side just that - opposite; raked gravel paired with sculptures made from car parts.

If you have a '50's style V-shaped carport, and a '60's style geodesic dome, I'm going to...

Then there are the homes that appear to have been built over a period of several decades, or by several different generations of the same family. These homes blend a wide variety of elements, sometimes cohesively, sometimes not so much. I've spotted homes that seemed to take design cues from the Prairie school of architecture, with long rectangular walls and thin fieldstone facing, topped by Mansard roofs. 


The house in the picture above seems to have been started by someone in the 1950's, worked on further by someone else in the late '60's, and then finally completed by a third party in the '80's. It's a hoot.

   If you built your Tuscany-influenced home so far out in the middle of nowhere there's no road...


Finally, we have those with fairly run-of-the-mill taste. Oh sure, it's ostentatious taste, but not what can be considered quirky or left-of-center. What is unusual about these homes is they are so far out of the city, so far off the beaten path, your Tom-Tom or Magellan GPS will not have a little green arrow to lead you to them.


A word of caution - while these particular homes are quite nice, they are best viewed from afar, as the roaming pack of Doberman Pinschers behind the wall do indeed look capable of clearing it in a single bound.