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Category / Desirable Digs

England’s Secret Historic Hotel Network

I don’t know what’s more astonishing– discovering so many spectacular historic buildings where ordinary people can actually spend the night, or the fact that most of them won’t cost me more than £20 per person a night … OR that it took me so long to discover the Landmark Trust. Hiding in the shadows of the mainstream…

The Floating Basket Homes of Iraq: A Paradise Almost Lost to Saddam

It was Iraq’s ‘Garden of Eden’; unique wetlands in southern Iraq where a people known as the Ma’dan, or ‘Arabs of the marsh’, lived in a Mesopotamian Venice, characterised by beautifully elaborate floating houses made entirely of reeds harvested from the open water. These little-known architectural wonders are known as a ‘mudhif’; built without nails, wood or glass…

The Great Brooklyn House Snooping of 1978

I love a good snoop around other people’s houses, don’t you? Assuming it’s all perfectly legal, of course. In January 1978, a then unknown, and still, very much undiscovered photographer by the name of Dinanda H. Nooney began documenting Brooklynites in their homes. She gained access to the private lives of hundreds of perfect strangers, who…

The Mysterious Dome Homes Marching into the Sea: Then & Now

For many years, these bizarre buildings on the isolated southern tip of Marco Island in Cape Romano, Florida, were a bit of a mystery. Some locals and abandoned explorers thought it might have been the community home belonging to a secret cult while other rumours went as far as claiming they had been left behind…

Parisian Pads You Can Borrow for an Epic Party

So I heard Paris is cracking down on Airbnb landlords again. The city is officially making it mandatory for landlords to register their lodgings with city hall before listing it to vacationers online, as well as imposing a 120-day limit to rent their properties. For French entrepreneurs trying to make the most out of their…

Might I Suggest This Dollhouse for Your Stay in Paris?

Cheaper than most hotel rooms you’ll find in Paris, widen your eyes for this ‘doll house’ maisonette situated inside a charming paved courtyard that is available to rent through Airbnb for just … wait for it … €80 ($113) per night! That Paris trip you’ve been day dreaming about just got serious. Come on, let’s snoop…

Ditch Real Life, Buy a ‘Steve Zissou’ Lighthouse Complete with a Sailor’s Bar

The real estate classifieds are one of my favourite places to linger on the internet these days. You can come across anything from Victorian time capsule homes for sale to a Victorian axe murderess’ mansion up for grabs; big empty Italian castles to private islands complete with Nazi castles– property listings really do provide much…

The 1970s Cold War Era Home Built 26 Feet Underground

You wouldn’t happen to be in the market for a 1970s underground family home, equipped to live in for up to a year without resurfacing in the event of a nuclear missile strike that wipes out humanity, would ya? Because it just so happens one has just come onto the market. And this piece of real estate…

The American Marie Antoinette of Pre-War Paris

Her private villa in Versailles hosted the last great Parisian party before the storm of World War II, attended by Coco Chanel, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and the Rothschilds. Paris fashion experts named her the best-dressed woman in the world and her eye for design catapulted her to the higher echelons of Parisian…

House Hunting for the Ultimate Hideout

If you had the choice to plant your flag anywhere you wanted– would you choose to be stay with the pack or venture off on your own? I often wonder about people who live out in the middle of nowhere, isolated from the rest of the world. Did they choose this life? Are they truly…

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