Couple to Move Into Home 19 Feet Wide

AP/Yahoo ^ | Mon Apr 19, 5:38 PM ET

[martin_fierro]

Couple to Move Into Home 19 Feet Wide

Mon Apr 19, 5:38 PM ET

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - After living on a boat for 15 years, Neil and Suzanne Ablitt don't find anything unusual about their plans to squeeze into a home that measures only 19 feet wide and 19 feet deep.

"It's an incredibly beautiful structure," Ablitt said of plans for his skinny dream house. "It's a house of whimsy."

The couple might have made it bigger, but then their downtown lot only measures 20 feet wide by 20 feet deep. And they figured they needed that extra foot all around for what their architect calls "earthquake sway."

Last week the retired couple got the go-ahead from the City Council to build what they describe as a Spanish-style tower home. The council's unanimous endorsement overturned the city Planning Commission's 4-3 vote in February to deny the project.

"We're renowned for our Spanish-Mediterranean architecture, but when you talk to natives, that's not the thing they love about the city," said Councilman Brian Barnwell. "What they love is the little, quirky, down-the-alleyway, around-the-corner, who-knew-it-was-there type of thing."

The Ablitts' house will certainly fit that bill.

Although only 19 feet wide, it will be four stories tall, with killer views of the surrounding ocean and mountains. The garage will take up the first floor, with the bedroom on the second, the kitchen on the third, the living room on the fourth and the patio on the roof.

"This is a work of art, an asset to the community and a legacy to our grandchildren," said Ablitt, 61, a retired dry cleaner. Not everyone agrees.

"It sits too close to our property," said Kay Morter, general manager of the Holiday Inn Express/Hotel Virginia. "It towers over our buildings and blocks some of our mountain views. And it's kind of funny-looking."

The couple, who live aboard their 37-foot sailboat, bought the vacant lot in 1984. Ablitt, fearing the city might condemn the building his dry cleaners was located in and put up a parking lot, decided to become a local landowner and get on the parking board.

He never got on that board, as it turned out, and his business was never condemned.

But having recently retired to an area where median home prices top $900,000, he finally found a use for that little lot.

[martin_fierro]

Kind of like a trailer home standing up on one end.

[Chewbacca]

Not a good house to have when you get old. Too many stairs to climb up and down. They better hope they never trip and break a hip.

[solitas]

Good for them! I hope it works out for them, and I'll be keeping an eye out to see if they really build it. T'would be better with a lift or two instead of all those stairs though...