title: The Last House: A Love Story About Architecture and Place
author: Ron Haase
description: RON HAASE taught architecture for twenty years at the University of Florida. The old Cracker farmhouses of Florida were the focus of his academic research and the foundation of an active practice designing contemporary houses which have a strong identity with the climate and culture of Floridas small towns and rural lifestyle. In his book, CLASSIC CRACKER (Pineapple Press), he took us on an intimate tour of the utilitarian wooden structures built by early settlers in North Florida. These houses, raised high off the ground and surrounded by shady porches, respond both to the warm and sultry climate and to the very idea of living side by side with nature in such a beautiful environment. His new book, THE LAST HOUSE, returns to examine more fully the vernacular architecture of Florida and this time as a work of fiction. Haase has degrees in architecture from the University of Minnesota (BArch 1961) and civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin (BS 1955). Prior to moving to Florida he taught at Pratt Institute and Franconia College in New Hampshire where he was the Chairman of the Faculty. He travels and lectures extensively about vernacular architecture. He is a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects. Ron Haase lives and works in Gainesville, Florida. He continues to design homes in the tradition of Old Florida in partnership with his son, David. You can contact him at haase@ufl.edu
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  # They and I
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Jerome K. Jerome
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ###  CHAPTER I
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  "It is not a large house," I said. "We don't want a large house.
  
  
  Two spare bedrooms, and the little three-cornered place you see
  
  
  marked there on the plan, next to the bathroom, and which will just
  
  
  do for a bachelor, will be all we shall require--at all events, for
  
  
  the present. Later on, if I ever get rich, we can throw out a wing.
  
  
  The kitchen I shall have to break to your mother gently. Whatever
  
  
  the original architect could have been thinking of--"
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  "Never mind the kitchen," said Dick: "what about the billiard-room?"
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  The way children nowadays will interrupt a parent is nothing short of
  
  
  a national disgrace. I also wish Dick would not sit on the table,
  
  
  swinging his legs. It is not respectful. "Why, when I was a boy,"
  
  
  as I said to him, "I should as soon have thought of si