The Hobbit-like House. Leitz Summaron 35mm

I have known about this tiny little house for years.  It sits on a side street of our Brighton neighborhood, surrounded by single-family homes, and is not far from the very unusual convenience market called Kiki's.  It's a modest area.  This little house stands out because of its diminutive size.  I have always imagined that it was the garage of one of the adjacent houses, the title was divided and somebody turned it into a home.

Today, I got answers to all my speculation:  as I parked across the street, a big, white pickup pulled into the driveway, and out climbed a gentleman who went to chat with his neighbors as they mowed their lawn.  I went up to him to ask if this was his house, and if he would be ok with me taking some photographs.  He was quite amenable to that, so I asked him about the place.  Originally it was a free-standing little single-storey shop.  It burned down many years ago, and stood, untouched for about ten years.  He bought the ruin in 1980, reworked the ground floor, and added the attic.
I think he did quite a charming job of it.  The architecture matches the other houses on the street, and cleverly uses skylights instead of windows let into the steep roof line.  Mono seemed the best choice: it is a very humid, overcast day today, no contrast at all to the light.  The old Summaron - 1957 vintage, and inherited from my Dad -, was designed and optimized for B&W photography.  It renders images with a long gray scale, preserving details in the shadows, and perfectly sharp.