Geneva Architecture Challenge: A Hidden Mansion and a Gingerbread House

This week’s challenge includes a hidden mansion and a sprawling red brick home with some tasty-looking gingerbread trim. I’m posting a close-up of the trim to help you spot that home faster.

I also have a longer-term challenge for you. The “tiny homes” movement is building steam across the country, thanks to the ongoing economic downturn. More and more people are finding creative ways to live comfortably in homes with 500 square feet or less—some of them in Lilliputian quarters of less than 100 square feet!

To find out if any of these “tiny homes” exist in mansion-rich Geneva, I’m inviting readers to tell Patch about the smallest homes they know of in town. To qualify as a tiny home, the dwelling must be single-family and detached—not an apartment or townhouse. It must meet the city’s building code standard for livability, which means it must have power, running water and either a sewer hookup or a septic field.

When we’ve got a dozen or so guesses, I’ll ask the Kane County Assessor’s Office to help us determine which house is the smallest in Geneva based on its official square footage. Anyone who submits a house that’s less than 1,000 square feet can get some Patch swag. So either post your guesses on the Patch home page or e-mail them to me at trobairitz@earthlink.net—and let’s start appreciating the little things!

Answers to Last Week's Geneva Architecture Challenge

In case you were still searching for last week’s challenge homes, the “true blue” home is at 222 Stevens St. and the home with the cool columns is at 212 McKinley Ave. I’ll bet all you Geneva High School parents out there had no trouble pinpointing that one!