Note that the lamppost has two crossbars near the bottom and one just below the lamp. This is almost certainly a gas lamp. The crossbars at the bottom are steps for the lamplighter, and the one at the top is a hand-hold or ladder rest.

Also note the lack of any signs of electrical service to the house.

[Also note the lamppost stops before it gets to the lamp. This is a kerosene fixture with a burner on top. - Dave]

I'm intrigued by the lamppost, which looks very modern!

The kit home in Lake View, New York (about twenty-thirty miles south of Buffalo, NY) cited in the advertisement is still standing and happily occupied to this day. Those homes, while being kit homes, were built to last!

In my last neighborhood of some 25 years, I had a neighbor who had one of those 3-story Victorian things all covered in gingerbread. When I first moved there, the house was merely 2-color. About ten years later, the neighborhood was zoned "historic" and the local "hysterical commission" ruled that all renovations should be rigidly return to originality. Painting thereafter included a process of paintchip lab analysis to determine original colors. So I watched my neighbor tediously paint that gingerbread behemoth in seven colors, much of it on countless lathe-turned bits. Sure, it was pretty when it was all done, but....It made me absolutely love my slightly moldy brick.

My first thought (and my mother's as well) on the current acreage with grass like that was "goats", but I've learned to simply appreciate the sight of grass just like that in the home shown here--it's positively lovely to watch ripple like waves on a pond on a breezy day, while providing a habitat for countless butterflies by day and fireflies in the millions by night. One of my neighbors does goats, while another does llamas.

So no need for gutters or downspouts.

Or they could be out getting a couple of goats.

Looks like the sort of house you could order from the Sears catalog:

My first reaction was, "Wow, would I hate to have to paint that baby!"

... but it looks to me like the owner should invest in a lawn mower.

[He's on his way to pick up a scythe at Home Depot. - Dave]