Spring has sprung (at least for the moment), but here’s a look back on a winter pastime.

When the snow falls in record amounts, what on earth do you do it? Ed Hagele decided to build an igloo for a good time. But it needed a final, special touch. In order to let the sunshine in, Ed decided to add a window to his building masterpiece. Luckily, Ed had an in when it comes to windows. One of his parents, Re Hagele of Hagele Architects had a sample of a Marvin window that he could use.

Ed’s beautiful igloo was a great addition to the Hagele backyard until the snow melted…and one of the more unusual “applications” for a Marvin window!

In the story of The Three Little Pigs, the straw house went down quickly, courtesy of the big bad wolf. In real life, straw is a unusual building material that can lead to some great-looking houses. Courtesy of MSN Real Estate, here are some straw houses. Who knows, they may even inspire you to use straw instead of brick in your next house! Check out the rest of the homes here.

Images courtesy of MSN Real Estate.

In its simplest sense, “home” means a place of shelter. For most of us, we also want somewhere that makes us feel safe, buffered from the outside world and proud of our little castle. And some people skate off in the other direction, creating their homes to look like works of art.

MSN Real Estate profiled 18 of these unusual houses. Check out the whole list here, but here are some of our favorites:

It may look like a beautiful old manor, but this photo doesn’t do the Winchester Mystery House justice. Built by the heiress to the Winchester rifle company in San Jose, Calif., this house fills up four acres–and that’s a downgrade from when it filled over 160! Added on to over the years, the property has 47 fireplaces and 40 bedrooms.

Yes, this is someone’s home. At one point though, its only occupant was a nuclear warhead. Years of renovations have now made it a livable (and dare we say secure?) residence in central Kansas.

It’s like living in a sculpture! This Mexico City house is called the Nautilus and it’s not only its exterior that interesting–the inside is filled with vegetation and trees.

Yes it’s small, and yes it’s crooked, but what really makes this London house interesting is its (now-sealed) passage to Windsor Castle. Supposedly, it was used as an access point to the castle for a king’s mistress.

Photos courtesy of MSN Real Estate.

Many people dream of more square footage when thinking about building or remodeling. But there are those who take the term “downsizing” to a new level. Cal Finder featured some small houses that are big on style. The advantages to living in such a house are many, including energy savings (less space to heat and cool), less time spent cleaning large rooms and overall simplification of life (objects that go in the house must be truly loved). Let’s take a look…

This modern marvel is only 77 square feet. Its cube-like architecture disguises that fact though. Looking at this picture, it’s easy to think that it could be 1,000 feet. No doubt its structure keeps the interior spacious.

If you want some bragging rights, you might want to look into this house: it allegedly is the smallest in Toronto. It is 300 square feet and cleverly uses the space of a driveway.

Don Botsford has 20 acres of land in Ann Arbor, Mich., but his house occupies a very small part of it. It isn’t even on the ground. It’s a small, beautiful and completely livable tree house, with a sleeping loft and solar-powered lighting.

If you have been wondering how to downsize your house, take some inspiration from these homeowners!

Photos courtesy of Cal Finder.

If you saw any haunted houses this weekend over Halloween, you will appreciate these abandoned Russian houses. They may not be haunted, but there certainly is something haunting about them.

According to Charles & Hudson and Beach Bungalow 8, these houses have been abandoned, although they don’t say when. Surprisingly, the interiors seem to have held up well, and the exteriors, although a little worn, still show a faded beauty.

So where did the inhabitants go? That’s unknown, but it is interesting that there currently are not people living in the houses. These houses continue to sit deep in the Russian woods, 300 miles northeast of Moscow.

These houses don’t use an architectural style we see very often here, but some of the interiors have pieces and elements that look fresh and modern. The red hutch in the photo below would not look out of place in a farmhouse-style kitchen.

What these houses’ histories are, we do not know, but their romance and grandeur remain.

Photos courtesy of Beach Bungalow 8 and Andrew Qzmn.

New England? No, this house is located in the heartland of Madison, Wisc. It takes its inspiration from the shingle-style houses of the 1800s, with a modern twist.

This lake cottage is a modest house — only 2,190 square feet. But it packs a wealth of features into its space. Designed by Arleta Chang of Jarvis Architects in Oakland, Calif., the house’s rooms have bright pops of color and distinctly designed personalities.

Since the house is located on a narrow lot in an urban area, it was important that the property allow passersby to also enjoy the lake view.  The entrance is two steps above the main level and has a lake view, but the horizon is revealed only after stepping down to the living spaces. A garage and boathouse complete the luxuriously simple lake life.

Numerous Marvin products were used in this lake cottage, including clad in-sash round tops, eyebrow and half-circle units, casements, awnings and French doors. To learn more about this project and see more pictures, visit the Architect’s Challenge page.

This beautiful project is the third in our series of winning projects from the myMarvin Architect’s Challenge.

If you’ve ever been to Europe and visited any of the grand cathedrals there, it is hard not to feel awed by the beautiful structures people built so long ago. People continue to build houses of worship nowadays, but it isn’t often you see the large old-style churches being constructed.

In LaCrosse, Wisc., however, it is estimated that, for the first time in 50 years, a major Catholic church has been built in the classical style. The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe serves not only as a church, but as a place for a pilgrimage.

Visitors to the church may well think they are in a European cathedral, but this modern church fools the eye. Every element of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, from the nave to the fabulously detailed dome, was designed to look as if the church has always been there.

Marvin windows help flood the church with natural light. Light in The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe is introduced through windows in the side aisles, clerestory windows in the nave, transepts, and sanctuary, and through the dome with its clear windows and oculus. There are twelve different custom window types at The Shrine in all shapes and sizes, each requiring their own details. Marvin’s custom capabilities helped the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe achieve the exact look desired.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s exterior was designed by Michael W. Swinghamer of River Architects in LaCrosse and the church’s interior was designed by Duncan Stroik of Duncan G. Stroik Architect in South Bend, Ind.

Down in the Low Country of South Carolina, there’s a beautiful house that looks as if it has seen a lot of Low Country days. However, it is actually a new house, built by Helga Lilley of Gorgeous Green Home Design in Okatie, S.C.

The house is called Oldfield, and it is also Lilley’s home. The house’s traditional look hides its very modern credentials. It was designed to make maximum efficient use of daylight and fit the lifestyle of the occupants. Oldfield also is a green house and achieved EarthCraft House™ Platinum Certification.

One unusual aspect of this house is that it is located in a hurricane zone and therefore must use windows and doors that can help protect it against the storms. Oldfield uses StormPlus products from Marvin to create a beautiful, energy-efficient look that will still meet building code requirements.

Oldfield combines the best of the past and present for a home with Low Country style and green sensibilities.

Ever heard of the Solar Decathlon? No, it’s not some sort of multi-sport athletic event! It is a competition between universities all over the world to build the most energy-efficient house possible. The competition is especially challenging because the winning house has to also be attractive and livable. Houses are judged on five subjective points (architecture, market viability, engineering, lighting design and communications) and five objective points (comfort zone, hot water, appliances, home entertainment and net metering).

Marvin is proud to provide windows for the University of Minnesota Solar Decathlon team. The windows are very large to let as much light as possible in. This is important since the house is only 800 square feet!

The team strived to get building materials from near-by manufacturers and to re-use materials as much as possible.

Since Minnesota is a cold northern state, the house has to collect as much solar heat as possible, even during harsh winters. However, the Solar Decathlon competition will be held in October in Washington, D.C., so the house also has to perform in warm, humid conditions. The team carefully designed the house with features  to work in both.

After the competition is over, the University of Minnesota team plans to sell the house. If you are interested in a truly energy-efficient house with a beautiful look, this could be the home for you!

Our friends at Curbly recently featured some very cool, and very narrow, homes. Since MLuxe is all about people making creative use of their space, we wanted to be sure and share these with you.

Almost everyone is familiar with the classic row house — a way to squeeze a spacious home into a heavily populated urban area. But narrow houses are expanding (figuratively) to be built and renovated by those who want to live in a home with a smaller footprint or have an unusual design space.

Take this house in Boston: it is classic and fits snugly into the busy city. It’s a small house but bigger than it looks at 964 square feet.

One of the most interesting things about narrow houses is when they are built where space is not an issue. This Japanese house is on a lot that goes from 2.5 feet to 10 feet. The house accommodates this challenging size and its cathedral-like styling distracts the eye from its narrowness.

This narrow house is in Big Sky country (Sulphur Springs, MT) probably could be as wide as the homeowners wanted. Instead it is 10 feet wide with 2,400 square feet of living space stretched over three floors and a basement. Definitely not a traditional home, but its contrast with the land surrounding it gives it a sort of space-age glamour.

Past and present, the narrow house offers an interesting and effective form of architecture.

Photos courtesy of Curbly.