Quote of the Day - 03/02/2012

Houses have personality.  Have you never seen a dignified house looking disdainfully, critically down upon its frivolous bungalow neighbors?  Or an old weather-beaten one trying to appear debonair in new shingles like a withered old woman in a wig? - Bess Streeter Aldrich in The Rim of the Prairie (Bison Book)

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Does the house or building where you live have personality?

My house has a dark hip roof and very dark green (almost charcoal) trim with lighter siding and brick. It looks more formal than its neighbors. It is different from the back where the deck, a full story off the ground, softens the overall contrast.

Is it possible to change the personality of a house? The architecture can be pretty overwhelming. Changing the trim color or just the color of the front door could make a difference.

I like the subtle personality differences of the houses in our neighborhood. It’s good that no extremes have emerged!

The Architecture of Home - Part II

Yesterday I began this post about visualizing your ideal home.  The previous post is here.

Room configuration that supports lifestyle 

Main living area: Kitchen-den open floor plan or country kitchen…separate formal dining room…island work area or stove top or sink…window over the sink? My ideal is an open kitchen-breakfast area-den as one large continuous room. An island in the kitchen provides plenty of work area and I’d prefer to have enough room for some bar stools to turn it into an eating area too. I don’t need a formal dining room at all; if the house has one, I’ll use it for something besides a dining room.

Bedrooms: Master bedroom with bathroom…or do all the bedrooms need it. My ideal would be to have all bedrooms have their own bathroom. My second choice would be for two bedrooms that shared a bathroom between them.

Stairs or no stairs - I prefer houses without stairs…primarily because I am thinking about not wanting to deal with stairs 20 years from now. I’ve never liked to carry groceries or laundry up or down stairs.

Garage - How many cars? Easy to get groceries carried from car to kitchen? My ideal is probably 2…with garage door opener; I don’t want more than a step up or down (preferably no step) to get into the house from the garage.

Laundry room/space - Space to hang clothes as they come from the washer or dryer? How easily can the dirty clothes get to the laundry room?

Electrical outlets - Are they conveniently located and are there enough of them?

Connectivity - Is internet connectivity/internal network easy to achieve?

Storage - Unfinished area of basement for storage or is it somewhere else in the house?

Light 

Windows 

• Number, Size, and Type - My ideal home includes lots of windows. I particularly like transom windows over French doors. In the late 1800s, small conservatories were popular. Now, garden rooms are more common. Either one or both would be part of my ideal home. I also like skylights.
• Direction (will the sun shine directly in?) - My ideal house has at least some windows where the sun shines in - for me and the cats to enjoy on a cold sunny day.
• Double paned? - This is a resounding 'yes' for my ideal house since just about every place has very hot or very cold weather for part of the year.
• Clear or colored or etched glass - My ideal house would have mostly clear glass windows but I like bevelled and etched front doors - perhaps stained glass for the transom windows.
• Easily opened and types of screens - A house needs to be aired out on breezy spring and fall days...and other days that the temperature and air outside is pleasant.

Overhead lights or outlet on switch - My ideal house would have lights on ceiling fans in almost every room.

Task lighting (particularly in kitchen) - If the overhead cabinents shade the countertop in the kitchen, there needs to be lighting under them. 

Bathroom - The round clear bulbs mounted on a bar above a mirror are my favorites for bathroom lighting.

Features for the home of the future 

Water - There are a few houses that have gray water systems now but as water becomes scarcer, there will be even more. In the interim, catching water from wasing veggies to water plants is a start (supported by your effort rather than the architecture of your home). There may also be a trend to add filtration/purification of drinking water into homes; this is something that can be added after the home as built as well.

Power generation - It is becoming increasingly possible to generate power from just about all external surfaces of the home. As energy costs increase and the production costs of the materials comes down, they will gain rapidly in popularity. They are included in my vision of my ideal home 10 years from now.

Appliances  

• Appliances should take 0 power when not in use. I don't need clocks on my microwave, oven, and coffee maker! The only appliance that should be using power all the time in the kitchen is the refrigerator.
• Heating and cooling systems should make use of underground temperature gradients whenever possible to reduce the power required for that purpose.

 Materials 

• Locally produced
• Non-toxic (both in the way they are produced, the outgassing when they are first installed, and recyclable)
• Appropriate durability - Maybe the durability of granite countertops is out of step with the other materials used for the house.

 Flexible 

• Rooms that can change functionality are a plus. Changing a dining room to a 'cave' or a bedroom should be anticipated and even supported by the architecture.
• Different kinds of walls or even screens should be used to subdivide larger areas - making it easy to reconfigure as the needs of the household change over time.

 Back to the beginning - 

If you could have any house to make your home, what would it be like? 

It's a wonderful vision. Right? Now - what tweak can you make to where you are right now to implement a piece of your ideal home architecture.

The Architecture of Home - Part I

If you could have any house to make your home, what would it be like?

This is a very good question to answer just prior to beginning a search for a new home. It also turns out to be productive for anyone trying to hone the way space is utilized in their current home since many of the things that may be not quite right can be remediated without moving to a new house.

This is not so much an exercise in preparation for ‘building your own’ as it is about making choices that utilize or adjust the architecture to make wherever you dwell into your home. It should be unique to you not someone else’s ideal. To clearly visualize your ideal - become familiar with your needs and preferences (and those of the people that share your home).

The list below (and continued in tomorrow’s post) is intended to help you develop a deeper understanding of your

Ideal Home Architecture.

Enough space - Think about what you really need from many perspectives

‘Caves’ for each person in the household - A ‘cave’ is the place for each person to have as their individual space to do things on their own; it could be a place with computer and comfy chair or simply surface area for projects. The key is to acknowledge the space each person needs for just themselves. My 'cave' looks most like an office - with a pleasant view from the window and good lighting.

Shared areas - every home needs spaces where people do things together. Maybe it is a large kitchen/breakfast area or a den or an outdoor patio.

Kitchen 

• Counter top space - For kitchen equipment and/or multiple cooks. Cooking and eating together is an important part of the interactions in my home so the kitchen has to accommodate multiple people cooking in it at the same time.
• Counter top material - Granite is popular now…but is the durability of granite may be over the top for what you really need. There are some beautiful counters made from recycled color glass that I’ve been looking at.
• Cabinets (or other storage) - For at least the frequently used kitchen items. The challenge for me to is to get everything I use frequently onto the shelves I can reach without needing a step stool (if what I need is out of reach I tend to avoid using it).
• Cabinet material - Color/type of wood. Light is important to me so like light colored wood cabinets the best. I like the kitchen to be one of the brightest rooms in the house.
• If there were extra storage in the kitchen - what would you use it for? The area where the phone is in our current kitchen is never used for food. It holds mail and projects and purses. I’m spoiled enough by the extra space that now it is part of my ‘ideal.’
• Pantry - storage for non-refrigerated food. Do you buy such food in bulk? I prefer a long pantry that is not very deep so that I can easily see and retrieve things on the shelves. The bulk items (like paper towels and cat food) go on the top shelf or under the bottom shelf.
• What layout fits the way you cook? I like a big U with an island counter in the center. I do most of my mixing on that island. My salad preparation is done next to the sink although I put most of my parings in the compost rather than garbage disposal. The refrigerator, oven, and dishwasher can all open all the way with some room to spare although there is barely enough to walk by; at first, I thought my ideal would be to have a bit more space to walk but I’ve gotten used to them now.
• Space for Appliances - what appliances do you need: microwave, oven/range, refrigerator, dishwasher, etc. We have a large side by side and were pleased that the house was built with a water connection for the ice maker. The microwave is built-in over the oven/range; the configuration is ideal but the reliability of the unit has been abysmal. We are getting ready to replace it again.

 Bedrooms 

• Number and size- Keep in mind not only the people that normally live in the home but if you need to handle guests. I like a guest room that has another purpose (such as for special projects) or is small enough that it does not take a sizable chunk out of the space that used every day.
• Double as 'caves'? - This can be quite easy if the bedroom is for one person…more complex if it is a shared room.
• Closet space - Do you like walk in…sliding doors…builtins…shoe racks…other closet features? Will all clothes be kept in the closet or will out of season clothes be moved elsewhere? There are a lot of solutions for closet limitations. A quick and easy one I’ve done several times it to raise the bar a few inches then create a double decked section with Hanging Rod from the top bar. 

Bathrooms 

• Number and size - How many people have to get ready concurrently? Is there one on each floor of the house? We have full baths in the basement and bedroom floors but only a half bath on the ground floor. My ideal would have a full bath on each floor to add flexibility to the ground floor rooms.
• Shower/tub - both, together, separate. I definitely prefer a shower rather than a shower tub.
• Towel and toiletry storage. I find that I don’t care as much about a full linen closet as I do about storage in the bathroom itself. My idea would be to have adequate enclosed space in each bathroom for everything that would be needed there.

Minimize these types of spaces: Every home has some of these---if they are significant enough, think of ways to improve the spaces for your family. I’ve listed some ideas below.

• Hallways - Make it into a picture gallery or add hooks for car keys and purses or build in narrow shelves for paperbacks/pictures/display items. Improve lighting if it is too dark.
• Small rooms with lots of doorways - Close off one or more of the doors and put furniture in front of it or consider repurposing the room to have a table and chairs in the center with minimal furniture against the walls.
• Awkwardly shaped corner cabinet spaces - Get a rotating spice rack to put in the space, store special occasion dishes or platters only used once or twice a year in the space.
• Garage without shelving - Add free standing metal shelving or cabinets along part of the back wall and on the sides if the garage is wide enough or add higher wall attached shelving along the whole length of the back wall.

Tomorrow I'll continue this post with sections on room configuration, lighting, and features that have potential for the future.

Quote of the Day - 2/5/2012

Flagstone floors can present us with a…picture of harmony between contrary forces. There are floors in which large, obtuse stones have been persuaded by a mason to take their place within a methodical grid. One senses how the excesses in the character of these stones was tempered, how they were educated out of savagery still evident in the craggy cliff-faces from which they were heaved….we can appreciate order without danger of boredom and vigor without the shadow of anarchy. - Alain de Botton in The Architecture of Happiness (Vintage)

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There was a flagstone floor in the central hallway of the oldest building where I went to college. I always felt that the floor had more panache than the whole rest of the building. The irregularity of the cut edges of the stones and the slight unevenness of their surface always caught my attention as I made my way to class. The cleaning crew must have spent a lot of time on that area too because it was always spotless. It seemed that the floor would last longer the building - like it was on a different time scale than the cinder block, linoleum, and sheet rock. When I found the quote above, I realized that that floor was one of my most vivid memories of the architecture of the school. Perhaps the ‘order without danger of boredom and vigor without the shadow of anarchy’ of that flagstone floor is what made it so.