Quote of the Day - 03/10/2012

Dreams and desires haunted the mesa the way they haunted the rooms in old houses. Traces of unfinished lives caught in the ether. - Nevada Barr in Nevada Barr Ill Wind

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Nevada Barr writes mysteries set in National Parks - in this case, Mesa Verde.

We do feel ‘traces of unfinished lives’ in places that we know people lived before us whether or not we believe the place is ‘haunted’ or approach it more analytically with the tools of an archaeologist…or just our own curiosity and imaginings.

The strongest feeling I’ve ever had of this ‘traces of unfinished lives’ was a Chaco Canyon. It was early spring and quite cold. There were not many people around and most of the sounds were made by wind in the ruins. It was easy to imagine the walls roofed and clay plaster on the walls - decorated with designs seen elsewhere pecked into rocks. It could have been comfortable in those rooms even on a cold day. The wind sounds were mournful and gave the place a very lonely emotional impact.

Where do you feel the ‘traces of unfinished lives’ the most?

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 10, 2012

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles I read this past week:

Nutrition Data - a site that has the regular nutrition facts label with added graphics: nutritional target map, caloric ration pyramid, estimated glycemic load, inflammation factor, nutritional balance, and protein quality. Type your favorite food in the box labeled ‘enter food name’ on the right side of the banner line to see how it measures up.

Bed Bugs (infographic) - dramatic increase in this problematic bug in the US…everywhere

Images of Earth from Envisat - beautiful images from a satellite that has lived twice as long as planned…is starting its second decade this month.

Birdcast - a project of NOAA and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology…bird migration and weather forecast. Updated weekly.

Solar Grid Parity (with Incentives) - an animated map showing when electricity in major metropolitan areas becomes cheaper using rooftop solar than utilities (include the current tax credit). Lots and lots by 2020!

Top 10 Benefits of Green Smoothies - Better for you than juice

3 great ways to use salsa - a short video…sparks even more ideas of ways to use salsa

Penguin CAM - Penguin antics 24 hours a day through March and April

13 National Historic Landmarks Added - lots of variety….Frank Lloyd Wright buildings at Florida Southern College…Deer Medicine Rocks in Montana…a parish church in Virginia

25 Wild Bird Photographs - National Geographic is posting a set weekly….this is the most recent

Quote of the Day - 03/09/2012

After the printing press was invented in 1436, paper became affordable to nearly everybody. It took on a variety of uses – paper table coverings instead of fabric tablecloths, edgings for shelves, paper dolls, makeshift curtains, even Christmas tree ornaments. The Victorians really immersed themselves in the paper craze. As photography had not yet been invented, they cut out silhouettes of each other that functioned as pictures. Paper doilies became extremely common. - Emilie Barnes in The Twelve Teas of Christmas

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These days - the amount of paper in our house is actually decreasing. We read more books and magazines electronically. Books we only need to read once have been sold or given away. We read news online rather than in a newspaper. There are still lots of catalogs that come in the mail but maybe not quite as many as several years ago; they are the bulk of the recycled paper. We don’t print documents we are working on very often - sometimes they only exist in electronic form.

What about those other uses of paper? Haven’t we all made paper ‘snowflakes’ or cut hearts at valentines? Or folded paper to make an origami swan or geometric shape? For a look at elaborate stories cut in paper - watch the Béatrice Coron: Stories cut from paper TED talk video. 

Ideal Mother

The story of the Indiana mother that saved her two children as her house collapsed around them from tornado winds has prompted me to think about the qualities that an ideal mother has.

1. Does whatever is needed to keep her children safe
2. Makes sure they are well feed (quantity and quality of food appropriate for their healthy growth and development)
3. Holds them when they need to be held
4. Knows when to let them decide or do it themselves
5. Supports their intellectual development by enabling them to satisfy their natural curiosity and presenting them with opportunities to expand their understanding of the world
6. Encourages increasing independence
7. Seeks medical or other expertise as needed
8. Emphasizes the importance of school and other preparation for adult life
9. Adapts to the individual needs of the child
10. Provides for basic physical needs like housing and clothing

This is not a complete list; it is just the first 10 things I thought of.  My perception is that almost every mother has the natural inclination to strive for the ideal and most of us have a very similar concept of what the ideal is although our ability to actually do it varies widely. Part of the ideal is probably instinctual - part of our human heritage. In the end, we want our children to become healthy and productive young adults and shift our parenthood focus more toward the friendship end of the spectrum of motherhood.

Isn’t it wonderful that in today’s world, there is a strong likelihood that we’ll know them for more years as adults than as children?

Quote of the Day - 03/07/2012

The old stone house, solid, substantial, and unadorned, suggested unlimited spaciousness and comfort within; and was redeemed from positive ugliness without, by the fine ivy, magnolia trees, and wisteria, of many years' growth, climbing its plain face, and now covering it with a mantle of soft green, large white blooms, and a cascade of purple blossom. - Florence L. Barclay in The Rosary

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Ivy covered stone….as appealing now as it was in the early 1900s when Barclay wrote. Sometimes the appeal carries over to the inside of the building if the windows become partially covered as well. Several years ago I toured a law library and the main thing I remember was the greenish color of the light coming through the large windows at  both ends of the long narrow room. The space felt more like an outdoor bower than an enclosed, climate controlled room. The ivy was almost covering the windows…transmitting the light.

Ivy can damage walls after many years. Wisteria does not take as long to do damage and most of the time you see it on an arbor rather than a wall for that reason. The tendrils grow into any little nook and then expand. They tend to take their support apart. My mother once planted trumpet vine next to a fence because she liked the color of its flowers then separated it from the stockade fence with chicken wire for its support and trimmed it frequently to keep the fence intact when it became apparent how damaging the trumpet vine could be.

Doodles

I found a spiral notebook of black paper and some gel pens as I did some house cleaning (spring cleaning is just getting started at our house). The collection had been left behind when my daughter went off to college several years ago. I was surprised that the pens had not dried up completely. I couldn't resist some doodling. 

These were so much fun to do, I think I'll use up the whole book with doodles over the next month or so! In the past I've doodled in situations when I was bored - in a class or meeting. Now, I'm finding I enjoy doodling all on its own.

I'm glad the spiral will keep the doodles in the order that I create them because I think there may be some trends that develop. Stay tuned!

Early March - Signs of Spring

Our yard is showing signs of spring. 

The few crocus that escaped the squirrels are almost done for the year. The daffodils and hyacinths are taking over the show. The maples look flocked in red from afar but full of bursting buds on closer inspection (see my post from two weeks ago about the edge of spring to compare).

The deer are still hungry. I put some plant stakes around my day lilies and tulips to deter them but noticed this morning that they've nibbled the tulip leaves. The bottom branches of the maple tree have no buds remaining; it is very obvious how far the deer can stretch for food.

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)

~~~~~

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!

Achieving a Room of Your Own

Virginia Woolf wrote “A woman must have … a room of her own if she is to write fiction" in her book A Room of One’s Own. It turns out that most people need such a place where they can be entirely themselves and by themselves - whether or not they want to write fiction. We need it for spiritual renewal and deep thinking…to be fully aware of our life…to center and be resilient to the surprises life brings. It is the place for study and contemplation…for planning…for doing things we want to do by ourselves without constant interaction with anyone. It is our own personal cave.

How do you achieve a room of your own? Here are some ideas: 

• Identify space.
  • Optimally, this space is an actual room that is just for you all the time.
  • Next best is a space that can be yours for designated parts of the day - any day that you want it. This could be a corner of your bedroom while your spouse is enjoying their own cave somewhere else in the house. It could be the kitchen table when everyone else in the household is away from home.
  • Another option is a public place where you will be alone even if there are other people around. It doesn’t have to be an actual room to fulfill your ‘room of your own’ requirement. It could be a kiosk in a library, a park bench, your car parked at a scenic overlook, a booth in a diner. It is a ‘virtual room of your own.’ Maybe doing something like this occasionally is worthwhile to give oneself new perspective.
  • Furnish the space in a way that supports what you want to do there. It could be a computer, good lighting, and comfortable office chair. It could be lots of surface area for art projects. It could be a rocker recliner and television. Will you go somewhere else for food or do you want food available in the room?
  • Think about the view from the room.
    • What is it like at night…during the day? I like to have plenty of lighting for at night but generally only have the small desk lamp on rather than all the lights. I like the glow of candles and the shadows in the corners. During the day I like to have a great view from the window visible from where I sit.
    • Items in the room that don’t have function but make it appealing to you are important too. I like glass boxes for paper clips, peacock feathers, and wind chimes hung from the mini-blind frame. On the walls I have Georgia O’Keeffe posters, a white board and some metal sculpture.

Remember - your room will be unique to you. Where it is and what is in it must be tailored to fit perfectly with how you want it be. It doesn’t take a lot of money; it does take thinking about what you need and want.

Rose Bouquet

A dozen roses wrapped in cellophane and tissue paper…or maybe in a large crinkly glass vase with a florist's bow.  I like the ones that: 

• Are the colors of the sunrise. There are so many colors to choose from and it is not even necessary to use a florist; larger grocery stores have a selection.
• Smell like roses. This is more challenging. Somehow the breeding for beauty and durability has reducing the fragrance in most cases.
• Start out as slightly opened buds and then unfurl. The partially open flower is the most beautiful to me but I also like the flowers to unfurl and drop their petals so that I can scatter them in a favorite flowerbed.
• Have healthy stems. It is always a disappointment when the stem begins to bend just a few inches below the flower - either from the weight of the flower or because of some damage to that part of the stem. I cut the stem past the flower end of the bend and float the flower with its shortened stem in a bowl of water.

They are a welcome occasional gift; I’d not appreciate them as much if they were bought too frequently. As it is, I get them once or twice a year and they act as a spark to remember the event.

I like roses on their bush even more. I enjoyed a trek through the rose garden in Tyler, Texas a few years ago even though it was a very cold morning (and I did not have a coat with me). And the rose garden is one of my favorite parts of Brookside Gardens….but that will be another post and will have to wait until the roses start their 2012 blooming.

Personal Rhythms - Annual

This blog item is the fourth in a series about the rhythms we choose for our lives. Today the topic is annual rhythms.

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What activities do you do every year? I find that putting these on a calendar (either electronic or paper) is very worthwhile - so that I don’t forget. I’ve listed some examples below.

• Birthdays/anniversaries/other yearly celebrations. I set up a re-occurring item on my electronic calendar for these.
• Vacation. Taking at least a week off to do something completely different than the other weeks of the year helps sustain your focus on what is truly important in your life. Generally I reserve the days on my calendar well before I know for certain what I am going to do.
• Physical/medical checkup. Most medical plans encourage some kind of annual checkup. Use the data to make appropriate life style changes (and minimize medication over the long term).
• Thorough house cleaning. Many people still do ‘spring cleaning’ because it works to keep the home in great shape. Some elements of thorough house cleaning (that aren’t part of weekly or monthly cleanings) might be:
  • Cleaning windows inside and out
  • Taking everything out of a storage area, cleaning it, putting back only what is still needed, donating/trashing the rest
  • Getting all the spiderwebs and debris from the garage floor and ceiling
  • Cleaning under furniture (may involve moving the furniture)
  • Checking the pantry for old/forgotten/expired cans or boxes of food
  • Emptying the refrigerator, cleaning the shelves (hopefully not finding any long lost items that should have been eaten or thrown away long ago)
• Resolutions. Most people do this at the beginning of the year but it can be done any time. The idea is to set some longer term goals…and the ways you will measure them for the next 12 months.

 Are there other things that should be added to this list for annual consideration?

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Previous posts in this series about personal rhythms can be found here: monthly, weekly, daily.

The Edge of Spring?

There seem to be a lot of signs of spring already. The winter has been very mild here in Maryland so far and there seemed to be a lot of birds singing as I made my way around the yard this morning.

The hyacinths are up and one is blooming.

The maple buds are just about ready to burst (all the buds on the lower branches have already been eaten by the deer).

Tulips are peeking through the mulch. Even the lilies are sprouting (the ones in the photograph have not been discovered by the deer yet…a clump a few feet away have been nibbled to the ground).

Are their signs of spring in your neighborhood?

Lessons About Work/Life Issues I Learned from My Grandmother

In honor of a grandmother than would have been 105 years old this month….. 

My grandmother ran the family mill/feed store while I was growing up in the 60s. She had assumed the role after the last of her 9 children started school. The feed store office where she worked accommodated young visitors and I enjoyed at least one day with her every time we visited my grandparents. She was probably the only professional woman that I observed both while she worked and at home during that time period. Here are some things I learned from her: 

• Blend (rather than balance) activities as often as you can. She enjoyed having a grandchild with her at work. The scales for trucks and bags of feed were opportunities for practical learning. There always seemed to be something going on. Sometimes it was just being together and quiet: I read and she continued writing her letter to a faraway daughter. She would get an extra case or two of ‘soda pop’ when the truck came to deliver to the vending machine…and take it home for a family gathering. She brought seeds for vegetables home and delighted in my grandfather’s garden experiments.
• Let people know you have high expectations of them. For grandmother - ‘people’ included children as well as adults. It didn’t take being around her very long to understand the boundaries of acceptable behavior and a very strong desire to live up to her expectations.
• Speak with confidence – reflect the authority you have. She very seldom raised her voice. She assumed that people would do what she told them to do; it worked for children and the people that worked for her. In retrospect, she was a very good ‘situational’ leader; there were times she gave very detailed instructions and other times minimal information - she honed her requests for the individual and her judgment of their abilities was very finely tuned.
• Use the best tool for the task. She actually articulated this axiom in the context of food preparation but she applied it everywhere….and she was constantly looking for new and better tools. If she were alive today, she would be using email rather than snail mail and maybe she’d have created a family social network online.
• Ask for assistance. She knew when to ask for help although most of the time she received assistance before she even asked. She never lifted the sacks of feed herself - sometimes she had to ask one of the men to come from the mill to load up for a customer but most of the time they just appeared to do the job. She told a story on herself about an experience in an airport on the way to Alaska. Evidently she didn’t know exactly where her next gate was and, being unfamiliar with the airport, stopped to read a sign more carefully. Within seconds, someone stopped and asked her if she needed assistance. They probably saw this small lady (just over 5 feet) with white hair staring at the sign…and concluded she needed help. She probably smiled at them and accepted their assistance gratefully even though she was seconds away from figuring it out herself.
• Wear comfortable shoes/clothes. Look professional. The mill/feedstore was not air conditioned and it gets pretty hot in the Oklahoma summer. Grandmother wore light weight, pastel shirtwaist dresses she made for herself (so they fit perfectly) with sandals. She always looked comfortable; she also looked like she owned the place --- which was true.
• Eat wisely. She always took her lunch to the mill - mostly ‘rabbit food’ - and stored the part that needed to be kept cool in a cubby hole in the ‘soda pop’ vending machine that she had discovered. At home, when there were large family gatherings and lots of food, she was always the one that was most choosy about what she ate. She liked a wide variety of food but she was very conscious of the way she needed to eat to feel satisfied and stay about the same weight.

Sometimes we think of our world changing so rapidly that nothing stays relevant for very long. When I make a list like this it helps me realize that my fundamental approach to life may not need to change; it’s the things around the edges that are changing. It’s OK for those edges to be volatile…in fact - I enjoy that kind of challenge.

Note: The dogwood picture reminds me of when my grandmother visited me after I moved to the east coast in the mid-80s. We sat on the patio for a picnic lunch while the dogwood petals wafted down around us.  

Personal Rhythms - Monthly

This blog item is the third in a series about the rhythms we choose for our lives. Today the topic is monthly rhythms.

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There are activities that are generally done on a monthly basis. For me, monthly activities clump into two main areas: keeping the household running smoothly and personal metrics. I’ve listed some examples in each area below.

Keeping the household running smoothly

• Bill paying. Usually credit card, utility, and mortgage payment are a monthly rhythm. It is one that causes a lot of fuss and flurry if not done consistently on time.
• Non-perishable household items. Making one major shopping trip a month for non-perishable household items can save money and make the other shopping trips easier. For me, this has taken some getting used to; it took me awhile to realize how much cat food was needed to sustain 2 cats for a month!

Personal metrics - These are tightly linked to personal goals. For me, most metrics are collected daily (things like: weight, blood pressure, books read, blog items posted, time spent in whatever area I’m trying to improve, etc.) and analyzed weekly. On a monthly basis, I look at the overall goals I have for the year and decide if the metrics are still the right things to be measuring…and does the data tell me that I am on track to achieving the 2012 goal I set for myself.

Think about the monthly rhythms most important to enable your life to move along the way you want. Are they firmly in place or ad hoc? Could they be honed to better meet your needs?

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Previous posts in this series about personal rhythms can be found here: weekly, daily.

Quote of the Day - 2/15/2012

Colette once remarked that she always wanted to see her rooms crowded with flowers and her kitchen table set with whatever seasonal delights the farmers’ stalls had to offer: baskets of spotted quail eggs, yellow, noisy skinned onions, tied bunches of perfect leeks, succulent red berries. She wanted to smell the reassuring odors of good food cooking. And she always wanted her windows, their sills filled with pots of herbs and sweet geranium, to open out into the embrace of tree branches. These things gave her a sense of peacefulness. - Lee Bailey in Lee Bailey's Country Weekends  

~~~~~

Recently - I seem to be focused on reducing clutter. The quote for today reminds me that some kinds of clutter are an element of a comfortable home. Today, let’s focus on positive clutter.

Colette’s flowers…seasonal delights…pots of herbs - those all are appealing.

For me, positive clutter is functional (and used often) or changes frequently. Here are some examples of positive clutter I have around me:

• Handy containers for colored paperclips anywhere I may sit down with a book. I use the them to mark interesting passages and my place in books.

• Little pieces of paper around my PC with numbers or reminders. They last for a day or two then are replaced by others. I like to use different colors and sizes. It makes the work area seem more personalized.

• A wire basket with banana rack with onions, potatoes, garlic, bananas….any fruit or veggie that does not need refrigeration.

• The variety of small canisters of tea on the shelf over the sink. We make a pot of tea every day so the contents of the canisters are always being depleted….refilled.

• A deep red metal bowl filled with small containers of daily vitamins/supplements. It holds 3-5 days so sometimes it is piled high and other times it is down to one small container.

• A stack of magazines/catalogs on the table - ready to be thumbed through and then recycled.

• A pile of books to glean for quotes (taking out the paper clips as I glean) and return to the library (for library books) or donate to a used book charity…unless I am keeping them for reference.

• A 40+ year old sewing basket next to one of my reading chairs. I do my mending there - but mending is not needed all that often. I’ve recently decided it is the best place to leave my Kindle to charge. So the sewing basket was always a positive clutter…but it recently increased its positive value.

Teams of Two

On the eve of Valentine’s Day - consider teams of two. They are the smallest team of all and yet are often the primary drivers in just about every aspect of our lives. Why might this be true? 

• It is easier for two people to communicate well than for a larger number of people.
• It may be biologically driven…to create and care for children.
• We each need a partner to fill in our weaknesses…and we need to fill theirs.
• The logistics of sustaining a team of two are easier than for a larger team.
• Our culture supports and encourages teams of two.

Maybe it doesn’t matter ‘why’ when it is so easy to observe teams of two every day. Some of them have existed for a very long time, morphing to continue their effectiveness and compatibility over the course of their relationship. It is unusual for larger teams to grow old together…but no so for teams of two.

What are the most important teams of two in your life?

Remember that not all of them are Valentine’s material; it turns out that teams of two are very effective in the business world too. Walt and Roy Disney are an example that is often cited.

Favorite Smells of Winter

What are your favorite smells of winter?

Mine are indoor smells that I associate with home…cozy and warm even when the outdoors if very cold.

Vanilla. It’s often combined with other scents, perhaps because it is a ‘comfort’ smell. There are artificial forms now but I always try to buy the natural form. It pleases me to know that it comes from an orchid that requires special care to produce the seed pods that contain the scent. It took quite a long time to figure out how to grow the plants in tropical places where they were not native! The scent can waft from cooking or tea or a candle or hand lotion. 

Baking bread. I am not a bread baker but I enjoy the smell when I am drying bread crumbs (bread going stale processed in the food processor then dried in a 200 degree F oven for a couple or hours). It makes the whole house smell like baking bread. Somehow that smell is the one I associate most with warmth. 

Cinnamon - cloves - nutmeg (i.e. the pumpkin pie spices). The smell of these spices are such a favorite that I make pumpkin custard (who needs the crust!) almost once a month and the candles I buy are most likely to be this scent.

So - are these smells among your favorites…or do you have completely different favorite smells of winter?

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.

Being Green – Reuse

The ultimate of being green is to reuse rather than trash. Here are some activities that have worked for me and I’d love to hear about ones that have worked for you:

• Re-purpose. Think of a new use from an item that you would have previously trashed or recycled. Some examples:
  • I have some plastic trays that were used by a caterer that would not go through the dishwasher well…but worked great under pots on the deck to catch the water run off.
  • The candles that come in a glass container with a lid made wonderful canisters. I use mine to hold tea bags and packets of sweetener. To clean out the wax, set them in a shallow pan of boiling water until all the bits of wax melt and can be poured out. Wipe clean with a paper towel. Soak in water to get the labels off then put through the dishwasher.

• Thrift stores. There is no consistency in thrift stores – but it is often worthwhile to at least check out the ones near you. Yes – the selection is totally unpredictable and there will be times you will not find anything you can use. But when you do….it is usually a terrific bargain and the reuse is just an added positive.
• Donate. When you clean out closets or otherwise identify things you no longer need…decide if some of them can be easily donated to a charity. Some charities will even pick up from your porch!
• Freecycle. Post items that you want to give away …or pick up something someone else is giving away. To find a group near you – check out http://www.freecycle.org/ and let the reuse begin! I have gotten rid of a partial package of roofing shingles, an old ice cream freezer, and a box of art project supplies!
• Bring your own Bag - Use canvas or reinforced paper/plastic bags from conferences or received as gifts for charitable donations when you go shopping rather than using the stores plastic bags.