Think what it must be like to live in a building designed for you, made to weave itself into your life. I’ve never loved my home, and I think that’s a shame. I could love a house, I just haven’t met the right one yet.
A structure of words needs to proceed the structure of concrete, wood, steel, glass, and stone. If I can express what I want clearly I can help define it, and that will get me closer to seeing it built. I think. And, so…
Bigger isn’t better. My idea of luxury has little to do with square footage. I want quality over quantity. There is elegance and beauty in simplicity. I want a simple, comfortable, beautiful space, built to outlast me.
I like things to make sense. We flush our toilets with drinking water. That doesn’t make sense anymore, if it ever did. There is a very long list of things in the average home that can be built better. The Engineer in me wants to see how many of them I can find.
A building can have all the modern conveniences and be efficient, independent, environmentally friendly, and functional. A friend, who lives in a desert, showed me his pool. As the sun beat down on us he cocked a thumb at the petroleum heater beside it, “Costs too much to heat it all year though.” I like the idea of building a house as well as it can be, and there is an increasing supply of practical green technology, so it’s a great time to have those goals.
I want a house to fit my life. My wife is particularly neat, I am not. That can be a source of friction, so thought needs to be put into the design of entries, closets, storage, and how easy it is to keep everything clean, and that’s before we even get to the stuff I care about. When I talked about building a house she expressed concern that “we” would design a house which I loved and she hated. I told her one of the things I wanted as a central theme in the house was, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” She said, “I’m in. Let’s do it.”
I tore through this book. It expresses, in a much clearer way, some of what I am trying to express above.
“It’s time for a different house. A house that is more than square footage; a house that is not so big, where each room is used every day.” – Sarah Susanka
Answer one or both of these questions, if you’re feeling inclined. I’m looking for ideas.
What do you love / hate about the place you live?
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I’m a huge fan of small space living. I think we live in spaces that are way too large…I mean why on earth do we need a family room AND a living room? I agree, quality over quantity. I’ll be interested to see what you design.
I hate that I have no laundry room and not enough workout out space in my house. I love that my kids have grown up in this house. Jensen has never known another home. I love that we know how to make our home work for us now. We use every nook and cranny in the best way. I love that it feels like home. I love that the renovations in the house were done by our own hands. I love that we chose to stay in our smaller house rather than move to a bigger one and have a bigger mortgage, so now we have the money to leave the house and do things with our kids.
I agree Shannon – I would like a real nice mud room off the kitchen that can also be extra storage and laundry – including a dog/kid shower (saw one and it was very cool). I am also interested in a green home that would make use of rain water – grey water – solar energy. I was watching a show on ’smart’ homes – where lights came on when you walked down the hall or fans only turn on when they sense a change in mositure. The house also had sensors for the windows – if the house got to warm – blinds would close to stop the sun from coming in. Pretty cool stuff.
My suggestion is either upstairs laundry or a laundry chute…or both. Also, murphy bed in the spare room. Secret room behind bookcase and a firepole, not a stripper pole.
I agree with the smaller, more used house. We just bought one and in order to get a nice open kitchen living space so we could have company and not cook in a separate room, we had to buy a larger house with a ‘bonus’ room, which is not needed. Not sure if those rooms are really a bonus since most people only use certain rooms. I love the idea of using ‘green’ technology whereever possible. Laundry room is a must and upstairs (or by bedrooms) is more useful than hauling laundry downstairs just to haul it back up to bedrooms.
Well, I agree with some of the comments, but I would say that main-floor laundry is key for me, so I like the idea of the laundry chute. We don’t have a separate room for laundry, but a separate area. It’s not huge, so we had to be smart about how we set it up so that it doesn’t always look messy. I think you should put quite a bit of thought into that area! Maybe refer to your flowchart! I think a good size pantry is important. I love my open kitchen-livingroom. I love having a lot of windows to watch my kids play in the backyard. I think that 9 foot ceilings makes everything appear to be a lot bigger than it is.
There are the practical things one wants in a home, like a laundry chute, which I had in my last house and loved. I would love a green home and a home designed for its climate zone.
But there are things I would love in a home that come purely from my heart. Things that create an emotional response within. I go weak for homes with inner courtyards, where you could see this inner sanctuary from every room. I also love turrets or rooms with bay windows, rooms with curved walls.
My advice Dirk is to create a home that meets social and environmental standards. That meets my sisters neatness standards. And then make sure it is a home where your imagination is fully realised and your heart skips a beat when you come home to it.
Your needs and wants will change a 180 degrees when you bring a child into the house. The house you want and dream of and works for you as a couple, will be some of the exact things that make it the worst house when you have a toddler running around. That’s why so many people move after kids. It’s not always just because they need more space. That really great open railing is now a death trap and there is no storage for toys etc. Think about a kid friendly home as well, or you will be building again. And with being a neat freak, you will want more hidden storage spots than you even thought possible. Places for back packs when they come home and winter boots and mitts and ski pants. And then soccer balls and ball gloves and all the school art projects. Hidden storage = lots of it
I have to agree with Shannon, living in a small space with kids (we have 876sqft with the 2 kids) will become trying at best. I would highly recommend you talk to your sisters and see the space requirements they have for their kids. I know for us, we do not have enough space for everything we need let alone everything we have.
Going green is awesome, look into geothermal heating and solar windo coverings. I know that there is also a type of siding you can get that will absorb the heat of the sun and store it so you can heat water and the house. Lots of wicked technology now.
When we ever decided to get out and make our “Dream” home, i am trying to do it as zero impact, get of the grid and still be able to build ourselves. Should make for an interesting challenge, especially here in alberta
Good luck with what ever you guys decided, I look forward to future remarks and plans on this
I’m planning on designing for a family of four, with dog and cat, from infancy through retirement. Which involves a lot of unknowns, but certainly requires considerations of evolving requirements, desires, and abilities.