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What does it mean to get a house that makes sense for you? Are there considerations beyond size, bedroom count, floor plan and aesthetics?
Well, yes. For example, are you neat and your partner isn’t? Design can’t solve everything, but there are refinements that can help keep the clutter from piling up in the kitchen and other shared spaces where this type of difference causes the most tension.
Sometimes the “making sense” issues aren’t the house itself, but the furnishings. For example, if you’re starting a second marriage in a new house and blending households and children, how do you blend the furnishings so that everyone feels comfortable – especially the kids? |
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Affordable, High-Performance House as ‘Theater’ and ‘Stage’ |
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Home builder Tedd Benson challenges us to rethink our concept of “house.” He considers it as two distinct entities — one permanent and built for the long haul (theater); the other transient and serving the immediate needs of the present owners (stage). |
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Looking Backward for the Next American Dream House |
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In this post-McMansion era, what will be the next version of the American Dream? Given our penchant for tradition, Katherine looked at the houses of previous eras for inspiration. Surprisingly, one of the best sources proved to be the tiny houses of the postwar suburbs that generations of architects have derided as “little houses made of ticky-tacky.” |
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Witold Rybczynski on Modern Home Design, Why We Stick With the Familiar |
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Katherine asks renowned author and architect Witold Rybczynski about possible effects of current market upheavals on modern home design. He shares intriguing thoughts on what may change, what most likely won’t — and our cultural investment in traditional features like fireplaces and foyers. |
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Sizing Up the Idea of Downsizing |
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The notion of downsizing can be appealing, but its full implications may not sink in until homeowners are deciding what to keep, what to let go. Katherine and her husband took a trial run by renting out their 3,000-square-foot Michigan home and moving for a year into a 1,000-square-foot apartment in New York City. |
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Witold Rybczynski: What It Takes to Build a New Home Community |
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With “you are there” treatment, author Witold Rybczynski follows for several years the development of New Daleville, Pennsylvania. He writes about the ups and downs of the project, illuminating for readers the complicated process of developing a new residential community — including the risks for developers. |
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'Modern Classicism' — A Style That Makes Sense |
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Architects who are “modern classicists” don’t limit themselves to the details and proportioning systems used by the builders of ancient Greece and Rome. They also draw on American architectural traditions that have evolved over 400 years, taking a practical, no-nonsense approach to design of buildings, neighborhoods and whole towns. |
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2008 House Plan Trends: What’s Hot, What’s Cooled |
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Best-selling home plans of 1998 are compared with best sellers in 2008. Houses are larger but not hugely so. Among the trends: Fewer eating areas. Home offices get a thumbs-up. Home theaters? Not so much. |
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Design for Visitors With Special Needs |
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For many age-denying boomers, planning for their own old age while planning a new house is unthinkable. But if they make the house “visit-able” for visitors of any age who use a wheelchair or a walker, they might eventually benefit themselves. |
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When There's Too Much Room for Real Togetherness |
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Every household member needs some privacy and a space to call his or her own. The household also needs to spend time together. The thousands of interactions between parents and their children teach the children how to get along with other people, a crucial skill for a civil society. The interactions between the adults help them to sustain their relationship as they face the numerous challenges of raising their children. |
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Sizing Up: Big Houses and Happiness |
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When the goal of owning a new house is to impress your peers and friends, it won’t bring you happiness for long because, according to two University of Chicago economists, bragging rights are not a sustainable source of happiness. But if your goal is a modest house that supports a modest lifestyle without regard to the “next new thing,” your new house could be a boon to your life. |
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Do Dogs Care About House Design? |
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Over the 12,000 years that man and dog have cohabitated, the houses they have shared have changed dramatically. While Fido appreciates some of the relatively recent technological breakthroughs like central heating, he still has a dog’s agenda and couldn’t care less about most aspects of a new house, said veterinarian Nicholas Dodman, a renowned dog behaviorist. The one thing that will get Fido excited is a yard to play in. |
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Planning Ahead for Wheelchair Accessibility |
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If you plan to age in place in your new house, what modifications should you incorporate in the design that will accommodate potential disability and wheelchair use in your later years? The best person to ask is someone who uses a wheelchair now. You’ll get even better advice if that someone is an architect, as is the case with Seattle-based Karen Braitmayer, |
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Does Your House Make You Crazy? |
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Yes, a house can make you crazy. And, according to the designers and staff of Design Basics, a home plan service, the number one complaint is insufficient storage in the places where most people need it—the garage entry where the household enters and leaves, the family room where they spend the most time, and the huge master bedroom suites that often lack enough closets. |
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Divvying Up Family Heirlooms Takes Diplomacy |
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Shortly into dividing up your cherished family possessions with your siblings, you will realize that the exercise is more about saying goodbye to your past than about furniture or dishware. To ensure that everyone is still speaking when the horsetrading is over, give yourself enough time, and work out a way to distribute things that everyone is comfortable with. |
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