Slow-homes movement...

[Tussiemussies]

First there was slow food and now there is the slow home movement. An article from "Mother Earth Living:"


http://www.motherearthliving.com/green-homes/slow-home-movement-zmhz12jazmel.aspx#axzz2XX5507N3

[pinkytoe]

I think this is a very interesting concept. So many people live in houses that do not function properly or nourish their spirits. There was a book I read once called something like Pattern Living that laid out universal principles that appeal to humans. I recall details like windows on more than one wall in a room or a definite sense of entry into a house, ie porch, hallway.

[simplelife4me]

Just another fad name for a renovation?

[iris lilies]

"Environmental bling" is a great term, I'm going to use it. It means (from this article) things like water saving toilets even though the entire building itself may be an environmental drain.

Our house doesn't meet many of the slow standards such as: excess footage (we could get by with less house) and small bathrooms (one of our bathrooms is big, but that was the trend when we rehabbed this house 25 years ago.) But the main idea, house in urban core where we talk or drive to services and work within a square mile, is good.

[JaneV2.0]

I don't like--and I never will--having your kitchen in the living room, but I like the overall idea--kind of like feng shui.

[Lainey]

I don't like--and I never will--having your kitchen in the living room, but I like the overall idea--kind of like feng shui.

Jane, I'm glad to hear you say that. I think these HGTV shows with "open concept" everything is missing the point.
Kitchens can be noisy and dirty - that's why restaurants rarely have them wide open to diners. Personally, I don't want to watch you cooking my fish, I'm just as happy to sit in an actual quiet dining area and enjoy it when it magically appears.

[catherine]

Jane, I'm glad to hear you say that. I think these HGTV shows with "open concept" everything is missing the point.
Kitchens can be noisy and dirty - that's why restaurants rarely have them wide open to diners. Personally, I don't want to watch you cooking my fish, I'm just as happy to sit in an actual quiet dining area and enjoy it when it magically appears.

Me, too!! DH and I have been trying to get around to redoing our kitchen and we have always disagreed on "open concept." He always wanted it.. I didn't and so that kept us in a design stalemate for decades. So I'm hoping we can just ride that trend out and our tiny little eat-in kitchen will be back in vogue sometime soon! (I'm not going to be so optimistic as to assume my Harvest Gold 70s appliances will come back, so we're actually just about to replace them... and not with stainless steel either--with black).

[Gardenarian]

I'm not crazy about the remodel photos (I also like separate rooms for separate purposes) but I think the concept is good.
It sounds like they have taken some ideas from Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language" - something the world could use more of.

[pinkytoe]

Pattern Language! That's the book I was trying to remember.

[Zoebird]

I like having the open concept "LDK" (living, dining, kitchen). It really works well for how we live anyway. :) with that plus two beds and a math, plus the laundry/mudroom, we actually do quite well.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I've lived in studios where the bed was almost in the kitchen. It's definitely NOT a preference, you go to bed smelling onions and stuff still.

[RCWRTR]

Our new home has a modified open concept layout. Our kitchen is U-shaped and has a 9 ft. serving ledge that overlooks the dining room, but otherwise, it is it's own space. Our dining room opens onto the living room on one side, but is a clearly defined space with a large walkout bay window on one end of it. Our living room has a vaulted ceiling, which gives is a distinct "separate" feeling from the adjacent dining room, which it opens to on one side.

We have very traditional furniture, much of which is Amish-made solid hardwood Windsor chairs, benches, cabinets, tables, desk, etc., with only a few upholstered pieces. Our home has a very traditional feel, but we live in the space in a more casual, modern way, than one might expect when looking at it. It works well for us, but I've never been a fan of many small, or even mid-size or larger "boxy" rooms, as I feel they tend to chop up the space and interfere with the flow and "energy" of many homes.

[RosieTR]

I like the open concept which we had in our Phx house. DH and I have talked about remodeling our house here by opening up the kitchen into the living room in some fashion (but it's a support wall so $$$). Also, the kitchen is in the back and dark, which we somewhat fixed with a $150 lighting fixture plus a sky tube thing. But I do really like having a tiny bathroom. Some people would hate it, but it takes like 15 min to clean including the toilet. And I painted it bright yellow so it's nice and cheery for when I first wake up.

[SteveinMN]

Our house is the typical mid-70s rambler/ranch (depends on where you live). Aside from exterior walls and a central load-bearing spine of walls, none of the walls bear load. So we've moved cabinets which blocked the kitchen from the dining room so the sight lines improved, and we got rid of a half wall and a built-in spindle room divider that interrupted the view from the dining room/kitchen to the living room. We also painted one color on all of those walls. It's really opened up the place and modernized what was a series of choppy spaces.

[RCWRTR]

RosieTR, we have 2 full bathrooms in our new home -- one on each floor. Neither is huge, but both are supremely functional spaces. The one on the first floor is the master en-suite bathroom and the one of the second floor is at the top of the staircase, flanked by two additional bedrooms. We had the option of including a two piece guest bathroom on the first floor, but decided to appropriate that space instead as a first floor laundry, since it is adjacent to our master suite and I really wanted a first floor master suite, laundry and other first floor amenities in our new home, since it is where we likely will spend our retirement years.

[RCWRTR]

SteveinMN: What were architects and homebuilders thinking in the 70s when they put those awful spindled room dividers in so many homes? I, for one, think you made a very wise decision to eliminate the spindled room divider, to open up the space and improve the sight lines in your home. Ranchers/ramblers are typically pretty easy homes to build and often lend themselves to more informal living, so it seems to me that your choices for renovations were most appropriate.

[SteveinMN]

What were architects and homebuilders thinking in the 70s when they put those awful spindled room dividers in so many homes?
RCWRTR, I suspect it was a stopping point on the continuum from the old Victorian model of many separate rooms to the "great room" model in a lot of current residential architecture -- which, in turn, mirrors American society's preference for increasing informality. I also suspect that it was a fairly cheap way of making it look like the house had more expensive millwork than it does. Either way, I do still see that divider in some of my neighbor's homes, and I don't regret for a minute that we ditched it.

[RCWRTR]

That makes sense, SteveinMN. One of my favorite architects, Sarah Susanka (www.notsobighouse.com) has done some amazing things with dividing living space, such as replacing walls and room dividers with more functional bookcases, shelving, cabinetry, etc. She was a major source of inspiration for us, when designing our new home.

[SteveinMN]

I love Sarah Susanka's work! In fact, her first few books were one of the inspirations for moving around what we did.

[catherine]

I love Sarah Susanka's work! In fact, her first few books were one of the inspirations for moving around what we did.

I also love Sarah Susanka! I have several of her books, and just looking at the pictures makes me feel good.

[RCWRTR]

Why doesn't it surprise me that people here on SLN would know about Sarah Susanka? I've enjoyed her books and lectures and have introduced her books and architecture design work to so many of my friends over the years who have loved the smaller spaces I've chosen to live in.