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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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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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Moving Managers Help Seniors Downsize |
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Senior moving managers, also called senior facilitators, help seniors sort a lifetime’s worth of possessions as they downsize from the house they’ve lived in for decades. Facilitators determine what will fit in the new place and then help clients decide what to keep, what to sell or give away. |
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Generations Share Houses for Many Reasons |
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Most of us assume that generations share a house only when an older parent becomes frail and unable to live independently. But Builder magazine’s research indicates that generations live together for a number of reasons, including the ability to buy a bigger, nicer house by pooling resources, childcare needs, and immigrant parents’ need of a helping hand as they acculturate to America and learn English. |
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Living Happily Ever After in a Smaller House |
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Many people who live in big houses want a much smaller house and are eager for specifics. What would a 1,200-square-foot house — about half the size of the average new house built today — look like? What should be eliminated? How can you move from a big house to a much smaller one without undue compromise and without feeling like you’re perennially on a domicile diet? |
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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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Balancing Design Needs With Resale, Budget Concerns |
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With any new house project, it’s crucial to pay attention to budget and resale concerns. But don’t let these be the tails that wag your design. Your family’s needs and lifestyle issues are also crucial. If you think priorities are getting skewed, challenge your architect and builder. They may be experts in design and construction, but you’re the one who is going to live there for the next ten to twenty years. |
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