Hi Campers, I was driving around my one and a 1/2 horse town and found "Thee" subdivision for these parts. And it sucks. the streets are just wide enough for two cars to pass, made from concrete slabs. No sidewalks, brick mailbox at the curb. The mini mac's are 8 feet apart. I say mini mac's as these houses look to be on the 3000 to 5000 sqr ft range, which is big for this area. Not like the monsters in west Little Rock. I don't see what people like about this sghitty places. Anyway, my house is about 1400 sqr ft. It wasn't designed for modern living. It's a 70 year old house. I started drawing houses as a kid and went from large A frame ski lodges, to multi shell domes, to classical villas. Now, i I were to build a new house, I don't think it would be any bigger than what I now have, maybe smaller. I was wondering any of you were to build a new house, would it be a bigger home than you now have, A palace for a king, or a modest cottage, or what? How has your desire to build for your self changed over your life?
Can you give some exact info on what possession you've kept and what you've had to get rid of?
I'm in process of downsizing as well. And running into logistics problems as far as what to keep that fit in small space. example...do I get rid of my big tube TV and buy a small thin LCD TV? That kind of problem.
That's not a problem.... LCD, of course! (The Sharp Aquos line are probably the best.) A word of caution, though, a great LCD will make a regular TV signal look like crap. Best for DVDs and good digital reception.
I picked LCD over plasma because 1) It weighs half as much, 2) I didn't need more than 37" (bought 32" because I couldn't afford the 37, yet). Plasma has some advantage over LCD in some instances with certain movie types.
for an excellent 3D rendering, that's very helpful.
and search this group using " 20x20 " for some interesting and helpful discussions.
Also have a look at RV's, those are an evolved genius in down-scaling that are very popular and practical.
What to keep is a big question. Without doubt what you haven't used in two years, you'll miss after you dispose of it, that's a rule :-).
About TV's, sit twice as close and the area of the TV is 4x bigger. A possible advantage of watching a smaller TV closer to you is you may not need glasses to watch it.
I think you need to have a philosophy of utility, something that is a lifestyle change for us, who came from a nice obstentatious lifestyle, that's good when raising a family.
About TV, Gruhn's rending is generic, the actual choice depends on the user. We use TV to put us to sleep so it's usually high and tilted to the couchs.
Last place we had a 33" Sony (170 #'s) secured on a shelve about 6.5' high, in an office that was
12x24.
In the 20x20 we're be quite closer, and use a smaller TV. Below it we plan to put a wood stove compartment that extends from the building for easy cleaning, (ashes removed from outside and a wood compartment beside it). I mount my wood stoves at table height for easy maintenance. Ken
Well we built an 8x12 Construction Site Office last year as an exercize to renew our skills and test some concepts. While not planned we ended up wintering in the CSO, without any problems.
Lynne (wife) decided she didn't want a stove, she preferred a dual hot plate. We hung the few pots and pans we "really use" on the wall above the hot plate, cabin style and she found that better and wants that. Also, she used a plastic wash basin in place of a sink and found that superior to a sink, because there's no need to bend into it. Ergonometrically, this enables her to stand-up straight while doing a few dishes, rather than bending over into a sink. So we eliminated the kitchen sink. We'll use a bar sink to collect water and dispose of grey water, so the counter sink is eliminated. That bar sink is on the wall between the kit and washroom. Ken
Doesn't take too many trips to the hardware store to replace the stuff; too many afternoons with the steelwool and the WD-40 to make up for the shed. Not to mention the Pride of Ownership. Well maybe not so with the Tupperware.
"noel" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
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I don't know about "modern living". We'd looked at several new houses (developments, bleh - not by my choice) and I felt like I was inside a bank or a medical-offices building or some such thing.
It's not only the square footage - it's also the use (or rather, ABuse) of space. I prefer this house (a rental, ca. the 1960's) in a lot of ways; there is storage everywhere, and the rooms seem plenty large enough - I think the foundation is 2500 sq ft.
The agent was pushing for us to take this 4000-something sq ft monstosity (ironically, many of the older homes are more expensive, as they're not out in the boondocks and also they're on *lots*, rather than postage stamps). The MBR closet in this thing was 2 stories high (I'm not kidding!) and the footprint was about 16'X20', perhaps larger because the shape was weird.
All our clothes fit into 2 normal-sized closets and a couple drawers. What the heck am I supposed to do with a closet that's almost as large as the house in which I'd spent my childhood? It's sick.
IMO it's a greater challenge to build a place that is small but of high quality. That is what I'd like - a place the suits my needs (I don't have
3 pool tables so a humongous "game room" is no use), has nicely-sized rooms, is as "green" as possible, and is of high-quality materials. Bigger is never automatically better - it's merely bigger.
I tend to like single-story, because I prefer a place that sits closer to the land - although I'd like an elevated foundation to reduce the chance of flooding. I'd like a foundation that funnels water away from the interior.
If I lived in a semi-arid or desert area (an idea that I'm admittedly a bit obsessed with), I'd want a large underground cistern and a structure that collects rainwater and channels it there for storage - that's at least be good for watering the vegetables and garden (tho' I'm also a fan of xeriscaping). I'd like the materials to be suited to the climate - I especially like a particular sort of white stone that's used locally in the Houston area, it might be granite but I don't know, have to find out. I crave light so I'd like a lot of wondows, but low-e of course and poss. triple - glazed. In a hurricane prone area, I'd want those hurricane- resistant windows.
I've considered dome houses, also I've considered a more Pueblo/SouthWest type (in terms of simplicity and massing the components so as to create shade and cooler areas). Overall, I prefer natural materials, even primitive/ancient materials and methods/ideas, but nicely contrasted with modern - i.e. glass and metal.
Size? The main thing I personally need size for is my hobbies. I have too dang many, since I'm sort of retired. Ideally, I'd like a highly- ventilatedwoodworking room with a "messy" area (for spray painting and other fume-creating thingssuch as wood finishing), plus a separate room where I could set up separate tables for stained glass work and general hobby stuff, and a well-lit room with lots of shelving for drawing and painting. And a computer room of course, that would also fit my MIDI piano (it's a full-sized keyboard).
Two baths, a good-sized kitchen (so there is enough storage space without having to cram and shove and pile and stack things), a laundry room that doea NOT require one to bring the dirty laundry through the kitchen!, and some sort of den/living room, where the TV and the stereo would be. I don't care about a dining room because we use TV tables and watch CSI or the like during supper. But to resell a place, I guess it needs a dining room...
But I don't give a crap about trying to impress this or that beanbrain; I don't give a crap about whether the neighbors "envy" me, and I don't want that because envy=hate=problems and theft. I occasionally have people over, but I don't "entertain" as such - more like, "OK, the burgers and chili are on the grill, the beer is in the beer fridge, and the fixin's are in the kitchen, go help yourself whenever you like - there's the pool, there are the hammocks, relax and enjoy".
All the new houses seem to be psychotically obsessed with being "impressive", which means, they are not suitable for folks who simply want to live, and have hobbies, and occasionally have a couple of *friends* over for a casual bit of relaxation.
"Don" wrote in news:0xxGe.18997$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net:
Yeah, a few armaments wouldn't bother me any ;) . Although I personally have this thing about food. We didn't have a whole lot when I was a kid; then, when my father finished night school and started getting a couple promotions, he got a big freezer for the basement, and stocked it, and built floor-to-ceiling cabinets along one wall and loaded them sith enough canned and dried foods to last a very long time. After having grown up eating stuff like turnip'n'ground-mystery-meat soup, a wall full of canned peas and tuna and pasta and whatnot seemed to me to be the epitome of wealth . Guess I haven't fully fotten over it, although the urge is strengthened now what with things like earthquakes and hurricanes.
So that's what I want. Huge amounts of stashed foodstuffs. And a generator and fuel of course. Finally got sleeping bags and inflatable part-foam cushion things, need a tent and so on.
Add on one of the new solar collectors - those flexible ones I saw on a special about energy can collect very efficiently even on cloudy days. YOu can put them on your roof and, since they don't stick up (they're on a roll, look like a charcoal-colored mat) they can go right up on the roof. Might as well add on a windmill, just to be sure ;)
Of course, if I gave in to *all* my packrat urgtes, we'd need two - well, three - whole moving vans in (prob.) a yrear or two...A nomadic life tends to cut down on one's urge to collect :( . But I still hate not having a stockpile of provisions.
OTOH, if the house is big enough to have a closet that big, it makes you a primary (and secondary, and...) target. Sort of the way that driving a
700-series BMW is like begging to be carjacked.
Better if one can build partially and/or totally underground, have a sotrage bunker, but can't do that here because it's a gigantic alluvial plain that goes inland quite a way, high water table. There aren't even any basements. I haven't yet thought of a solution...
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