Pros:
Lots of windows (window in closet!) View of brook.
Cons:
Electric service on wall. North and East windows so only brief sliver of sunlight each day. Only high windows on North side. East view includes neighbor’s house and some of the landscaping business that takes place over there.
Pros:
Wide open! Floor to ceiling windows lining the entire south side. A wood burning fireplace with flagstone flooring in front. Built-in bookcases. A built-in bench with a heater below it and a high window above it for sky views.
Cons:
Minimal heating elements (combined with none in the kitchen) and abundance of drafty windows make this wide open space hard to warm up. The decorators challenge is how to arrange furniture and place a tv in such a space.
Pros:
Nice old utility sink and proximity to bathroom piping make this a good place for a washer and dryer.
Cons:
Only high East windows so no direct sunlight and not much view. Second front door is confusing and unnecessary. Wood wall is dark.
Actions:
We were insistent about retaining the old porcelain utility sink. (Several plumbers wanted to rip it out and replace it with an ugly plastic one.) To set up the water source and drain for the washer, Rich tapped into the bathroom water pipes. This meant we had to tear a chunk of the wall out. Julian rebuilt the wall. Jim’s guys put in the electrical connection for the dryer.
Pros:
Big windows with view of land. Separated from other bedrooms and main living space, allowing for more privacy/ability to make noise, etc.
Cons:
Exposed heater pipes along wall. Awkward closet jutting out from wall.
Actions:
We chose a sage green for some walls and an artichoke green for the others.
Pros:
Great big southern facing windows, view of land, built-in bookcase.
Cons:
Ugly door to loud oil boiler on other side of door. Orange oil lines running from oil tank, through wall, around room to boiler.
Pros:
It’s a second bathroom. Tiles and porcelain tub and sink in good shape.
Cons:
Small. Floor tiles pulled up revealing scary black adhesive makes it look like a crack house bathroom. Only one small window, faces west, shielded by carport roof, and made of wavy opaque glass so only a sliver of direct/diffused light each day and no view.
The twin goals of sustainable living and pleasant aesthetics were applied to our search for a house and will continue as we repair, update, and make the house a Home.
The aesthetics we embrace in a living space are about simple lines, open/flowing layout, light, and height (of ceilings). For location, we sought room to breathe and land to play on/with. The elements of that land – earth, minerals, water, flora, fauna – and atmosphere – air, sun, moon, and planets – play a role in the enjoyment and preservation of the structure, inside and out.
We embarked on our house search, with these goals, in a part of the U.S. where old structures with small, low ceilinged, separated, fussy detailed rooms prevail. Not a lot of modernist dwellings, even fewer for sale, almost none “affordable.” Most major metros with a decent economy have seen real estate prices climb much faster and higher than wages. The more specific the criteria, and limited the budget, the trickier the search.
Against the odds, after viewing ~30 houses, we got very, very lucky to find a place that met most of the criteria. It and the other 58 houses of the neighborhood were designed by Walter Gropius’ firm, The Architects Collaborative (TAC.) So, a bonus is the opportunity to view other mid-century modern homes while taking a stroll, and the potential to learn how other owners have upgraded/remodeled/restored over the years. And, there is common land with fields, ponds, playground, bbq area, and pool to enjoy. The trade offs: above our target mortgage along with additional upfront costs; many, many repairs and updates needed; close to a relatively busy street and a neighbor’s landscaping/farming work; not walking distance or even a short drive to urbanity; and a daily commute to the office for at least one of us. Any major life decision involves trade offs and compromise, though, and we are grateful for this opportunity to create a Home.
Since Home is the supreme source of balance, nourishment, energy, peace, inspiration, and joy for me, being a Taurus, and Jeph, being the partner-in-life of a Taurus (and also ecologically conscious) this seems like a fitting, well-timed, place to begin the e-volvedliving* journey. Many of the living methods and aesthetic choices we’ve desired to employ were limited by lack of ownership. Now that we have a structure and land that is ours, we can more fully experiment, embrace, share, and grow those methods!
*e-volvedliving is the parent site for this blog and will be a lab, playground, and market for expanding consciousness and methods of living
Pros:
Good sized closet. Window over door. Channels entering/exiting energy nicely.
Cons:
Somewhat dark, narrow, and closed off. Door hard to open/close/lock. Access panel to plumbing in closet. Hideous ceiling fixture.
Found an oil company and had them tune up the boiler. Our technician, Tony, is an interesting guy; it took awhile for me to understand where he’s coming from. The first time he visited we had multiple power tools in action and he got frustrated with the noise; to tune a system one needs to listen to it. Our boiler/H2O heater are in a utility room attached to the back of the house and dealing with the snowy cold conditions was also a challenge for him. One discovery was that our third thermostat is non-functioning and we only have two zones. After his visit we still lacked a good understanding of how our system works and how to maximize its performance. For his second visit it was just him and I and much quieter. He gave me a good lesson in the physics of baseboard heaters and helped securely fasten them (they were all left disassembled.) There are bees living in our storage shed; turns out he is a former apiculturist with an ongoing fondness for them. We started chatting about the colony and found a lot of common ground re our philosophies on the interconnectedness of the ecosystem and the dangers it faces.
The day after we closed, an abatement company, Nealco, removed all of the asbestos floor tiles and took the bad carpet away too! They are required to test the air quality once finished so we felt safe breathing upon arrival the next day. Once the majority of the messy work was done (two weeks later), it was time to lay down floor. After walking around on cement slab with ugly mastic remains, it was wonderful and took the place a long ways towards becoming Home. Mike Orecchio and his B & M Floors team progressed quickly and were great about working around the ongoing demo/construction. As for materials, bamboo and/or reclaimed hardwood were the original choices but as we learned more about cork and it’s insulating/cushioning properties we decided to take that route. Thankfully the toilet and whole main line backed up the day before the installers were going to put cork in the bathrooms too. They (and the floor supplier) had tried to talk us out of that application, but after living in Florida where ceramic tile is everywhere, including the living room, we fought it. The overflow made us realize the un-wisdom of our decision so we scrambled around and found new material: Vermont green slate for bathroom 1 and Italian tile for bathroom 2.