DESIGN MATTERS, News from Christopher Fye & Associates

A House for the 80's Ages Up

It's always difficult, something akin to proofreading your own typing, to critique a plan that you, yourself, have drawn. Reviewing the floor plans for the original Woman's Day Competition, "A House for the 80's" was both pleasant and challenging, causing a little consternation, but mostly vindicating the thoughts and ideas of that very young architect-in-training that Chris was in 1981. Basically, we think this floor plan is still a very good one, incorporating light and air and energy savings in a small package that's efficient and inexpensive to construct.

In 1981 Chris believed, as did many designers and pundits of the day, that home builders would be building smaller more energy-efficient homes requiring less maintenance, and that families would drive less, hence the one-car garage in the original design. In reality, the opposite took place. Witness the explosion of far-flung suburban subdivision developments throughout the nation - developments that vacated our city neighborhoods, gutted small towns, gobbled up farm land, and saw the construction of huge, energy-inefficient houses that required not just the parents to drive everywhere, but also their children to be driven or bussed everywhere. In direct opposition to the energy consciousness that Woman's Day and so many sought in the early 1980's, developers, builders and families took a tack that sailed the nation off into a sea of over-consumption, slowing only in the last few years as the new energy crisis started battering our housing ship with waves of bad news about climate change, economic upheaval and even obesity linked to our drive-mad, bigger-is-better society.

So here we are, nearing the end of the first decade of the 21st Century and much is changing in people's minds about how we live in homes and in communities. We took a look at the house plan using our 21st Century eyes, and the knowledge, wisdom and expertise gained over thirty years of residential design. Are you ready?

We believe that literally thousands of these homes have been built throughout the U.S. and Canada, though we're unable to document that (yet!), and we also believe that almost without exception the first change that anyone would make to the original design is the garage. In fact, as we noticed on a drive-by in the mid 80's, the owners of the original house built in Columbus, Indiana took just a few years to build a second stall addition to their home. The simple truth is we do, most of us, love our cars and moreover, we need them. It's a fact of life for those of us who live away from large urban centers with mass transit that cars must be our main source of transportation.

So, given that reality, we would recommend building a separate garage connected by a breezeway to the house at the side entrance. Aside from the benefit of a two-stall garage, there's also good health reasons to keep the garage detached. The garage space could then be turned into a much-needed "away" room - a quiet space away from the typical family chaos. We would add windows to the front and the side and close off the door that enters from the side entrance, creating an alcove with the door into this new room at the wall near the air-lock entry. We'd also design in a full bathroom and closet space, leaving plenty of space for this new room to serve as a library/home office/guest bedroom.

With the changes at the side door/breezeway connection, we would probably lose the half-bath as it would be replaced by the new bathroom in the new combination room. This allows expansion of the small laundry room/pantry into a more usable mudroom/laundry room and pantry. And, if you choose to build that detached garage, consider a two-story breezeway which provides a whole new set of options - a family room over the garage (or FROG as they call it on the East Coast), an artist's studio, or perhaps a home office.

The house is small - making it a little tough to live in for most families. We would add a foot or two both length and width-wise to the living room for more livability, and change the French doors shown into one fixed, and one middle-hinged door, again to eliminate unnecessary space eaters. We still love the massive chimney and fireplace. The brick chimney acts as a heat-sink, soaking up the afternoon winter sun and gently releasing it into the house. (The clever pergola on the south side prevents the harsh, hot summer sun from overheating the house.) These days we might recommend a masonry heater instead of a standard (energy-gulping) fireplace, which burns hot and clean (over 90% efficient burning of wood, a renewable resource) and allows the warmth to radiate throughout the home over time. (Learn more about masonry heaters at http://mha-net.org/html/whats.htm)

We still like the "borrowed light" gained in the master bedroom and the children's room but would change those windows from two casement windows into one, smaller pocket window, just for aesthetics. And while we often think that cathedral ceilings tend to make one feel small and cold, this room is warmed by its cozy dimensions.

We still really like the kitchen layout, including the built-in desk and the pass-through to the living room. While this house is not ideal for entertaining on a large scale, you could throw some lovely summer parties utilizing the openness of the floor plan and the welcoming terrace and porches, though we would today lose the walls on the porch - code certainly doesn't require them and the view would be so much better if the porch was as open as the interior.

Upstairs, we're still fans of the master bedroom layout - particularly the spacious feel provided by the light quality and the addition of the private balcony. This is actually the first of many, many private decks Chris has designed for residential clients - he even designed one for his own remodeled century-old home.

The children's room, which seemed a good idea at the time, just isn't very practical for the way most of us live today. We would get rid of the "folding wall" concept and just turn it into one room, redesigning the closet and the entrance for more efficient use of space. Coupled with the "new room" provided by the garage change-over, you're potentially now looking at a three-bedroom home.

We still love the cozy little seating area provided in the chimney, complete with its view out the southern windows and beyond - a nice spot to mediate in the quiet of an evening or to have a phone chat with grandma.

And it goes without saying that methods and materials have changed considerably in thirty years. The list of changes would be long, but suffice to say that the windows would now be triple-glazed "E"-type glass, the insulation, flooring, and exterior materials would be "green" in both their production and their application, and mechanical systems would be high-efficiency systems perhaps using geo-thermal or solar methods.

The construction price back in 1982 was listed at $84,200., as low as $63,200 in less expensive parts of the nation. Today, according to R.S. Means Construction Data index, it would run anywhere from $175,000 to $230,000. to build as originally designed. Wow. It's still a great little house - perfect as a first home for a young couple with one or two kids, and great for "empty nesters" who still want a place for kids and grandkids to land. Expose the lower level to open up and utilize the basement and it would be a great lakeside home. Yeah, we'd even build it for ourselves!