Housing

I like looking at housing plans. Some don't appeal to me, right off the bat -- they look too flat, too square. Others intrigue me. I recall touring a demo house in a local development, and was surprised to find that I liked its very simple, very open floor plan. As I recall, it was essentially a square, stretched perhaps just a bit. The upper left of the square was the two car garage; to the right was the entry hall, and to the right of that, a short hall to a closet and a front bedroom (or office, or whatever). The hall was duplicated along the right - short hall down to a back bedroom (or office, or whatever). Of the roughly two thirds that was left, the upper one third was an open kitchen, and between that and the garage, a laundry area, while the lower one third was a wide open living room. We were in the house for about twenty minutes before I realize why that main hallway was so wide, why the entry way into each of the smaller hallways were so wide, why there were no interior door sills, why the kitchen and living room were so open. Yet with all of that, it worked; the house didn't feel cramped, didn't feel plain, didn't feel 'made for the elderly/wheelchair bound/handicapped'. It just felt right -- good trim, good quality. The house worked.

I wonder sometimes how you do that. How do you design a house that works -- that flows well, that simultaneously feels close and protective when you want that, yet open and expansive when you want that. I would bet there's a science to it. Sometimes, its just flipping. For example --

This is a diagram in the Washington Post of a home in Gettysburg that's for sale. Gettysburg is a pretty area, but I never thought of it as the northern terminus for people looking for houses who work in Washington DC. Nevertheless, there it is, an ad for The Links at Gettysburg. Amazing.



Here's one from the Post that I clipped for houses in DC. Notice anything? Its essentially the same design, flipped along the right sideof its long axis - and its about forty percent more expensive. Location, location, location.

And a timely flip.