Housing

We've been giving some thought to our next house. Its still a long ways off, but I think we're both a little shell-shocked by the prices that houses are going for around here, and we feel that we need to move, at least a little, from just thinking about it to actually doing something. Its not really clear if there is a definite first step -- if you're buying a house, its pretty obvious -- you look for one thats at least generally acceptable, and then you see if it can be made more acceptable. Landscaping, painting, whatever. If you're more thinking of building, we feel that you probably need to start with a general sense of what it is that you want to do, and then you go looking for a place to do it. On the other hand, I've heard several people say that they started by finding a place, and letting the place determine what they would do. I don't know -- but whichever, we probably ought to start.

This isn't to say that we've given up on the idea of modifying this house to have enough characteristics and capabilities that we can simply stay here forever -- as might be expected form people who essentially got one job and stayed with it their entire lives, we both have no real problem with staying in this house, the first one we ever bought. But there are a number of things that we'd like to improve about it; some of them can be done easily, some with difficulty, and some (despite the words of one local architect about houses being essentially plastic) really can't. Putting additional lighting into the garage and storage room falls into the first category; putting in an elevator into the second; having the kitchen right next to the garage falls squarely into the third. (Though if the elevator was on a direct path from the garage to the kitchen...maybe. Maybe. )

In going to the Pennsylvania Home Builders Expo, we came away with the feeling that its not as important what a house looks like, barren, as it does once its furnished. In some regards, we want a standard house -- about two thousand square feet, two bedrooms (one quite large), two baths -- but in others, we don't -- its important to us that it have sufficient (even excessive) sound insulation; we want an extra water source for drenching showers even while the dishwasher and washing machine are running ; we want above average carpetting; we'd like a whole-house air conditioner/heater/humidifier; we want a tray ceiling in the dining room; we'd like a clerestory ceiling in the living room -- but its more important, once the basics are met, to have a home that exudes a sense of warmth and comfort. We want this house to feel welcoming, and we think that the way that its decorated is what will make that possible.

There's a couple of pictures I have that I like to look at because they have that feeling, even if they're not exactly what we have in mind --



The first is larger than we'd want, but it has the right feel; the second is about the right size, but its more formal than we have in mind.

Its a start.