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What's a "GardenHome"?
1. A GardenHome is a Home that ...
features rooms and interior spaces that are carefully sized
and tailored to fit the life style, living habits, needs, desires, personality, and sense of taste of its owner(s) to an absolute
"T"; a home that is as comfortable to live in as a pair of well fitting shoes are to walk in.
In this context, one would do well to remember that "bigger" seldom – if ever – equates with "better"!
A huge, formal living room capable of accommodating a crowd will feel overwhelmingly large and, thus, uncomfortable to be in
for a family of 4 or 5. Hence, it will be used only on "Occasions-of-State", NOT on an every day basis.
The same is true for a dining room that can seat 8, or more, people. Feeling lost in it, the family will therefore
use it only when they have family or friends over for dinner, for the kids to do their homework, or to wrap
Christmas presents! And, while we are at it, why have an enormous and imposing,
two story, hotel-like, "foyer", where a smaller, friendlier, and vastly more inviting entrance hall would do just fine?
If those rooms and spaces don't really contribute to your quality of life, why not do away with them and integrate their functions
with the "family room−kitchen" combination where you spend 80%+ of your (awake and at home) time?
Why waste a ton of money on space (and furnishings) you don't need and will hardly ever use? If you can afford to, why not
spend that extra cash on creating a home the exterior and interior of which looks (and feels) like a jewelry box instead of an
oversized packing crate and offers some, or all, of the many features discussed below?
What all this means is that, the more "dedicated" and "tailored" (not necessarily, the
smaller} the home, the more important it is that EVERY sq ft of its available space is designed to be able to pull
double duty; i.e. that every bit of space and every nook and cranny returns a maximum of usefulness,
satisfaction, happiness, and joy! That is what we at "Your
GardenHome Architects" will do our best to help you achieve!
2. ... is embraced (enveloped) by a wonderful, true garden
composed of several "outdoor-rooms-without ceilings"
that are meant for living, dining, and entertaining, and that are expressly designed such that, together with the home and its "
GardenRoom" cum family room, they form an inseparable whole the overall
beauty and utility of which is far greater than the sum of its parts.
Why have a real garden instead of just some cookie-cutter "landscaping",
a high maintenance lawn, and a sea of empty, unused (useless) space? Because in these days of sky-high realty prices and property
taxes, the cost of owning, say, a 1/2 acre (21,780sft) lot has risen to the point where most folks are now paying anywhere from
$0.30 to $0.40 annually in mortgage interest, property taxes, and maintenance costs for EVERY square foot of
the land around their homes whether they use it or not! In the case of a house and a driveway with a combined footprint of
−say− 4,000sft that means that the owners pay anywhere from $
5,334 to $7,112 annually for the "privilege" of owning the remaining 17,780sft of (usually) open and
unused property! NOT to put some, if not all, of that land to the private (exclusive) use and enjoyment of its owners is being
viewed, more and more, as a ridiculous waste of both the money AND the land involved!
3. is a "Home for Life", meaning a home ...
● that, rather than mere "Accessible Design", offers "
Universal Design" which
will make it vastly more "User-Friendly" and livable for any person, male or
female, young or old, large or small, weak or strong, regardless of his/her
physical abilities, disabilities, or handicaps;
● that is designed not only to be wheelchair but piano and sofa
moving friendly
as well simply by having 3'+ wide doors and 3˝'–4'+ wide hallways, and stairs;
● that has doors offering (European) lever type door-handles rather
than round
(American) doorknobs that are difficult to turn for 6yr olds with tiny hands and
66yr olds with arthritic ones (and for perfectly healthy 6' males with their arms and
hands full of grocery bags, we might add);
● that has counter tops and closet shelves that can readily
(and relatively
inexpensively) be lowered or raised should the need arise;
● that has phone, power, and cable outlets that are at least
30" above floor level;
● that has a spare bedroom with private bath either on the second
floor or in the
basement to accommodate guests or a full-time nursing assistant should the
need arise;
● that has a first floor "home-office" or
"library" with a full bath that has a
slip-proof floor and strengthened walls capable of being easily and cheaply
modified to accommodate someone who needs hand-holds, etc, such that,
should you ever become disabled, it can become your master bedroom thereby
allowing you to stay in your
Dream Home
forever!
4. that offers high energy efficiency, superb insulation and a
Geothermal Heating & Cooling System" ...
● that will reduce your
monthly HVAC and water heating bills by 50%, or better;
● that will pay for themselves in from 2 to 8
years and last 40+ years with little or
no maintenance!
5. that offers a semi-interior, multi-purpose, "GardenRoom
tm" ...
● that, like a standard family room, can be used for
everyday living, dining, and
entertaining;
● that is partially glass-roofed, "plant friendly" and, thus, can act as a
transitional,
"indoor garden" that is intimately related to its outdoor counterparts;
● that, unlike commercially available, one-style-fits-all, slap-on
"Sunrooms" and
"Conservatories", is designed such that it (like the
"Orangery"
at Dumbarton
Oaks) effortlessly and beautifully blends in with its surroundings and with the
architectural style and integrity of the home of which it is an integral part.
6. that offers ;Environmentally Friendly", RoofGardens
...
● that can offer you a great deal of additional, highly
livable and enjoyable,
"outdoor" space for surprisingly little extra money;
●
that (like deckgardens) can only be seen from the air,
not the street such that
they can offer almost total privacy;
●
that will pay for themselves by lowering your monthly HVAC bills by 10% or
more;
●
that will help the environment by lowering the "heat-island" effect in urban-
suburban areas and by cleaning smog-laden air.
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