Quick and Sweet ideas
Hello ,
It is quite late and if I want to make this a Tuesday blog entry, I had better type quick!
I spent an invigorating morning deep in designing what I see as a new-age backyard. A few years ago, I had the crazy notion (especially in cold Wisconsin ) that folks don’t spend a lot of time outside when relaxing. Socializing, yes. Relaxing after work or when no one else is around, no. Sure, you might garden or have the oft cookout outside, but with bugs ind humidity or wind blowing stuff around, really…hanging outside is not the most relaxing place compared to a bug-free, television-ready, temperature -custom , bathroom close-by, couch inside the home. Besides, the smaller lots today have potential issues of privacy , both visual and” noise-wise”.
Despite all of these obstacles, I have become fixated on a crazy notion of asking, seeing, exploring, whether it is possible for me to think outside the box enough to get past some or all of these problems. If you bring up(on the website photo gallery) our 2009 Parade’s Little-Big House, or check out our front yard photos of our Homestead 3 Special Edition 2-story, or see our Sand Bay front yard, you will see I have been experimenting with this outdoor living concept for some time.
There is nothing that teaches better than carefull thought, careful design , then just building something and seeing how it works. I have observed how these outdoor areas functioned and I have seen the deficiencies in each exterior area I have designed and built. People loved our Little-Big House front porch more than they loved to sit on our Little-Big House back patio. The patio had more room, good privacy, and even my first new invention of an outdoor television, that was quite watchable after dusk. I think folks liked the front porch better because it first, had a roof which gave it better sun protection, and second, it had better furniture. But, unless you had someone outside to talk to, or a television or computer , you might easily get bored and want to go inside.
On this particualr front porch idea, I had the most comfortable padded love seats that you could want. I had designed the landscaping to have pretty good privacy so you would not feel like you were relaxing in front of passer-bys on the street. I had even thought of including that most relaxing element of splashing water in a which was to mesmerize and draw you to the area(and it did1) But alas, even all of this was not enough to make this area preferred for relaxation sake over an interior couch.
I took all of this into account and have been designing my heart out to get the next attempt right. If I had an area where folks could have laid on a couch or bed, that would have been a big , MAJOR, first step in competing with the inside couch area.
I remember, my Grandparents in Glendale had a back porch and they spent lots of time in that area watching a small television, eating on a small table, playing cards, and…laying down for a nap on a couch. This porch had a small bathroom right off of this porch, just inside the home. It had fantastic privacy from passer-bys and it had all screens so it could enjoy the breeze and the sounds of nature. ( Grandma fedd and watched the birds and Grandpa had his b-b gun ready in case of squirles) I t also had a train track just behind the porch by 200 feet on a hill, but even that noise was was not powerful enough reason to detract from this being a most desirable area to relax.
My Aunt and Uncle in Cedarburg too have a back enclosed porch and they use it all the time. We built a lovely back porch with an area for a hot tub on one home last year and they use that area a lot, so I hear.
Am I advocating back porches? …yes and no. I have a grander plan of making the front porch just as attractive as these rear porches and I think I have found a way to start by finding a perfect balance of open railing and short wall pieces to give the porch a sense of privacy. I have come up with a method to use hide-away screens to protect the area from bugs. I have porch ceiling fans to keep it cooler. (here’s where I get a bit extreme) I have gone so far as to find an aesthetically pleasing way to have a large weather-protected television and a heating fireplace both on this front porch. I also have a huge set of french door on the front porch that leads a few steps away to the inside dinning table AND even a concealed refrigerator. Yes, there are places to have couches and you can see passer-bys if you sit up but are totally private if you lay down on the couch!
There is a dynamite sound system, and even a quick access into the garage if you have the need. I am working at putting a bathroom close by but that may not come to fruition. But that’s not all. As wonderful as this big 10 by 18 front porch may be, the back yard concepts are even cooler, wilder, and I have not seen the vast majority of these ideas done before anywhere(which always excited me!).
I will share some of those “ back yard “rooms” ideas in the next blog. Here’s the big deal on what I am doing with this design, ( First, the whole house has all sorts of new ideas I have had percolating in my head for many months and I could write pages on every room , really). Second, what make all this so much more exciting for me is that designing this kind of stuff into a home that is 2,500 , or 3,000, or 4,000 square feet is easy enough for any novice designer to do. I always say, anyone can throw money at a design and make it wonderful to behold. The real fun and challenge comes in doing stuff like this , to make the home FEEL like a 3,000 or 4,000 square footer, but do it in what some would see as a “small” square footage home. This home has everything but it is part of my “Hybrid Ranch” (see my first few blog entries for the general scoop on this idea). This, folks, is a 1,500 square foot ranch that I bet will fool even the most savvy home shopper into thinking this is twice the size. A home that blends outdoor “rooms” with inside rooms in ways that blurs the line of indoor/outdoor.
By the way, today, we posted a whole group of photos from our Lake Bay and Ellison Bay(and others) on our home page’s photo gallery. I hope you will take a look. I hope you will check back to see what I have in mind for the backyard “rooms”. Thanks for reading. I missed my quick part of my headline, I missed my midnight deadline to post this, but I hope I did not miss making these ideas “sweet”.
Blessings,
Tom Hignite
