Americans are not a very consistent lot when it comes to our new-home desires. On the one hand, we want oodles of space, on the other, please make those spaces feel intimate.
Designers of show houses at the recent International Builders’ Show here struggled with those contradictory demands, and the results were definitely a mixed bag.
Two large and lavish homes, both built in conjunction with product manufacturers aiming to show the latest in items for the home, were eye-popping, but curiously unsatisfying.
In contrast, the tiny 300-square-foot (that’s right, no digits are missing) cottage hurriedly designed and built within the last month as one solution to the housing problem for those displaced by Hurricane Katrina felt just right to many visitors.
The New American Home, which is the “official” show home of the IBS, is an opulent, 7,000-square-foot “second” home for a rich Baby Boomer. It certainly worked best in the indoor-outdoor rooms where entertaining might be done. But some of the rooms were strictly for show and not for living.
The two-story home office features a wooden spiral staircase to reach the loft library and reading area. But will a 60-something working at his or her desk really want to climb a spiral staircase for a reference book?
The Reality House, a Tudor-style home co-sponsored by Builder and Home magazines, attempted to address the desires of a wider demographic that includes many modern families.
Located in the fifth and final neighborhood of Celebration, Fla., the much-studied master-planned community founded 10 years ago by the Walt Disney Co., the Reality House, like the New American Home, is aimed at a family of means with its $2.5 million asking price.
It was designed after researchers from California-based MarketScape Research & Consulting visited and videotaped eight families, in different cities, in homes they had recently purchased.
The visits were aimed at discovering what worked and what didn’t in new homes for families with several generations living under one roof. The Reality House was built, in turn, to give the builders some ideas of what modern families want and need.
The research might be duplicated with less cost if builders made it a habit to drop by to chat with recent buyers, but it did uncover several themes which others at the Builders’ Show, using different methods, mentioned as growing in importance.
Buyers increasingly want a home that can accommodate several generations. Whether they anticipate caring for an aging parent, the return of an adult child for a period of time or are making provisions for a caregiver for their old age, more families are looking for some flexibility in floor plans to accommodate a generational mix.
It makes a main floor bedroom or area that obviously can be converted to a bedroom an appealing, even compelling, new-home feature.
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At the same time, integration of inside and outside spaces is increasingly popular. This long has been true in warm climates, but Karol Nickell, editor in chief of Better Homes & Gardens Magazine based in Des Moines, said “indoor-outdoor connectivity continues to grow in importance” for her readers.
And pets should not be overlooked in designing or building a home. They are “a big, big deal for many people,” said architect Carson Looney, principal in Looney Ricks Kiss, explaining why the Memphis firm designed a pet area into the Reality House.
One of the biggest needs for families–and one which the Reality House addresses effectively–is for more storage.
We Americans are an acquisitive bunch. More than one speaker at the Builders’ Show used the term “Costco closet” for the space needed to store bulk purchases.
“The reason kitchen islands have gotten so big is because they are the drop-off point” for much of the family clutter, said Looney.
The Reality House is packed with closets, cabinets, built-in shelves and nooks in an attempt to provide a place for everything so everything can be in its place.
There is no stinting on kitchen cabinets, which include wine storage and all sorts of specialized storage drawers. A good-size walk-in pantry is adjacent to the kitchen, as well as a separate butler’s pantry just steps away, next to the dining room.
The home office is a separate room, not a nook or a desk in the kitchen. The master bathroom has floor-to-ceiling cabinetry on two walls.
Expediting the trip from the warehouse center is a porte-cochere, a handy drive-through where the homeowner can stop and unload the car while sheltered from the sun or rain, at the side of the house. In this case, a door from the porte-cochere opens directly to a large pantry and prep kitchen between the kitchen and the butler’s pantry off the dining room.
Once the stuff is unloaded, the car can be driven to the back of the house and parked in the attached three-car garage.
The home’s overall floor plan is C-shaped. The front facade, the bottom of the C, faces the street. There is a front terrace leading to the main door, which opens to a gallery or hallway with windows to the courtyard in the center of the C.
To the right of the front entrance is a den or formal office. To the left is the dining room; the main part of the house is behind the dining room, which wraps around the courtyard.
The open kitchen and family room–this is a home without a formal living room–overlooks a roofed outdoor room open to the central courtyard with a pool. The family room is 24 by 19 feet, with a 10-foot ceiling. There is plenty of space for the clan to gather because the room is open to the kitchen, breakfast room and adjacent to the outdoor room and courtyard beyond.
In a wing at the back of the house is a main-floor bedroom suite with a private bath opening to the courtyard. It could be used for guests, a caregiver, nanny or parent.
But the designers were less sure-footed in the second floor secondary bedrooms, where they added small rooms, the size of walk-in closets, as “intimate” spaces for children. The rooms seemed tacked on and too small to be really useful, except as a computer nook, to children over the age of 6.
In contrast, the truly “intimate” interior of Katrina cottage somehow worked. The 300-square-foot prototype offers one alternative to FEMA trailers for temporary housing for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The biggest of the four rooms is a combination living/dining space with a narrow galley kitchen. Behind the kitchen off the living area is a tiny bath–shower, toilet, sink and a narrow band of floor-to-ceiling shelves for linens.
The only bedroom is behind the living area at the back of the house. It has four bunks, two on each side, and a closet. A large covered porch, in essence an outdoor room, with built-in benches, was at the front of the cottage.
Though it is hard to imagine a family of four living for an extended period in this limited space, the designer somehow got the proportions just right. This is a cozy and comfortable living space, perfect for short getaways.
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The Reality House, Celebration, Fla.
FACTS & FIGURES
$2.5 million
Two-story Tudor-look home with four bedrooms, 5 1/2 baths, three-car garage and first-floor mother-in-law suite
Developer: Builder Magazine and Home Magazine show home
Square feet: 5,394
Web site: www.realityhouse2006.com
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