After WWII, there was a housing shortage. Within the two decades following that massive event, the American suburbs exploded because veterans needed jobs and homes. It was the heyday of the “American Dream” in the thought that people were to be married, have 2 children and own their own home. This is the mantra that I grew up with as well, several decades after WWII. But I seriously question that lifestyle today.
Our population is very diverse. Our living styles are very different. Our housing stock should reflect that but it doesn’t seem to.
There seems to be a stale way of thinking that says younger people who are single will rent an apartment then eventually buy a house with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a 2 car garage. It will look very similar to every house in that same area and probably to any house built during that same decade. People will live in those houses until they are moved into a senior living home. Not everyone has that wish.
There are single people who want to live in a detached house by themselves and couples who desire the same thing without adding children into the mix. There are empty nesters who don’t need 3 extra bedrooms to dust any longer. Widows or widowers who want something small yet private to live in.
Then there’s the way that our work life has shifted. I meet more and more people who work from home either full-time or part-time. Most of them I converse with say that having a dedicated work space in the house is key. The kitchen table just doesn’t cut it. As someone who’s currently working from home, I’d wholeheartedly agree. My spouse has also spent considerable time working from home and a true home office has been very important to his success. A 10’x12’ bedroom just doesn’t work because it feels like you are working in a space designed for another purpose, specifically a bedroom. And usually a typical bedroom doesn’t provide enough space for a studio, craft room, sewing room, photography set-up or any other hobby or work-from-home situation.
There’s also an ongoing conversation in our society about entertaining and hosting events at our homes. I find this to be nothing more than advertising on tv shows and in articles. I don’t actually know many people who regularly have others over to their house. We’ve also somehow, as a culture, mandated that a dedicated guest suite with perfect bed, sheets, towels and knick-knacks be present in our houses, even if that room is used only 2 nights every year. Yes, as a guest in other people’s homes, it has been nice to have a spot to sleep in, but I think that we can start the conversation about how that space can and maybe should be more flexible.
In my own personal experience, I have found that my houses have been much larger than what I usually need. Formal living rooms haven’t been used, extra bedrooms become more like storage rooms. I also see it in other people’s houses. A formal dining room isolated from other spaces usually gets occupied only at Thanksgiving or Christmas.
I’d like to see houses designed differently. I’d like them to take into account all these different lifestyles and to be much more efficient. Houses are the most expensive asset most of us will purchase and I think that we should use every square foot of those houses on a regular basis. Of course the size of the house and what someone might use will vary with a person’s individual lifestyle.
I don’t like “open concept” floor plans as I believe they tend to make a space feel smaller. They also don’t allow for privacy of any type. Even if there are only two people in the house, it doesn’t help our emotional health if we can get away to our own small worlds once in a while. I read an article about a year ago that described several New Yorkers putting walls back into their apartments (condos) in order to provide for a more harmonious family dynamic through separate spaces. With that said, I typically don’t like a kitchen, dining, living room that is all together. But I think there should be a way to elegantly connect the dining and kitchen areas in order for the dining room to be better utilized. This doesn’t mean one open space for the two functions, it means thinking about how it will feel once a person is in it and designing something that works. It’s much nicer to sit at a regular table and eat than a coffee table in the living room. Since a lot of people enjoy watching television while eating, can the dining room fit that need?
I also think that in many lives, one bedroom is all that’s really needed in a house. Not to say multiple other rooms aren’t needed, but they maybe shouldn’t all be bedrooms. What if there was a large office space, something in the range of 14’x16’ or larger that was used daily or weekly for home bills and paperwork if not for a person’s daily job? That room would be a separate room and perhaps it contains a murphy bed system at one end so that it could easily become a guest space. Murphy beds aren’t what they were 60 years ago, they can be very nice looking and a good mattress will make it comfortable for guests.
In my case, I may have family visiting and need multiple sleeping spaces. Perhaps a futon is the main furniture in a family room and it can easily fold out into a bed for a niece or nephew. We recently purchased a chair that is also a sleeper sofa. The bed is a twin so as you can imagine, the chair is wider than a typical chair so it can double as a loveseat if you really want to be close to someone!
I think we worry too much about what the resale value of a house may be. We’ve been conditioned to believe that only a 3 bedroom 2 bath house (or larger) will sell well. This is probably true because as a society I think we’ve been conditioned to buy a house like that even if it doesn’t really fit our needs.
As I’m facing the prospect of purchasing another home, I find myself more depressed than ever. I don’t want another temporary house that’s too big. I don’t want to cram my hobbies into a space that doesn’t promote me actually using it. I don’t want a formal unused living or dining room – if they get used then great, I just don’t want the unused ones. I know that my life in the Midwest means that finding a house with what I want will be hard because it’s the hub of the 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 car garage house. I know I have the skills to alter anything that we might buy, but it’s also important to think about the cost of the house and the cost of renovations (both monetary and emotionally) and it often times doesn’t pencil out.
I hope someday, hopefully within my next decade of life, to draw up multiple plans for a variety of lifestyles and perhaps with some luck I can see a few of them built. This will probably include single family homes, townhomes and probably even a small apartment building of some type. With so much of our current housing stock stuck in the 3 bedroom, 2 bath world, there’s certainly room for something new on the market.
