The What-If House Meets the Reasonable House
‘I want to have a house that fits me.’ Many clients say that, and probably think that what they are asking for is only the extremely basic minimum space they feel their lifestyle can live with. Unfortunately, if I looked at them like they look at their house needs, I would be staring down a double-barreled Jabba the Hut. Every home would be planned for "well, we have 10 people in here for the annual Super Bowl party and holidays, we need room for 10 people to dine". That is at least a specific need to be accommodated. Then there is the "what if" mentality…what if we have kids, what if the kids move out, what if my mother comes for a week, what if your mother comes for a week? Apparently, everyone is planning to live in a traditional Asian culture where the whole family lives under a single roof. These, and other one-off occasions (it HAD better be if mother and mother in-law are coming) are not a reason to plan a home, they are a reason to plan a banquet hall at the Holiday Inn.
Instead, if people truly looked at how they lived, they would see awfully specific repetitive patterns. A study was conducted recently by UCLA researchers and it found that we all exhibit patterns in our daily lives (at least the 32 families they tracked). Daily routines that, with minor exceptions, show that we use only a percentage of the space we live in. What if you could use that information about your lifestyle to design your home? The author does not suggest that we cut down to this used space, as that may get a bit confining. But we can use this information to do a few things.
1. A reduced needs program can be developed prior to design. For instance, if your family tracked its uses over a 1-year period (or some period) and recognized that at no point did anyone use the guest bedroom, perhaps the 5th bedroom you ‘need’ may not be required. Or if you saw that only one end of the dining room was used predominantly, perhaps that space could be combined with another to gain/reduce the space planning requirements. Crucial here is to determine need versus ‘what if wants’ honestly. This is the basis for the first step in our design process. Find the true needs, determine the wants and then decide which of those are necessary to have for the cost.
2. With this reduced space requirement (assumed in this case, but the above exercise may also direct an actual NEED for more space…if so, at least you know you are not just wasting money to go big) a layout that reflects this can be developed, perhaps even going further and finding adjacencies and overlapping needs that could serve two uses with the same space without losing the way you use the space for either. Critical here is to know that the space requirements you have come up with are real and do not need to be ‘fluffed’ for what if sake.
3. At no point have I heard, ‘jeez, we just did not spend enough money on that house.’ We all want to get higher quality at lower cost. Contractors and builders have a rough ballpark cost of the building and base that on many factors. Factors 1-8 of ten are the square footage of the project. They know that very little else effects the cost as much as square feet of space. By reducing the square footage to a reasonable number, you can get the house you want for a lower cost, and if you so choose, can use that money to buy higher quality. But it will be your choice. Building a 3000-sf house when you really need 2400 sf means you surrender your choice for how to spend that 600 sf (in my area, we see a typical cost for homes at $275/sf). As you can see, that adds up.
4. Of course, the cost is huge, but then what? You can’t just want a lower cost home as your end game. You want other benefits. (as do I). Here are a few of those benefits.
a. More land to use for your deck/garden/lawn/etc. A smaller footprint means less land used for the house and more land to actually use for outdoor use.
b. Less maintenance. Let’s face it, no one wants to re-paint or re-sand the floors. But you will have to do these things (or at least clean). And when this inevitably comes, you will need to do the whole enchilada. What if you did not order the super-size enchilada in the first place…The time and money savings on a reasonable size house as compared to a “what if” house are not insignificant. You will be able to use all of your investment. At no point will you open a door and wonder when the last time you went in there was.
c. Hopefully, this is not read as a tiny house advocacy or as an "all Americans are fat and lazy and need to live smaller lives for the planet" argument. Those have been made, rightly or wrongly. This argument is to find what is reasonable for your actual lifestyle. Not what you think your lifestyle SHOULD be. To build a reasonable house is not to deprive, it is to maximize your value with your actual life needs and not require you to spend more of your time working to pay for that extra 600 sf when you could be in Myrtle Beach/Paris enjoying YOUR life and not your SHOULD life!