Building a home

Tags

Architecture, arts, Build, Home, Louis Kahn, new creation

• Not only find the quality of materials but also discover the personality of materials. This notion has never been more poetically explained than by architect Louis Kahn when he said, ”I asked a brick what it wanted to be and it replied, an arch.”

 

 

• Don’t squander your housing money on architectural fashion. Buy clothes instead. Concentrate on timeless elements for your home.

  

• ” My precept to all who build is, that the owner should be an ornament to the house, and not the house to the owner.” Cicero

 

• Consider the travels you’ve loved, the homes that have entranced you and the objects, rich in detail and character, that express your most essential self.  In these experiences are the memories, images, and  words that can spawn a new creation. Convert those feelings into a form.

Find reasons to stay at home

Tags

homesickness, travel

• 
• Find reasons to stay at home, and not because of illness.  Resist the urge of always having to go somewhere.

 

• “The worst feeling in the world is the homesickness that comes over a man occasionally when he is at home.” –Ed Howe

 

• In your life at home, dedicate yourself to the art of living fully. Fill your home with priceless memories as well as breathtaking dreams.

 

Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart

A housewarming gift

Tags

Gift, Housewarming, Inspire

 

•    Buy yourself a housewarming gift.    (At least once a year!)

 

Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart by Renee Garrison and Tom Szumlic

The new and beautiful will follow

Tags

closet, Design, drawers, order, organization, Storage, wardrobe

There is some kind of natural order to cleaning closets and drawers.  You take stock of who you are and who you want to be. Something magic happens in these exchanges. The windows are cranked open and a new exchange of air is made. Things are passed on to siblings, relatives, or the community.  Something happens….a new beginning.

( So here’s the ultimate cosmic question: What happens to missing socks?)

* Cleaning drawers and closets is a bit like pruning plants: The new and beautiful will follow.

 * We connect closets with clothes. If your walk-in closet is big enough, why not put a desk inside? 

* Our wardrobes, drawers, and closets are houses for our personal things. The design, selection and construction for these little homes deserve the same attention as their larger prototype. 

* Good storage and good  design is measured in inches.

* “Our life is frittered away by detail…simplify, simplify.”    ~  Henry David Thoreau

Clutter isn’t sexy

Tags

Bedroom, clutter, Houses, inspiration, Rhett Butler, sexy

The bedroom is the original set for intimacy. Make it and keep it seductive.

 

 When Rhett Butler carried Scarlett upstairs, he didn’t throw her on a bed surrounded by unpaid bills and dry-cleaning.

 

    Frankly, my dear, clutter isn’t sexy.

 

    The bedroom is a tranquil cocoon where we let off steam and relax. It is the inner sanctum of one’s personal life and thus the area of the house reserved for the most intimate expression of our feelings.

 

  Of course, there must be surfaces around the bed for essentials like books, reading glasses or a phone, but jewelry, nail polish and other personal effects should be put in drawers. Dressing or undressing can be delightful if you’re not searching for missing lingerie. A well-organized bedroom saves time for the more enjoyable things in life…

Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart

Give your home a name.

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abode, Community, Culture, golf clubs, Home, Name, possession, tara

Give your home a name.  (Tara has already been taken.)

 

 After all, a person’s name is their dearest possession.

 The challenge is to know your abode as subject – not as object.  If you were to name your place, what name would fit its character?  (Certainly both you and your home will change through the duration of this relationship.)

• Consider the other things you have given a name to.  Pets? Golf clubs? Cars, perhaps?

 

• Make a list of the homes or buildings in your community that have been given names. Is there any apparent meaning to them?

Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Yourt Heart

Inside and outside

Tags

Community, Homes

 

Here’s a revolutionary thought: Why not patronize merchants within walking distance of your home?  And yes, walk there!

The information age has reversed the concept of inside and outside… private and public. Television and the Internet give us access to the world inside our homes.  But we must go outside to reclaim the spirit of our community.

Photograph by Jamieson Thomas

Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Life

Back to school in July?

Tags

school, shopping, wardrobe

It’s 100 degrees in the shade, and Fourth of July fireworks haven’t even exploded. So why are darker shades of clothing and longer pants appearing in the mall?

Is it me, or are back-to-school sales pitches are starting sooner than usual?

The National Retail Federation estimated that nearly $70 billion was spent on back-to-school and college merchandise last year. That puts the July and August period ahead of all other holidays except Christmas, at $471.5 billion.

Still, the early arrival of fall merchandise irritates some shoppers (like me.)

“I came to buy a bathing suit cover-up for my vacation,” admits Cathy Earl of DeLand, Florida. Strolling through Macy’s one recent morning, Earl was surprised to see a lot of navy blue and brown items lining the aisles. “Summer has barely started and I don’t want to think about fall.”

The early push for back-to-school reflects the challenges facing many retailers in the current economy. It also gives parents more time to window shop before actually making a purchase.

Melissa Chrystal of Portage, Michigan, used to let son Will “scope out the stores’ before she accompanied him with her checkbook. And she has some advice for other parents embarking on the annual back-to-school shopping spree.

“Bide your time,” says Chrystal, the mother of three. “When school starts, kids are still wearing shorts because it’s warm outside. Sometimes stores overstock in anticipation of hordes of shoppers and the best bargains are from sales after school has started.”

Maybe retailers can wait until August to display their fall apparel, too.

Buy good tools and take care of them

Tags

Construction, Homeowner, tools

 

 Tools are basic to history and human development. Take care of them and they will take care of you:

 Don’t wait to replace handles and power cords.

 Try looking in garage sales or the newspaper for great bargains on tools.

 Consider a hardware store at the same level as a university and the people working there as tenured faculty. Students, submit to your teacher!

Always take an honest shot at repairing something before deciding to throw it away.

“Home: Celebrating the Spaces of Your Heart“