Not So Big Remodeling: How to Achieve Big Results on a Small Remodeling Budget
(Page 3 of 3)
May/June 2009
By Sarah Susanka
3. Make the exterior less monumental. Many large houses have little or no grace to their exterior composition. Their various surfaces are a random assemblage of windows, doorways, vinyl, and brick or stone veneer, sometimes with a couple of Palladian windows and some extra-tall columns thrown in on the front façade.
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If this is your challenge, you’d be well advised to hire an architect or designer to help you. The remedy will take someone with a practiced eye for composition to help manifest your home’s true potential. The art of it usually requires some paring away of the unnecessary, some reorganization of the surface components and some newly introduced design elements to help break up the massive surfaces into more bite-sized pieces.
Green is beautiful
When you do a remodel of any size, you have the opportunity to make your house more healthy, affordable and earth-friendly by increasing its energy efficiency and choosing sustainable materials. You should also focus on creating a beautiful, inviting space. To me, “green” refers not only to sustainable construction materials and the energy efficiency, indoor air quality and durability of the structure, but also to the appropriateness of its size and its innate beauty. I often say that Not So Big should be the first step in sustainability because, when a house is the right size for its inhabitants, beautifully designed and crafted for everyday inspiration, it’s efficiently performing its current function and is also likely to be cared for by future residents. Beautiful things tend to be well cared for by all owners over time. But somehow this simple and rather obvious truth has been overlooked in much of modern construction. So in my estimation, if a house is not beautiful, it is not truly sustainable, no matter how many green features it sports.
Sarah Susanka is the author of eight books, including The Not So Big House, that weave together home and lifestyle, revealing that a “Not So Big” attitude serves not only architectural aims, but life goals as well. Join her online community at www.notsobig.com. Excerpted with permission from Not So Big Remodeling by Sarah Susanka and Marc Vassallo (The Taunton Press, 2009).
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