Some things that we saw and liked:
Screen porches. We were surprised by the number of screened porches we saw in higher end, custom designed homes, both in the city and in the posh Western suburbs. What a lovely way to enjoy Minnesota summers, free from mosquitoes.
Open Living / Dining / Kitchen Areas with 12-13 foot Ceilings and Clerestory Windows. Vaulted ceilings, especially in living rooms, can sometimes make the room feel too formal and disconnected. We saw several examples of kitchen/dining/living spaces we loved on the tour with roughly 12-13 foot ceilings and clerestory windows (a high wall with a band of narrow windows along the very top). I love the open kitchen/ living room / dining room layout --- when they are done well. The best open floor plans still have some division of space. The spaces are designed to be used, not designed to be formal areas for special occasions (ie a dining room that is only used once a year).
My thinking here is probably influenced by the Not So Big House philosophy, which basically promotes smaller houses that are designed for living, making the best use of all nooks and crannies and designing at a very human scale.
It seems to me that the open layout is actually trickier to design than having separate rooms, because you do need some separate of spaces and flow, but you can't do it with walls, which are easier design solutions. However, I think the effect of a great open floor plan is that people can have their separate spaces, while still feeling connected to each other and the outdoors.
One of the best examples was at a house designed by Charles R. Stinson Architects.
I found some photos from a similar project of theirs, not on the tour, to illustrate.
This is not the best example i have seen, but the one that i could find a picture of! We were not allowed to take photos on the tour. You'll have to ignore the furniture selection in this, which is totally not our style.
Build or Remodel? This is a big question for us. We want to be in the city, where land is not available and is not cheap. Building is expensive, and i am not sure that we can afford it. This project was a good example of a total renovation of a 1920s bungalow by adding a second story. However, there were a lot of spaces in this house that I thought were unresolved, likely due to the constraints of a renovation vs. building from scratch.
The house below was another example of a total overhaul remodel of a 1920s house in the city. Read more from SALA about it. Again, i thought there were obvious constraints that were reflected in the end product.
Affordability. There was one house on the tour that was meant to be "more affordable" -- "This small, functional, more affordable project is meant to be a prototype for a new urban revitalization style, all green, including solar panels, and all new. "
Size? 1500 square feet.
Asking price? $600,000.
Affordable? Well, not for us.
One architect told us that $300/square foot was a comfortable but not extravegant budget for new construction. This, of course, is not including the price of land.
How we can actually AFFORD our next house is a huge question. This tour gave us lots of tall hopes & dreams about what is possible -- but really nothing in the way of answering the affordability question.
Then again, we are resourceful and we definitely won't be paying to have a full service team of experts working at full speed to meet our wishes and dreams. We just don't have the budget.
Design for Design -- Not for Living.
There was a house on the tour by Salmela Architecture that we were really excited to see.
However, we both felt that it was a better expression of form than function. Most obviously -- see those big white boxes? Those are slats that obscure the bedroom views of the beautiful natural setting, and whose lines made us both feel like we need to lie down and close our eyes. We were disappointed, especially after having stopped at the GORGEOUS Gooseberry Falls Visitor Center, also designed by Salmela, shown below.
We did however buy the book Salmela Architect.
We also bought The Farmhouse by .
We talked to so many interesting architects and homeowners, including Jean, who were overwhelmingly friendly and who loved telling us about their projects.Overall, highly recommended. Hopefully, the tour will be repeated again next year.
