Whew… yesterday was great. I learned how to mark a site with the footprint of a house. There were so many things about a house that I had never considered before. It’s relationship to the surrounding countryside, the tree line, the sun, available shade and prevailing winds.

Once that was figured out… it was a matter of understanding what the most important activities were in a house. For me, it was lounging… of course. My favorite activity, for those that don’t know me well, is to sit in a comfy chair and do a bit of nothing. Mmmmm… Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. 😉

Anyway, since my home idea would be based on lounging, I had to arrange all of the pieces I wanted in my home in such a way that lounging would be the centerpiece… and everything else would supplement it.

Then… after taking measurements of my site and the various natural features around it, I placed my building where I thought it should go. After my 10th revision, I, with the help of one of the instructors, realized that the shape I was working with didn’t do what I really needed it to do… so I played with shape for a bit, until I stumbled upon a parallelogram. Very cool. Now my building concept is an elongated parallelogram jutting out from the side of a hill with a berm protecting it from roadside noise and forming a natural courtyard.

I’ll learn to today if my plan is workable, but even if it isn’t I have learned quite a bit from the process. 🙂

3 Comments

  • Okay, maybe I’m a bit slow–

    why exactly are you learning Home Design?

  • Very nice.

    and…

    A parellelogram? VERY nice. 🙂

  • Well… it’s a long story, but here’s the short version. Liz and I bought a house 2 years ago. As homeowners we got into the idea of renovating our house and perhaps someday building our own house. In fact, we renovated the kitchen in our house.

    About a year ago I spotted an advertisement for this school (Yestermorrow) and ordered a catalog. I liked what I saw and pointed it out to Liz.

    Liz surprised me on my birthday with this gift. A week long course on Home Design at Yestermorrow. Liz some of our friends, her sister, and her mom chipped in for the gift.

    Unfortunately, we’ve since sold our house, but we’re still both interested in the house thing… so it’s all good.

    –sam