our nutty house

I live in a pretty dingy house.

No question about that one. But, believe it or not, there were reasons! And, of course, I designed and built it so it is no one’s fault but mine.

There were several criteria when I designed the house:

Privacy. We once lived in a “conventional” house with a big window in the front facing living room. I would stand in front of the window looking out and discover my neighbor standing in his window looking back. Embarrassing for both of us.

All of our windows face the back, which is our property. From these windows very few other houses are visible.

It was during the 70’s that some began thinking that there would be an end to cheap energy. My house sits down inside the ground and is very well insulated. Result: no air conditioning, even when the temps are high, and minimal heating.

I like and liked small houses. For one they are affordable! Given the zero state of the budget small was mandatory.

We had 4 daughters, three were still at home. Few houses the size of this one had more than one bathroom. I decided it would have two, even if I had to cut back on other things. Even with just the two of us, two baths is about right!

The idea of solar heating was new and very exciting. My brother built a very workable solar house in Utah about that time. I read all I could find and built according to the best information I could find.

Alas, it was not always right and we have abandoned the solar part. Those big flat panels in the front might hold photovoltaics some day, but the original design was for a greenhouse to collect heat and transfer it to the house.

That worked out really well in July, but not so good in January, when we tend to have a lot of cloud cover. Oh well.

So a few years ago I converted the “greenhouse” into closets on two floors!

Crazy it is. Easy to live in it is, but traditional it is not.

In the last few years I have been going through the house, a section at a time, redoing all the trim and paint, replacing windows with new vinyl windows and making it more livable.

I see the time coming when the up stairs bedrooms will not be a good idea, so one of the next projects is to include part of the greenhouse into a closet for the down bedroom and then putting in a murphy bed.

That room has a triple door (six feet wide total) between the bedroom and the living room. The idea was that it could be opened up when extra space is needed and yet closed for privacy. Light came through the greenhouse, and a closet took one entire wall. The bed was on wheels and rolled into the closet making a “day bed”.

Now, the closet is gone and a window is on that wall. I’ll take out the window that let light from the greenhouse and replace it with a door. There is room for a very nice little bedroom and the down bath is right next to that space.

But that is a future project.