It's a Big House...In the Summer

I found myself thinking the other day that the House of 42 Doors is a lot like a giant heart that beats with the each season. In the winter it contracts and we live in as few rooms as possible, with the house buttoned up tightly. It starts to expand in the spring, as we use the back entry and the sunroom. In the summer it expands to include the sunroom and the outdoor porches. When fall rolls around, it starts contracting. We shut off the sunroom, stop using the outside porches and get ready for the winter.

We haven't been in the house a year and yet I already can see that living here has changed the way that I look at houses and architecture. Most houses today have spaces that are 100% conditioned. Porches became enclosed porches, which became three season porches, which are now year round, four season enclosed spaces. Heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer mean that there isn't a need to open the windows in a house. Opening a window is a choice, not a necessity. To better provide for people's comfort (and their wallets), the walls that separate them from the outside have gotten tighter and climate control is available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, all year. These are the types of houses that I've mostly lived in my whole life. It's not the House of 42 Doors.

I feel more connected to the outside right now, as the house extends onto the porches and beyond into the lawn. The line of where I live doesn't just stop at the brick walls of the house. They are fuzzier than that. And I know that in the winter, we'll huddle around the hearth as the snow and dark winter nights push the line of where I live to somewhere inside our brick walls. This is not something I had considered when we looked at the house.

The big hole in the ceiling is still there. We had a call from the Home Warranty folks last week offering us to cash out for the plaster repair. They didn't have a plasterer that they could recommend, so they are offering us $300 and then it will be our responsibility to get the hole fixed. I've got a plasterer coming out today to give us a quote. The hole is ugly, but at least the plumbing is functioning 100%.

I should be signing a contract this week with the roofer and putting money down. He's waiting on the final quote from the shipping company and the shingle company. I am also supposed to be getting the final quote from the gutter guy today, at which point I can sign a contract with them. The only bit left is to get a commitment from the carpenter to do any repairs to the fascia, the supporting wood under the gutters and the trim.