Were they thinking?

 

Have you ever walked into a building and wondered about certain elements?

Let’s set a few markers for our journey. I’m not talking about elements that may be impressive or even staggering…

In Savannah, Georgia, there are some beautiful and brilliant places. One that immediately comes to my mind is The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist. (It is in many places listed as The Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist.) I have had the honor and pleasure to visit some incredible places. Many of them have religious significance. I don’t know of any church that has so blindingly overwhelmed me. Gorgeous. Breathtaking.

But we’re getting a lot more basic and simple than that with this idea. And we’re usually asking about the dumb stuff, though not always…

When Terry and I were looking to purchase our first home, we saw some things I had never really considered in a home before. Built in corner cabinets. Detached garages with extra space for a second-floor storage area and a separate room for a workshop heated by a woodstove. And those are just a couple of examples.

In our current house, however, there are headscratchers…

A small door leading into the basement would be one thing. There is no other way in or out of the downstairs area. Just one. And it’s located in the kitchen, where cabinets and counters already create an awkward travel path. Now that idea—cabinets and counters—may be the answer as to why the door is smaller. It’s just what fit. But the result is absolutely no way to bring anything of any size into the basement.

Another thing would be the deck. It’s built in a way where it appears that the thickest board option was chosen for every piece. While structurally sound, when you look at it the deck seems heavy, clunky and as if it was constructed with leftover lumber that wasn’t never purchased with this as its intended use.

When Terry and I bought our first house together, she and I talked about setting up a workshop for her. She does a lot of crafts, and they are far from limited to one type of item. So incredibly large work surfaces, with sturdy construction, was important. I used full sheets of plywood, and framed everything with 2”x4” boards. It was overdone in ways… you could have multiple people stand on top of them, with tools and assorted equipment… but it served every purpose she threw at it, and the basic design was used again when we rebuilt her work area in our next home. It led to us having a joke, where we said that for any repair all I needed was a two-by-four.

So, I understand overdoing it. But there are limits. And pushing those limits often leaves me shaking my head and wondering what the thought process might have been.

I had an interesting childhood when it comes to home design. I don’t know why, but my parents and my grandmother lived in duplicate houses. Same design, right down to the peninsula counter in the kitchen. And as a result, there are some things for a house that are comfortable to me simply because it’s what I’ve always known.

It also creates an interesting scenario about expectations. Nana and my parents lived more than four miles apart. Completely different neighborhoods. Right next to my parents is a house with a similar layout, but every room is one to two feet smaller on each wall, the hallways are narrower. When I went in it for the first time in my younger days, I almost felt as if I was in a dollhouse version of the houses I lived in.

Of course, most of the examples and ideas I’m sharing are pretty obvious. Behind the walls, decisions have been made about running electrical and plumbing materials. We haven’t even touched upon the numbers and locations of electrical outlets in every room or the existence of ceiling lights in bedrooms. There are all sorts of things that might have you questioning the decisions made by others.

I tend to appreciate things that just make sense. In a room, you have a light, and as such a light switch. Place it by the door, for use when entering and exiting a room. Do not put the switch on the far side of the room from the door, inside a closet. Because… duh.

And make no mistake, duh decisions are happening.

It’s not a matter of installing a new skylight or switching out cabinet doors in the kitchen. I just wonder about what motivates people to make some of their decisions. People talk about home improvement projects as if an increase in value is automatic.

It’s not.

Turns out, everyone doesn’t want a fireplace in their unfinished basement.