We have a house

[fabrisse]

I was hoping that Sis would wait at least a year before making her mind up about the house. But we both lost both parents here and the second she described it as "cursed" I knew we were moving sooner rather than later.

We have a new house. We'll be moving after we get back from Greece in mid-August, thus giving us two of the top ten most stressful things an adult can do in the same year.

The new house is my age -- so new to us, not new to the world -- and all on one floor. With me on the cane, this is very helpful. The dog with arthritis in her hip will probably also appreciate it. Right now it's three bedroom, but, once our house sells, we'll convert the garage into a suite for me. I'm also thrilled that we're five minutes away from two separate hospitals rather than 20 minutes away from the closest hospital as we are now. Sis and I both feel healthy, other than our long standing infirmities (shoulder for her, knee and ankle for me), but Mom's situation really struck us both.

We're getting rid of some furniture via either an antique dealer or consignment shop. Other things are going to either various organizations for the homeless or to friends and family.

Since moving is my definition of hell, Sis is letting me go away for a long weekend while the actual move takes place. [Bless her.]

Closets by Design will be getting a call, too, and there will be some other minor matters like a gate across the front to keep the dogs in and putting in fresh concrete so that I can walk up the driveway without tripping on cracks.

I've been watching HGTV a lot, it was better than all the violent cop shows Mom watched and she enjoyed them, and I want to push these shows to take disability into account when building or renovating. Seriously, if anyone is renovating a bathroom, putting a grab bar in the shower or tub should be automatic, not optional.

My argument is that most people will not be seriously disabled, but EVERYONE will be ill, injured, or infirm at some point in their lives. A third floor walk up was not possible for me when I tore my tendon in Boston. Thank heavens the parents had a condo with an elevator so I could stay with them for six weeks. Mom having to be carried through the house because we couldn't get a gurney through the front door means I'll be advocating for wider front doors standard.

I'm working on letters to various producers and presenters of these shows to make my argument. Anyone who cares to read them over, leave a note in the comments. If you have other suggestions for items that should be standard in new builds and renovations, let me know in the comments.

And if you want a postcard from Greece or Turkey, send me a private message with your current address. Choices of port are Athens, Santorini, Kusadasi/Ephesus, Istanbul, Lemnos, Thessaloniki, Skiathos, or Syros. You'll get at least one postcard, possibly more.

Comments

[sef1029]

Oh, it's funny you should mention your HGTV campaign--I've been thinking along similar lines. I imagine writing a letter to the Property Brothers and encouraging them to take on a "challenge" (they seem so popular now) to design the perfect house. Jonathan, I know, is interested in global issues around housing and climate change. I would want them to bring in widely respected experts to discuss the issues in TV-friendly ways, make decisions big and small (size, location, etc.), and keep bringing in more experts for everything from design to construction. The kicker? The "perfect" house must be accessible, must be eco-friendly, must be affordable, must be attractive, must be "safe" as possible for its location (think flood plains, quakes, hurricanes, etc.) and must be suitable for everyone from a single person to a family, to a senior couple. Maybe encourage watchers to vote on their favorite proposals or enter to win a built house...

[fabrisse]

One set of producers I wanted to reach out to was Rock the Block. My proposal was that the best design for disabilities on a given week get half the bonus money of the winner of the overall design. So if Hometown wins the first week, they get $1000, but if Farmhouse Fixer does a more disability friendly design they get $500. It's possible to win both. I figure it's a huge incentive for that type of show.

I don't follow the Property Brothers as much as some of the other shows, but I think having them visit the different shows in different parts of the country to talk about two things: local regulations and weather issues (including earthquakes) that they need to design around. Having lived in New England, DC, LA, and now Georgia, I recognize that the different regions have different eco needs. HGTV gets the cross-pollination it loves by having one of their most popular shows visit some of the less popular ones, and it can enlighten.

We went to Charleston this weekend. The Weather Channel ran a simulation based on the National Weather Service that shows Charleston underwater by 2075 or sooner. Savannah is a bigger port and only 115-ish miles farther south, but we'll be fine because most of the city is built on a somewhat sheltered bluff. (Tybee, Skidaway, and the other islands will probably be joining Charleston and Atlantis under the sea.)

Send me an email through Dreamwidth with your preferred email address and I'll link you to the letters I wrote. They're old now, so help with updating and maybe outlining some other suggestions would be welcomed.

[kathmandu]

Congratulations on the new house, and on getting to avoid the peak of moving hectic-ness.

[fabrisse]

Sis is really kind to accommodate my anxiety and other issues around this. And it helps that I really like the new house.

[matildalucet]

This Old House did a renovation on a 1960's house in Lexington recently (last fall, maybe?) with accessibility as a major component. I watched with more than usual interest because my body informs me almost daily that it is not as spry as it used to be. I expect to need more accessibility as I continue to age.

[fabrisse]

My 90 year old mother saying she didn't need to use a cane because it made her look old really opened my eyes to how accommodations need to work. Accommodations can't be obtrusive. But honestly, using a cane helps me so much with all those little "less than spry" moments.

[matildalucet]

One of the kids in the This Old House situation had duchenne muscular dystrophy and the whole family accepted that, so obtrusive was less of an issue. As much accessibility as his siblings had was what they were going for.

I will very occasionally nowadays deploy a walking stick if my back is twitchy, or if I'm afraid I'll do something hiking that could make it twitchy, like climb a steep hill I have no business climbing. It is some help with the activity (which honestly I'm more than half likely to do, even knowing better), and a big reminder to not be very stupid. I've had the stick since at least my thirties so it reads less "old" to me than "inherited a less than ideal back". :-)

[siderea]

Congratulations! And sympathies: yea, verily, moving sucks.

I'm happy to review the letters.

I'll tell you right now I'm looking at this through the very cynical eyes of – wait, you know I am a House Person, yes? There was that whole drafting/architectural design/construction engineering thing. Anyhoo: I am very cynical and bitter about the general topic of Why Houses Are So Dumb.

I come by it honestly: both my parents were House People, though each in a different way. From them I was introduced to what I will refer to as Housing Criticism and innovations in housing design and construction. I spent a brief period in my innocent childhood thinking something along the lines of, "wow, it's really great there's all these new developments in how to build houses better, so houses in the future will be super interesting." Then I discovered the fundamental economic truth that the people who build houses are not the people who live in houses, and will throw up the most shoddy piece of shit construction on the simplest damn floor plan with the least features they can get away with. And since we have a housing shortage, they can basically get away with putting together a cardboard box on a slab foundation.

Honestly one of the reasons I didn't go into that field was to avoid the moral injury.

None of which means I think your efforts are futile or not worth pursuing. To the contrary, I think incuclating consumer demand through the media is probably a necessary precondition of getting the requisite legislation passed to force the motherfuckers who put buildings up to do the right things.

We know so goddamned much about building better homes – homes that stay cooler in the summer, and warmer in the winter, and dryer when it is wet, and even moister when it is dry, homes that are radically cheaper to operate, homes that pull heat and cooling right out of the ground for almost free, homes that are safer from natural disasters including wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes, homes that are made from less toxic materials and do less damage to the environment, or even are effectively forms of recycling in how they use what is otherwise trash – and we, as a society, use approximately none of that knowledge. You basically can't have a house like that unless you can come up with the considerable upfront cash to build one from scratch, or are willing to do it with your own two hands.

Edit: recent random example that just crossed my desk: "Awnings: a simple cooling tech we apparently forgot about". Also discusses the thermal virtues of verandas.

[fabrisse]

One of our first orders of business is to get gutters, followed by an awning for the back area, and then solar panels. I want to be the house that has power after the natural disaster.

It boggles my mind that an area with so very, very much rain doesn't require gutters.

I told my sister I wouldn't look at a house built after 1966 and preferred earlier, just because it was pre air conditioning and therefore would have options for cross ventilation. The fact that it's more likely to have used more durable materials also helps.