Using Ductwork to Your Advantage

Do you like the look of exposed ductwork?

Designing a space with HVAC ducts located inside a conditioned space can save you 15-20% on your electricity bills as well as reduce the size of air conditioner you need by 25%. 

Brooklyn Townhouse via Casa Sugar

Benefits include: 

• Smaller heating systems
• Potentially lower installation cost
• Better indoor air quality and moisture management
• More comfortable home
• Better indoor air quality

via The Ranch Mine in Phoenix Arizona

It’s easiest to achieve while planning for it in the design phase of a new home, but there may be options for existing ducts in unconditioned spaces. If you don't really love the look of exposed ductwork, there are more options. Such as situating it between floors in a two story home, or a conditioned crawl space. For more information and good strategies visit ductsinside.org

Rentership Society

Renting a home used to carry a stigma that said "I'm struggling. I'm trying to save. Someday I'll own." While owning a home read "I'm an adult. I've got it together." This stigma seems to be dissipating with the millennial generation. It's a generation that sees renting as freedom. 

In 2004 the US promoted a "Ownership Society" with relaxed lending causing an all time high of 69.2% of home ownership. We all know what happened next...the whole thing came crashing down.

One of my favorite renters SFGirlByBay via California Home + Design

It caused everyone to take a look at what they were chasing after and revaluate what a good investment actually is. Home ownership is now at 60% (not including those with delinquent payments who may be forced into renting soon). it seems as though the nation is trending back towards renting homes instead of seeking after owner-occupied housing. Some are forced to foreclosure and tighter credit requirements, others are simply choosing to rent. 

One of my favorite renters SFGirlByBay via California Home + Design

One of my favorite renters SFGirlByBay via California Home + Design

Of course there are frustrations with renting as well. I would love to rip out the carpet and I'm getting very tired of the beige walls that we are contractually obligated to keep beige. I mentally remodel about once a week. But for now, we are renters, and we are happy about it. 

How about you? Do you rent or own? How do you benefit from that and what are your frustrations? 

Why Design Matters

Our furnished apartment for a year...we ate out a lot.

A few years ago our family moved to a new community on the East Coast, far from anyone we knew. After a few months we found ourselves struggling to make connections with others.

Our two boys were very young at the time and not having friends or family nearby when kids are tiny is very difficult.

We rented a 3 bedroom furnished apartment. It was very retro...but not in a funky and fun way. The kitchen was confining, dark, drab, mixed with mustard yellow linoleum and greenish-brown low pile carpet.

Considering the amount of time I spent in that apartment with our two boys I have no doubt that the poor design choices contributed to my daily frustration and feeling blue. Of course, I was thankful for a place to live. But we escaped it as much as possible eating out every chance we could. 

Our small eating area now. So thankful for this light. 

Our living environment affects us in profound ways. It can have a positive or negative affect on our efficiency, productivity, emotions, and our mental and physical health. As designers of built environments, everyone in the planning and building phase of a space has a social responsibility to the end users.

Our home should be a reflection of who we are an enhance and enable us to be who we were meant to be. I'm pretty sure brown and mustard yellow linoleum isn't a reflection of very many people. We still rent, and it isn't a perfect home by any means. But it is a more neutral starting point.

"Unlike a piece of fine art hanging in a gallery, which people can choose to go and see or not, people have to live and work in buildings. The built environment does affect people, whether we like it or not, so we have a responsibility to them.” - Libby Burton

What about your home? How does it affect your emotions and health?

Designing for Community

“People desire to feel connected.”

For the last two years we have lived on a hill in a group of 16 townhomes that are situated in a way that they all face each other with a few common areas in the middle. While we dream about a day when we won’t have to share a wall that we aren’t allowed to paint, I do love living here. Friendly dogs come out to play and neighbors step outside to watch exceptional sunsets. They feel more approachable and I love the sense that if something ever goes wrong we have multiple people we trust within 30 yards from our front door. We’ve seen each other in our PJ’s. I’ve sure they’ve seen my loose my patience with my boys, kiss owies, and us on multiple occasions being too loud as I set off my car alarm on accident yet again.

Community is an important part of design. Having a community surrounding you creates peace and harmony in your own home. People desire to feel connected. 

Ways to design your home to facilitate community:

Design your front yard as you would your back yard. It’s difficult to bump into a neighbor in your backyard. Move your morning coffee from your back patio to your front patio.

via Eric Aust.  This home is in the very social and tight knit community of peninsula point in newport beach. The owners enjoy entertaining on their front patio often. 

via Richard Bubnowski Design LLC in Point Pleasant, NJ

Plant a vegtable garden in your front yard. This will cause you to not only spend more time in your front yard, but it will also spark conversations and give you easy opportunities to share with your community. 

By BaDesign in Oakland, CA

Design your home so that there is more space given to communal areas and less space to private areas. Do you really need a couch in your bathroom? Giving a little more space to invite people in will give you more flexibility and freedom for those spur of the moment visitors. 

via Lonny

Don’t feel the need to have seating on the couch and arm chairs for 20 people “just in case”. There are a lot of creative solutions for this. Ottomans, moving a dining chair, floor cushions.

However, many don’t have an option to change these things. So instead...

• Go for a walk (Doing this the same time everyday will allow you to likely see the same people in the middle of their daily routine, building a relationship over time.) 
• Bike to work
• Plan a block party
• Invite your neighbor over for a meal...they'll love you simply for not having to plan or cook dinner.