Sustainable Living

The desire to support our lifestyle with mostly natural resources has been a topic of much discussion in our home as of late, covering everything from housing, transportation and energy to raising a family, career choices and community involvement.

We are realistic in our expectations, however… Having much affection for current technologies, we strive to find a delicate balance between living on a hippie commune and leaving a carbon footprint whose impact equals that of a small country. Moderation is, of course, key to a many great things.

With global awareness in conservation continuing to grow, so do the resources for learning of such things - television programming, the internet, grassroots organizations and your very own next door neighbors are all front runners for driving change in our daily habits. Finding information and new ideas has become easier than ever!

In the coming weeks, I will address various sustainability topics with a series of posts called, “Going Green”. As I would love nothing more than to make a novella out of this entry, I feel it is important to break down each component properly, giving topics their own forum for thoughtful suggestions and feedback.

While I certainly don’t consider myself an expert on any aspect of sustainable living, I think knowledge is paramount to change…

And change happens by passing on one new idea at a time.

Featured in February

Upon recently logging into Houseblogs.net, I was pleasantly surprised to find we were listed as a notable houseblogger in the February New Member Roundup…

Having just started this venture, it is quite flattering (more than, actually) that the work we have done here thus far was felt worthy of a mention. Many thanks to Aaron for featuring us in his write-up!

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Meanwhile, things have been unusually unsettled here the past month or so. Between enduring a bitter Winter, the surgery of a family member and the recent loss of a beloved family pet, our attentions and energy have simply been directed elsewhere…

But now that calmer times appear within our grasp, brainstorming new ideas for posts as well as defining more directions we’d like to take the site in are moving their way up the priority list.

Stay tuned!

My Secret Garden

In laying plans for my garden in our present home, it got me to thinking of what kind of gardens I’d like to have in our Victorian home…

Flower garden? Vegetable garden? Herb garden?

Perhaps a greenhouse?

I want to create something lush and vibrant, peaceful and serene. The idea of wrought iron gates and perfectly placed benches appeals to me greatly. Roses and trellises and climbing vines of morning glories and clematis… I’d also like to cultivate orchids, lotus flowers and gerberas. Hydrangeas and hibiscus, too.

Maybe even try my hand at a few citrus trees of some sort.

I’m enamored with hosta, variegated shrubs, grasses and other greenery mixed in among the blooms, as well.

I love the balance…

Descriptions of Some Victorian Styles

By way of a quick overview, a fellow named David Taylor has a page with descriptions of several major styles of Victorian homes, including an example of each type from his home area.

What I like about this page are the examples and the placing of each style within a set period of time.

A somewhat more through exploration of international architectural styles during Victoria’s reign can be found on Wikipedia. There is a brief overview article with links to more in-depth explorations of each of the styles.

I intend to provide links to more resources as I find them. If you know of more, we would love to know about them. Please leave a comment or send email.

Organizing Plans and Layouts

In the past few months, we’ve looked at potentially hundreds of floor plans and layouts… Some we were immediately enamored to. Others? Not so much.

But going through so many has really allowed us to identify particular styles and designs we are seeking. Most of the plans we’ve found have been online through ePlans.com.

Initially, we kept all plans that closely held any aspects of what we had in mind. But after some time, they start to mimic one another. You can’t keep them all, so we began to decline based on similarity to a previous design we preferred a little bit better. While we still have upwards of 20 plans we’re milling over, I assume that number will wane as we further identify the specifics we want.

In the interim, I’ve started a binder with printouts of the plans we like so far. I’ve organized them and placed them in sheet protectors to enable us to easily flip through and choose which ones stay and which ones go. It’s proven useful, even on the first go round, as we both spotted 2 or 3 plans we no longer felt connected to.

It seems to be working for us.

Fortunately, we both have *very* similar tastes! Of course, we have our own individual things we don’t want to compromise on, but I think the collective vision we have is not only meshable and executable, but in the long run - affordable.

Any suggestions or ideas of how you found unique and suitable house plans? Or how you managed to narrow down so many into just a few?

Why "The Drawing Room?"

Wikipedia defines a “drawing room” as a room in a house where visitors may be entertained. The name is derived from withdrawing room. In a large sixteenth, seventeenth or early eighteenth century English house, a withdrawing room was a room to which the owner of the house, his wife, or a distinguished guest who was occupying one of the main apartments in the house could “withdraw” for more privacy.

Well, we’re going to bring that forward. Sommer and I are interested in late 19th century and early 20th century home styles. In our Drawing Room, we’re going to research, plan and bring our dream to fruition. We’ll look at old houses on the market. We’ll look at styles of new construction. We’ll look at what we like about the past and what we like about current styles, interpretations and technology. We’re going to name our home and document the steps to culmination in home ownership.

This is where it will happen.