The WELL: inkwell.vue.323: Daniel McGinn, "House Lust: America's Obsession With Our Homes"

#103: Daniel McGinn (danielmcginn) Fri 4 Apr 08 03:45

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:45:00 PDT

Thanks CJ, Gail and the rest of you. This was a lot of fun! [Read entire topic]

#102: a plague of cilantro (cjp) Thu 3 Apr 08 14:14

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:14:00 PDT

A snoring room! Oh boy, sign me up. Thanks so much for the discussion, Daniel. I put a 5-star review up on Amazon.com, and I wish you much success with this book and what I hope are many more books to come. [Read entire topic]

#101: Gail Williams (gail) Thu 3 Apr 08 12:13

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:13:00 PDT

What a lively and pleasant conversation. Thanks so much! [Read entire topic]

#100: Lisa Harris (lrph) Wed 2 Apr 08 05:57

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:57:00 PDT

Oh, and I just wanted to say that our GC on our renovation project probably saved our marriage by coming up with the third solution to the problem of where to put the door. Ken had already given in to my wishes, but the GC had a better idea still. Chalk one up to experience for the professional. [Read entire topic]

#99: Lisa Harris (lrph) Wed 2 Apr 08 05:56

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:56:00 PDT

Alas, today is the last day of your two week interview. Thank you Daniel and Philippe. These two weeks have been incredibly enjoyable and informative.

Despite the fact that we are launching a new interview with a new guest, we would like to invite you to stay here as long as you'd like. The topic will remain open indefinitely for further posts. [Read entire topic]

#98: Daniel McGinn (danielmcginn) Wed 2 Apr 08 05:44

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:44:00 PDT

Earlier I posted about how on Monday I received an email from a relative, who's around 30 and rents, who's suddenly decided to buy his first home, based on his hunch that the market may be nearing a bottom. Later that day I heard from a colleague at work who'd also become smitten with a house over the weekend; she and her husband, first-time buyers, put in an offer yesterday. She says many of her friends, mostly in their late 20s, are suddenly househunting; if you check Facebook on Sundays, she says, their status updates all talk about open houses. She says in places like Boston, DC and elsewhere, home prices seem to have dropped far enough that the monthly mortgage payments are about equivalent to paying rent, so she and others are diving in.

I don't think that necessarily signals a market bottom, but it's certainly a good sign.

I believe this is our last scheduled day for this discussion, which I've really enjoyed. I'll check in again later today to answer any last questions. In the meantime, I really appreciate all of you who showed up to ask questions or just to read along. If any of you would like to reach me directly after this discussion ends, feel free to email anytime at houselust@gmail.com. Thanks! [Read entire topic]

#97: Daniel McGinn (danielmcginn) Wed 2 Apr 08 05:39

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:39:00 PDT

Both these observations, from the architect's view and the homeowner's view, resonated with me.

In the book I quoted a former kitchen designer who saw a huge proportion of her clients split up during the course of jobs. And having gone through a big renovation (which utilized an architect) myself, I know how personal some of these issues can become. Here's just one example: Nowadays in our region, most big home additions include a master suite with a bathroom, and one of the big design choices is whether to close off the toilet in a separate room or to leave it out in the open. In order to decide that, the architect has little choice but to inquire how much privacy spouses want/need while using the toilet, since a master bath is generally a shared space. Another example: lately there has been a lot of media coverage of a trend toward "snoring rooms" (a separate sleeping space for spouses for whom sharing a bed is problematic), and sussing out the need for that also requires questions that may be a little invasive. For a home to work well, it really needs to function in synch with your life, so conversations between architects and clients can get intensely personal. [Read entire topic]

#96: Philippe Habib (phabib) Tue 1 Apr 08 19:14

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:14:00 PDT

When my wife and I were looking for people to build our first house, one of the contractors talked about how many of his clients split up from the stress of building a new house. He said since we were recently married, we might avoid that fate. After we were done, my wife said that if I wanted to build again, it could be with my next wife. In spite of that, we're building again and we remain surprised by how similar our tastes and desires are in a house. [Read entire topic]

#95: Mark McDonough (mcdee) Tue 1 Apr 08 17:54

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:54:00 PDT

Hah. That sounds entirely believable. Thanks for that interesting slice of reality. [Read entire topic]

#94: Alan Turner (arturner) Tue 1 Apr 08 17:49

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:49:00 PDT

One thing about your book that was so true was that being an architect for a house or a renovation for a married couple is tantamount to being a marriage counseler. Things like "Bob never puts the cap back on the toothpaste tube" and "Mary always has her friends over for bridge during Monday Night Football" come out all the time. And some additional architecture is supposed to solve the problems of a couple that hasn't exactly agreed on how to live together in the first place. But a little more house might do the trick. And then they argue about which part of a little more house is the right thing to do. It can be extremely unpleasant.

One firm I used to work for wouldn't do a house unless the couple had a minimum of a million dollars to spend, and then only as a favor to the CEO of some commercial clinet - and that was 20 years ago, in Philadelphia. It just wasn't worth the overhead otherwise.

You could design an entire shopping mall in the amount of time that one of those houses took. [Read entire topic]