If you live to be 90 years old, you will have about 32,850 days in your lifetime. By today’s standards, that would be a long life. If you are around 60 years old now, and make it to 90, you have perhaps another 10,000 to 11,000 days left. Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? But it all goes so fast. Here you are, 2/3 of your life spent becoming educated, working hard, earning a living, saving, investing, winning some, losing some. Hopefully you have managed to create some stability for your family, even during challenging economic climates.
We hope so. The question is, what are you going to do with the remainder of your life? What will be the quality of that life? You have your last third of your life remaining. How about making it good? Durable. Strong. Sustainable. As low-maintenance as possible. You may think those are things related to your health, and they are. They are also associated with your house. Your home. Where you live.
Your residence should be a place of warmth, love and laughter for your lifetime and beyond. Designing your house to be Sustainable has to do with low maintenance, higher levels of insulation, creatively and properly installed, durable materials that won’t rot, because they are properly detailed and constructed, low energy consumption, and even perhaps some electrical power generation from the very skin of your house. Strong relates to your foundations, reinforcing, connections, quality of materials and how they are put together to reinforce each other in high winds, tremors and other adverse situations. Durable relates to materials that will wear minimally and with little need for maintenance and replacement for lower costs. Proper detailing and specifying by a residential architect make it all possible.
Each decade you have left will have 3,650 days in it. Spend those days in comfortable surroundings: your house. Does your existing residence make you feel comfortable? Does it have pleasant views? Adequate natural light? Adequate storage space? A grand kitchen? The workshop studio you have always wanted? A home office? A bunk room and Family Room for visiting grandchildren? Access to the natural outdoor areas around your house? Adequate vehicular maneuvering? Places for guests to park? Outdoor living spaces protected from rain, snow and pests? A covered Summer Kitchen on your deck? That nice big fireplace you have always wanted? A nice walk-in Pantry/Laundry? That Mud Room you have wanted? A nice Foyer with Powder Room and coat closet for yourself and your guests? Nice large windows framing spectacular views? Tight construction with energy efficient features that lower your monthly power bills? Materials that last for decades, if not a lifetime? If not, your residential architect can help you plan these wonderful features.
Give Rand Soellner Architect a call: 1 . 828 . 269 . 9046. Or e-mail: Rand@HomeArchitects.com website: www.HomeArchitects.com
Does your house have a fireplace? How about one or two inside and also outside? All of Soellner’s house designs feature this as options.
Does your house have nearly maintenance free tile grout in your showers? All of Rand’s design specifications have this.
Do you have a special piece of ground somewhere in the country, that you bought a while back and travel to once in a while, have cookouts there and dream about when you can have a custom house designed and built there so that this wonderful place can become the center of all future cherished family events, like graduations, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and extended family vacations? Isn’t it about time? The clock is ticking: you have about 10,000 days left. Use them wisely. Invest in yourself and your family in something durable, lasting and enjoyable: your dream house.
Oh… what was that about energy from the skin of the house? Rand Soellner Architect is one of the few residential architects in the World with a relationship with one of the main producers of PhotoVoltaic Roof Shingles. If you wish, this cutting edge technology can in installed on your roof, in place of regular roof shingles, to help supply up to perhaps half of your electrical energy needs in your proposed residence. On good days, perhaps the power company might be paying you! This incredible arrangement is currently in development and will be available soon on future Rand Soellner Architect houses. Talk about sustainable!
Enjoy your remaining 10949 days!