Go to your room

For a brief period, I was very entranced with HGTV's "House Hunters." The voyeuristic aspect made it fun, as did guessing which house they would go for. One thing I noticed was how much space people thought they needed -- childless couples, for example, frequently wanted home offices for each party. I rather doubt most people have jobs that would make a home office a true necessity, and suspect that these are spaces where spouses can get away from each other (and probably into the alternative realities of the computer). Others put space for a "man-pit" on their wishlist, or a play room in addition to a room for each child. At some point, we became a nation where everyone needs their own room. Maybe two.

Looking back to how small homes have been in the past, and how small they still are in space-challenged places like Japan, American expectations are astoundingly grand. I grew up in the midwest, in a house neither large nor small, and find myself a bit claustrophobic in some homes on the east coast. In the very near future, we'll be facing a decision about where to live in an expensive urban environment, and we'll have to choose between space and a short commute. Add in a desire to make the greenest choice possible, and we're likely to be downsizing from the space we're in at present. I'm glad there are books like this one to point the way forward.