the allen family bermuda triangle: open space in the home

Sunday, January 14, 2007

open space in the home

i was talking to a friend last night who is building his own home off the grid in the sandia mountains, and he asked what i thought the most important feature of a home should be. that was easy--open space. his response was that everyone wants open space in their homes but once they actually get it they call in a contractor to start closing it up. i told him we have lived in so many claustrophobia-inducing houses that were closed, low-ceilinged, and anything but open that i was fairly sure i wanted open space (he still doubts it, and he's a contractor so maybe he knows something i don't). the worst space we ever lived in was one that we owned (try to guess which one from the pics below), and all this led me to reflect on all the places we have lived since we met, in chronological order, and the fates of those structures:

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garage apartment, del monte drive, houston, texas (no longer extant)

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apartment, bissonet road, houston, texas (no longer extant)

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apartment, carlisle street, dallas, texas (extant, but trust me it was bad)

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apartment in quadroplex, bolsover road, houston, texas (no longer extant)

house, carlisle road, albuquerque, new mexico (extant, but note the shotgun spray pattern on the front wall next to the no war sign--that happened while i was at home. and, this picture makes the place look much better than it actually is)

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tandem bicycle, 4000+ miles and 4 1/2 months, throughout europe, then many hotel rooms throughout iowa for 3 more months (i think this could be called glorified homelessness)