Pam Tellew

<<<And really, are magazine home photos much different from formal
sittings for graduations, weddings and 50th anniversaries?
When houses look like that all the time, where do the people actually
**live**--at work? Restaurants? Country clubs?
If I wanted a magazine picture bedroom, I wouldn't have married or
had kids.>>

I have seen some real 50th anniversary photos, though!

But I'm interested in what real unschooler houses look like. What in
the exploring stages of adding on to our house. I've fantasized
about it for years, but now it's maybe going to be real. I checked a
couple books out of the library and have been browsing magazines but
they're all so sterile.

So I'm turning to you real people who live more like we do! I'm
looking for ideas and recommendations about how to add on to our 1150
square foot 2 bedroom, 1 bath house. My oldest son is 13 and has
said he would like his own room we want any chance of him living here
when he's older! <g> And we'd also design it so my elderly father
can live with us for a while.

What works in your houses? What do you wish you did or could do that
facilitates this unschooling life and enriches your relationships?

Pam





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

strawlis

--- In [email protected], Pam Tellew <pamtellew@...> wrote:
>
>
>> But I'm interested in what real unschooler houses look like. We're
in
> the exploring stages of adding on to our house. I've fantasized
> about it for years, but now it's maybe going to be real. >
> What works in your houses? What do you wish you did or could do that
> facilitates this unschooling life and enriches your relationships?
>
> Pam

I have a small 1400sq home. I'm at the same place... been dreaming for
years.. now we're thinking about taking on some reonovations. In all
my dreams....it's always..more openness(we have 3 rooms on 1st floor
they are small and boxy) and replacing most of the common area walls
with built in wall/ book shelves....I can invision all our books, toys,
treasures, on them for our ready need. Also, atleast one bigger
bedroom. We actually have 4 but they are very small and we have a King
size bed crammed into it. Another full bath..would be nice....we have
only one at this time. And last but not least a new open
kitchen..which is definitely the heart of our home..DH is a chef! Ours
is currently so in need of some TLC! But truth be told...if we could
afford to do none of it....we would still be happy...tag team showers
rock!
Elisabeth Mama, to Liv(9)and Lex(7)

Sandra Dodd

-=-What works in your houses? What do you wish you did or could do that
facilitates this unschooling life and enriches your relationships?-=-



We got a bigger house, and that made a good difference. It's a
perfect unschooling house. It has more toilets and showers than we
need (our old house had one shower and two toilets, and that was
better than the way I grew up: one toilet, one bathtub, no shower,
six people), but abundance is cool. One of the showers doesn't work,
and one sink only has cold water, but then there are extras!

The house we have is one that Joylyn (who's on this list) knew as a
kid. That's fun and interesting! Pam Sorooshian visited, and when
she got back and was describing the house, Joylyn knew it!

There are additions. There's a two room apartment that was illegally
build, so they added a passageway to it, which also provides solar
collection (a glass wall to the south) and insulation and shade (the
room I'm in would have an outside wall, but that passageway is
outside the window). So Keith sleeps back there, and as far as
possible as the house runs is a big room above the garage, and that's
where the kids used to have gaming nights and so their laughter
didn't disturb Keith's sleep!! That has been the single best thing
about this house, that we don't have to argue much about noise, and
people can get some privacy.

Shelves, cabinets and closets--I think you can't have too many of any
of those.

There's a storage-roomish thing under the stairs, and it had shelves
in there already, and that became Barbieland, so Holly could have her
Barbies out and never, ever have to put them up and I never, ever had
to pick Barbie shoes or forks or other teensy bits up before
vacuuming (nor pull them out of the vacuum bag, as I used to do Ninja
Turtle weapons at the old house).

A place for storing boxes of old toys and old clothes would be good.
Where we live, attics and basements are uncommon, so an extra room is
a cool deal in New Mexico. If you live in attic-or-basement land,
you probably already have such a luxurious arrangement as a place to
store stuff you'll want again someday.

We have tables. What would be the living room has a dining table.
The kitchen has a smaller one. The library has another big one.
They're used for eating (all of them, variously, and a couple of
times all of them at once), and projects and games, and so until
there are projects or messes on all three, no problem. It's like the
Mad Hatter's teaparty. Our old house had ONE (1) table.

Oh! And in the den, there's a folding table that's usually up with a
sewing machine or a computer or an art project on it, so someone
(often me) can work and watch DVDs or TV. That's right by the
fireplace. Very nice.

A fireplace is good. Kids can learn a lot and play with fire safely
AND usefully.

The house we used to be in was very flat, and things could be wheeled
in the back or front, and it was very safe for babies.

The house we're in now is not very safe for babies. That's an
understatement. Fireplace, stairs (stairs three places and several
places with one step or three). An upstairs deck that's unsafe for
toddlers. If I get grandchildren and am still here we'll have to do
some serious adjusting and safety-fying.

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Margaret

My kids are young so I don't know about how unschooling would work in our
house with older kids, but we just built our house last year and I did a lot
of thinking about what we wanted and we are happy with the results. Our
house is a lot bigger than our last house and that makes a big difference.
Some things could be smaller or deleted and we would be fine, but we love
the size or our great room and we wouldn't change that. If we could have
only changed one thing about our last house, that definitely would have been
it.

The main thing we wanted was a big great room (living/dining/kitchen all
connected - not sure if it is a regional term or not). It is nice to have a
big kitchen with room for the kids to join me without feeling crowded. The
most important part was the living room, though. We wanted a lot of room
for the kids to play and run around because we spent all our time in that
room in our old house, but it was small. We still spend most of our time
there, but now there is plenty or room to run, climb and play. The couches
are much better climbing toys now that they are in the middle of the room
instead of against the walls - much better for jumping off the top. It's
great. There is also enough room that we set up a permanently available art
table for the kids. It has messy things that I wouldn't want over the
carpet but we have enough room in the kitchen table area for an extra table.

We have a lot of built in bookshelves and cupboards throughout the house and
that is great because we really want all the books, games and toys to be
accessible. Another thing is that the built in shelves are much stronger
and more stable. We have some by the fireplace that are cabinets on the
bottom and bookshelves above that. The kids can climb up to reach things on
higher shelves and it is safe.

Adjoining the great room, we have a normal sized room with a wall of
bookshelves and some comfy chairs. I thought that it would be nice when
someone wanted to be near the rest of the family, but wanted some quiet to
read a book or work on something by themselves. Right now that isn't what
the kids want, but I thought that it would be particularly nice to have a
room like that when homeschooling. I could be deluding myself.

I like having a big enough master bedroom to have lots of room for everyone
to sleep in here.

We have some covered areas outside (porch/patio) so that we can hang out
outside even when it is raining.

I think the only thing that we really should have done is have a better
space indoors for messes. The other day Nicholas was smashing dog food with
a wooden hammer and I was having a really hard time thinking of a place to
do this that wouldn't be so messy. It was cold outside so I didn't want to
move it out there. I couldn't think of one and just cleaned it when he was
done.... but a mess room would have been a great idea. Something like a big
bathroom with a drain on on the floor (slanted so water doesn't escape to
the rest of the house) and tiles on the walls so the kids could play water
games, mud games, finger paint the walls etc. without me jumping in with
concerns about damaging the house or making enormous messes that I don't
want to clean. I guess there aren't normally rooms like that, but having a
room that you can just hose down to clean sounds great :)

Margaret
(dd 4.5, ds 2)

On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 12:04 PM, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:

> -=-What works in your houses? What do you wish you did or could do that
> facilitates this unschooling life and enriches your relationships?-=-
>
> We got a bigger house, and that made a good difference. It's a
> perfect unschooling house. It has more toilets and showers than we
> need (our old house had one shower and two toilets, and that was
> better than the way I grew up: one toilet, one bathtub, no shower,
> six people), but abundance is cool. One of the showers doesn't work,
> and one sink only has cold water, but then there are extras!
>
> The house we have is one that Joylyn (who's on this list) knew as a
> kid. That's fun and interesting! Pam Sorooshian visited, and when
> she got back and was describing the house, Joylyn knew it!
>
> There are additions. There's a two room apartment that was illegally
> build, so they added a passageway to it, which also provides solar
> collection (a glass wall to the south) and insulation and shade (the
> room I'm in would have an outside wall, but that passageway is
> outside the window). So Keith sleeps back there, and as far as
> possible as the house runs is a big room above the garage, and that's
> where the kids used to have gaming nights and so their laughter
> didn't disturb Keith's sleep!! That has been the single best thing
> about this house, that we don't have to argue much about noise, and
> people can get some privacy.
>
> Shelves, cabinets and closets--I think you can't have too many of any
> of those.
>
> There's a storage-roomish thing under the stairs, and it had shelves
> in there already, and that became Barbieland, so Holly could have her
> Barbies out and never, ever have to put them up and I never, ever had
> to pick Barbie shoes or forks or other teensy bits up before
> vacuuming (nor pull them out of the vacuum bag, as I used to do Ninja
> Turtle weapons at the old house).
>
> A place for storing boxes of old toys and old clothes would be good.
> Where we live, attics and basements are uncommon, so an extra room is
> a cool deal in New Mexico. If you live in attic-or-basement land,
> you probably already have such a luxurious arrangement as a place to
> store stuff you'll want again someday.
>
> We have tables. What would be the living room has a dining table.
> The kitchen has a smaller one. The library has another big one.
> They're used for eating (all of them, variously, and a couple of
> times all of them at once), and projects and games, and so until
> there are projects or messes on all three, no problem. It's like the
> Mad Hatter's teaparty. Our old house had ONE (1) table.
>
> Oh! And in the den, there's a folding table that's usually up with a
> sewing machine or a computer or an art project on it, so someone
> (often me) can work and watch DVDs or TV. That's right by the
> fireplace. Very nice.
>
> A fireplace is good. Kids can learn a lot and play with fire safely
> AND usefully.
>
> The house we used to be in was very flat, and things could be wheeled
> in the back or front, and it was very safe for babies.
>
> The house we're in now is not very safe for babies. That's an
> understatement. Fireplace, stairs (stairs three places and several
> places with one step or three). An upstairs deck that's unsafe for
> toddlers. If I get grandchildren and am still here we'll have to do
> some serious adjusting and safety-fying.
>
> Sandra
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Sandra Dodd

-=-I think the only thing that we really should have done is have a
better
space indoors for messes. The other day Nicholas was smashing dog
food with
a wooden hammer and I was having a really hard time thinking of a
place to
do this that wouldn't be so messy. It was cold outside so I didn't
want to
move it out there. I couldn't think of one and just cleaned it when
he was
done.... but a mess room would have been a great idea. Something like
a big
bathroom with a drain on on the floor (slanted so water doesn't
escape to
the rest of the house) and tiles on the walls so the kids could play
water
games, mud games, finger paint the walls etc. without me jumping in with
concerns about damaging the house or making enormous messes that I don't
want to clean. I guess there aren't normally rooms like that, but
having a
room that you can just hose down to clean sounds great :)-=-



Some houses have "mudrooms," a room that opens to the back yard and
has a durable tile or concrete floor and which can be swept out the
back foor.

In one of my favorite books of all time, Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut,
there is such a room as you described.

"Our dining room was lined with tile, and there were drains in the
floor, so we and the room could be hosed off after every meal."



Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Joyce Fetteroll

> It was cold outside so I didn't
> want to
> move it out there. I couldn't think of one and just cleaned it when
> he was
> done

We did a lot of messy stuff in the bathtub. Painting especially :-) I
also opened the dishwasher door like a table for her to work on too.

Joyce

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Ed Wendell

A friend has the entire space over the garage as an open "play room" it isn't tiled with a drain but the kids can just leave things set up forever and never have to worry about putting things away neatly. Plus messes that stain don't really matter because if they ever decide to sell they can just either paint over the stains or some such. The roof is pitched high like the rest of the house, they put in a normal door leading off the bedroom - buyers would see this as a wonderful, huge, easily accessible attic storage space OR a wonderful kids play area.

My sister has "finished" their basement with an area rug / carpet remnant, painted the walls, added decor to liven it up and comfy old furniture as a play area. There is a TV down there - as well as upstairs. Laundry is down there and storage too. She made sure it was enticing to kids AND adults so, adults would want to hang out with the kids. This is not your typical finished basement in real-estate terms - just fixed it so it is appealing to the members of the household. They have a very tiny house with 5 people so this was a good / cheap option for them.

The thing we did that we've been grateful for (We built the house and then a month after we moved in I realized I was pregnant. We'd been married for 10 years and didn't think that was going to happen after all those years.) was hard wood floors on the middle level - you can go in the front door straight through to the back door and just clean up the wet, muddy mess without worrying about carpet. I wanted hardwood through out the house but hubby did not - so I insisted on the middle level - boy are we glad we did.

Also our house is built into the side of a hill - so the basement is half garage and half basement - but you can just walk straight into the basement off the garage without going through the house - it has been a wonderful place - we put in a bathtub we found at the home center on clearance because it was scratched. We elevated it on a wooden frame work - great for bathing dogs was our original intent but it has seen other wornderful uses too. We also put in a toilet in the basement so people can run in from outside filthy dirty/wet/ etc and not have to worry about tracking on the carpet to get to the bathrooms upstairs. The toilet and tub are not walled off they are just tucked into the far back corner of the basement for handy use.

We had a piece of plywood on saw horses in the basement for a while - that was used as a huge "table" Now we have a ton of shelving - the metal heavy duty stuff.

We lined the garage walls with shelves up high for storage - above auto roof line as the garage has a high ceiling. Then we also built a loft for storage in the garage too.

For the regular part of the house, I reasearched how to make a small house feel big, and we went with high vaulted ceilings (meaning no attic space) and lots of windows - lots of light colors. We also took out walls where we could. For example we removed the wall between the kitchen and family room so as you sit at the kitchen table you can watch TV or interact with whom ever is in the family room. There is a rail because the family room is down half a story - on the same level as the garage. All in all the house is very open and one does not ever feel shut off from others unless you go to a bedroom or the basement and shut the door. People cannot believe how few square footage we really have - they think it is more because it is so open.

We also made sure there were huge walk in closets off two bedrooms.

The laundry we moved from the basement to the upstairs - next to the bedrooms. This was a linen closet area in the plans anyway so we made it into a laundry closet. People said not to do this in case the washer leaked - so we shut off the water supply if we leave for a few days which is much easier than carrying loads of laundry to the basement and back up.

Lisa W.





_,_._,___

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Ed Wendell

We put a small stool under the dishwasher door for support. The same small stool that stays in the kitchen to reach high shelves and small children can stand at the counter or even sit on.

You could split a large trash bag and then just gather it up and throw it away

or get a "plastic" tarp to lay out, easy to fold up, take outside and shake or hose off. They come in various sizes.


Lisa W.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Barbara Perez

Our mess room was the (attached, 2-car) garage. It's got a concrete floor
with a drain so that it can be hosed down, and windows so there's natural
light, and in the summer we just left the doors open (which also attracted
the neighborhood kids, and sometimes adults walking by, usually a plus). The
storage cabinets along two walls for all sorts of art materials, the big old
tile table and the woodworking bench (and the treestump for the littlest
ones to hammer away to their heart's content) were all very well used three
summers in a row. There's also a door to the backyard so it served as a
route to more fun outside. The main problem though is the garage is only
semi-insulated, and there's only one smallish window on the side, close to a
fence, so in the winter it's too cold and dark in there. We had new garage
doors put in with insulation and windows in them, which helped, but it still
wasn't cozy enough. Now that I don't have the kids anymore I'd like to open
up the garage to neighborhood kids in the summer, it was such a happy place,
but I might have to clean out the stuff I've been letting pile up in there
first!


On Sat, Apr 19, 2008 at 6:38 AM, Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:

> -=-I think the only thing that we really should have done is have a
> better
> space indoors for messes. The other day Nicholas was smashing dog
> food with
> a wooden hammer and I was having a really hard time thinking of a
> place to
> do this that wouldn't be so messy. It was cold outside so I didn't
> want to
> move it out there. I couldn't think of one and just cleaned it when
> he was
> done.... but a mess room would have been a great idea. Something like
> a big
> bathroom with a drain on on the floor (slanted so water doesn't
> escape to
> the rest of the house) and tiles on the walls so the kids could play
> water
> games, mud games, finger paint the walls etc. without me jumping in with
> concerns about damaging the house or making enormous messes that I don't
> want to clean. I guess there aren't normally rooms like that, but
> having a
> room that you can just hose down to clean sounds great :)-=-
>
> Some houses have "mudrooms," a room that opens to the back yard and
> has a durable tile or concrete floor and which can be swept out the
> back foor.
>
> In one of my favorite books of all time, Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut,
> there is such a room as you described.
>
> "Our dining room was lined with tile, and there were drains in the
> floor, so we and the room could be hosed off after every meal."
>
> Sandra
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]