I regret to inform you that we will not have a blog today because of circumstances unforeseen. We plan to be back in full force as usual a week from today. Thank you for your interest. George W. Moore, IV

One of the first things realtors evaluate in selling a house is curb appeal which is how the house and yard look from the street and is the first impression potential buyers get of it.

It is a universal truth that attractiveness and beauty enhance physicality.

The question I ask is why wait until you are preparing to put your residence on the market to have a great appeal?

Who approaches the house most often, either by foot or by car, for the length of time that you live there?

You as the owner do.

So, why not make your curb appeal great and enjoy it and appreciate it every day that you live there?

As often written about many times before, many of the newer houses that come across my desk from around the country have a double garage door as the main focus point on the front facade.

While this feature may be the result of making the best use of the spaces involved, such should not mean that it has to manifest bad aesthetics.

There are a few of these newer houses which have intelligently worked out a design so that this double door garage, along with the entire front of the residence, is a completely balanced aesthetic composition which is a delight to view.

Landscaping is also important in curb appeal and should be designed to enhance the curb appeal within the overall composition of the space.

So, go outside and look at your residence from the curb and evaluate intelligently and aesthetically what you see.

Any thing that can improve the aesthetics of your day-to-day existence is of merit.

Food for thought.

Webster defines taste as individual preference in the choices we make and as we are using the word here it refers to what we choose for the interior of our residential spaces.

Every one has taste whether it be what is considered good or bad or anything in between.

Have you ever given any thought from where your taste comes?

The results of the evolution of the human race up to our present time is in all of us and has a role in our choices.

For example: People gravitate toward fireplaces when there is no need of them for heating. People like to have light and a connection with nature and the outside. Et Cetera.

Our individual tastes beyond this area are determined largely by our upbringing especially during the developing years to adulthood.

These tastes experienced thusly stay with us through our life time.

To those people who become educated, travel, and reach higher and different socio-economic levels from these formative years will find these tastes affecting our residential choices, knowingly or unknowingly, even when we try to manifest another environment.

All of which is neither good or bad in and of itself.

What determines the quality of what we choose is determined by how we express it.

For interior residential spaces which are appropriate and functional for their location and time and working intelligently with quality standards using the laws of physics and the principles of design the results will be good regardless of your personal tastes.

Although it is not as prevalent in today’s culture as in past times, the concept of “good taste” generally refers to those standards set by the higher classes in societies which can contain certain elements of snobbery and social status which in and of themselves are not necessarily good design.

Food for thought.

Foot note: For readers who would like a blog on a certain subject, e-mail me at gmooreid@hotmail.com.

Residential home builders have posted some changes that home buyers want now more that before the pandemic.

Different entrances and facilities for family and guests which are convenient and functional with family entrances having spaces for hats, coats, boots, powder room, and laundry facilities.

Kitchens which are better equipped for more and better cooking with the use of quartz and touchless fixtures high on the list plus facilities that perform for all age groups.

More than one space for home offices as well as versatile spaces for storage and other activities.

Family bath rooms that are functional for all ages from childhood through elderly.

More access to out side with doors and windows for all occupants of the house.

Porches are very popular for outside socialization and connection with one’s neighborhood.

I should like to add some thoughts on the aesthetics for these suggested changes.

Be very careful about the use of colors for indoor spaces where you will be spending more time.

Bold and busy patterns and bright and many colors used can become disturbing and uncomfortable after a time.

Think in terms of simpler patterns and softer colors which are usually more comfortable and pleasant for most people over the long term.

In the selection of every thing that goes inside such a residential space be extremely careful and selective so that you only have that which you like and can use for a long time.

“When in doubt, take out.” Virginia Garden Club

Food for thought.

The pandemic has caused changes in life styles around the world.

Such has put the necessity of a functional, comfortable, pleasant, and healthy residential interior environment into greater focus and awareness.

All of which has brought into focus the awareness of design in shaping human experience and as it affects our living and working lives.

Interior design has become more of a necessary strategy.

From indoor air quality to hands free activities to smart homes this pandemic and the growing use of computers have and will continue to make permanent changes in the way we live from day-to-day.

All of which will require adjustments from all of us on what we do and how we do it.

In making these adjustments we need to always keep in mind what makes for successfully designed residential interiors.

Function, life style, and aesthetics are the three parts that make up what results will be achieved.

As you look around and evaluate these three elements in your personal living spaces, what do you see?

Your choices determine your results.

Food for thought.

There are a large variety of residences that come across my desk about the housing industry in this country.

The smallest one was a closet size space for the homeless and was priced accordingly.

The most expensive one which was many stories high above a major metropolitan city and which was basically a small town for the occupants and came in at a little over one billion dollars in that day’s currency rate which, incidentally, is more money than I made all of last year.

The types of houses vary from those designed for mass consumption to those expressly designed for personal life styles to the absurd and ridiculous.

Many use standard materials and many use custom made and expensive and rare materials.

Some are aesthetically pleasing and some are a nightmare come to life.

There is no one particular type where price, function, location, life style, aesthetics, et cetera all come together for a well balanced whole.

So, what is the purpose of a residence and how do we evaluate such?

The primary purpose of a residence is shelter from the elements of nature.

After that goal is accomplished, many personal elements are put into the stew.

What are the functions and life styles of the occupant? What is the location and surrounding environment? What is the level of quality for all of the aspects involved? What is the budget? What is the desired social-economic status to present to the world. What is the intellectual and emotional aspects to be manifest? How much is display and competition for others?

The list goes on and affects of cultures as well as other aspects have to be considered.

When you look at and analyze the residence in which you live, inside and out side, what do you see and how would you evaluate it and what is or is not important to you.

Food for thought.

Most of the residential constructions in this country, and perhaps also around the rest of the world, are based on elements of economics and mass production and consumption.

Getting the most square feet for the available space.

Adding functional elements that can be used to sell more and increase profits

There are similar plans and elements and results that are mass produced and sold and used country wide for houses.

All of which is done to house the population of this country.

There are, however, some constructions happening which are geared more toward their geography and functions.

What happens to the level and quality of aesthetics when the majority of decisions are based on economics?

What happens to the emotional and decorative desires to create a personal interior residential environment as opposed to a mass concept based on economics?

In such situations, choices are limited.

The options are to make the best of what is available through imagination, creativity, et cetera, settle for what results are available, or choose to raise your budget to a higher level to accommodate your wants.

As you look around your current residential environment, what do you see?

Mass produced and consumed mediocrity, creativity, imagination, a high level and quality of aesthetics, or that which is custom made to your requirements?

What do you want to see?

The choice is yours.

Food for thought.

New housing developments that feature homes built in the “farm house” style show up in the residential building current information that comes across my desk.

What makes a house a “farm house” such if it is not built on a working farm?

People often get carried away with definitions beyond reality when describing residences.

Once, being served a drink at a bar set up in the “library” at a party in a very expensive and snobbish neighborhood, I noticed that the only literary works in the room were books in a wallpaper border around the room.

A real estate agent once described a house as french because it had a two angled roof.

Different traits, characteristics, and uses can be successfully incorporated into residential designs, inside and outside, but call a spade a spade.

In the same vein, it is important, functional, and practical to build residences appropriately for the weather and environment where they are to be located.

People often build beach houses to reflect their social and economic status in using many different styles instead of what is appropriate for ocean side living. Along comes a hurricane and every thing is destroyed. Gee. I wonder why.

In, again, the same vein, people will build a house in the desert and want lots of greenery.

It is the essence of good aesthetics that what is done is appropriate for what it is and where it is and how it is to be used.

The accurate, functional, appropriate, and aesthetic elements of concepts and the physical manifestation there of in residential composition always produce the best results.

If you are not interested in producing the best results, you are wasting your time reading this blog.

Food for thought.

High school history taught that the ancient Egyptians were the first civilizations to have mirrors.

In the centuries since that ancient time mirrors have have played various roles in civilizations with advances in the manufacturing and availability to the peoples.

During these times the mirror has advanced from luxury and status to being amply available to the general population to being used not just for vanity and grooming but into scientific fields as well.

Over the ages the use of mirror for residential interior aesthetics has manifest in many different ways and for many different reasons.

Physically what a mirror does is reflect and as such what it reflects should be of paramount concern where it is used.

This basic physics law has been not used to the best advantage in many residential aesthetics over time.

If a mirror were used for your personal residential interior environment, what would it reflect?

What does this reflection say about you, your life style, activities, choices, aesthetics, level of quality, et cetera?

Look. See. Analyze. Do. Be.

Food for thought.

What is important in life?

A big screen color television and a new car!

Lol! Some people are of this state of mind. I am not one of them.

What keeps coming up and is more pronounced by information currently available for those who evaluate such things is that the value and importance and completeness of a life well lived is one in which the emphasis has been on the quality experiences one has known as opposed to the quantity of physical accumulations and financial worth one leaves behind.

Of course, not every one is going to agree with this evaluation, but it definitely has wisdom on it’s side.

Have you ever thought about the total time of your life that is spent inside your residential interior environment?

Looking back, of if you would prefer, look forward and evaluate the quality of that time as a part of your overall existence on this planet.

Is such important to you? Are you comfortable and satisfied where you are or would you like to make changes for what ever reason?

The day-to-day existence of residential life with all of it’s ups and downs and all of the emotional, psychological, functional, financial, intellectual, et cetera aspects experienced there in can be greatly enhanced in spaces that are aesthetically pleasing as well as functional.

Where are you and where would you prefer to have been?

Food for thought.