A NEW WAY OF THINKING

Two years ago, with the publication of my first book, "The Not So Big House", I was projected into the heart of the national discussion on house SIZE. My book presented an alternative vision of what home can be -- about a third smaller than you thought you needed, but better designed and tailored to the way you REALLY live, rather than on a floor plan better suited to the early 1900s. We still build large, formal living rooms, dining rooms and foyers, for example, even though most families rarely use them. That's a lot of money spent on functions no longer a part of our lives, Meanwhile, such needs as a mail-sorting place, an acoustically separate room for computer games and the like, and a well-designed home office get tucked into rooms ill-suited to the purpose.

TODAY'S LIFESTYLE

As we've become more INFORMAL over the past few decades, there have been some attempts to update the standard floor plan. The family room, for example, which first appeared in the 1950s, was a response to families gathering in the kitchen after work and school, so a living space was added to make it more commodious. But with the advent of the family room, the living room gradually became the "no living" room. Furnished for a more formal age, it waits for a type of guest that seldom arrives. Master bedroom suites also increased in size as money allowed. The whirlpool tub gradually became a symbol of success and of taking life easy. Even though few of these soaking paradises are actually used by anyone over 10 years old (because few have the time). A new house lacking one today is definitely not up to snuff. With increasing WEALTH, we've added all sorts of rooms to accommodate our new toys, but we haven't stepped back to see if these additions work for the way we use a house. In many cases, they don't.

NOT EXACTLY THE AMERICAN DREAM

So the result of all our efforts to become successful (and therefore, we surmise, happy) citizens have bred more material wealth but less time to enjoy it, and way more STRESS. Look beneath the VENEER of prosperity and you'll find a sense of sadness in many that cannot be named.

YOUR NATURAL TENDENCIES

There's nothing wrong with having a lot of space to live in if you can afford it, and if it improves your quality of life. But sadly, much of the square footage doesn't feel good to be in, so it goes UNUSED, often even unfurnished. Even the less-expensive houses built today are focused foremost on bigness, as though the added size will secure the happiness we seek. Ask most folks what rooms they gravitate to, and it's not the cathedral-ceilinged spaces, or the rooms with the most acreage, but the more INTIMATE places proportioned to our human scale.

GETTING OFF THE MERRY GO ROUND

So why hasn't there already been a metamorphosis of our houses over the past 20 years? Simply force of HABIT. We know what a house is. Any realtor will explain what you need for resale, and first on the list are those expensive formal rooms we no longer use. But instead of making our homes larger as we can afford more, how about rethinking the very ORGANIZATION of the house, and the quality and character of its making? So instead of a lot of space that doesn't satisfy our hunger for home, we'll instead be surrounded by beauty, craft and functionality. It's really not difficult to do, once we recognize the problem.