LIVEABILITY

Looking for a Home should be about finding "Liveability"

What is "Liveability" in regard to a home?

You will find a lot of information on the Internet about "Liveable Communities". But not very much about what design features create a "Liveable Home". There is information about how to make your existing home more liveable with maintenance and decorating ideas, and how to improve a small home.

The American Heritage® Dictionary has two definitions for "liveable":

Liveable- (adj.) Suitable to live in; habitable: a liveable dwelling.

Liveable- (adj.) Possible to bear; endurable: live able trials and tribulations.

We believe there is a lot more for the individual to consider beyond this definition. The various pages of this website will help you expand your analysis and exploration of what it means for you.

For your home to be "Liveable" - it will depend on your lifestyle, preferences and priorities.

The home that is "liveable" for you, might not be liveable for anyone else! Just you! It again depends on your personal life. If you have made your existing home unique it may have features incorporated which will make it difficult to sell without changing the features you may have added.

Some of the homes we have lived in have NOT been liveable for us! We have asked ourselves "What was the architect thinking"? Did the designers ever live with this floor plan layout or experience the problems caused by small counter tops, misplaced doors, etc?

This excerpt from an architecture article illuminates this point:

"I think that great houses have to be both exhilarating and liveable, but what does “liveable” actually mean? - Long ago, when Philip Johnson’s famous Glass House, in New Canaan, Connecticut, was new and startling, a woman visited and said rather huffily to the architect, “It’s very nice, but I certainly couldn’t live here.” “I haven’t asked you to, Madam, ” Johnson replied. - It’s a good reminder that liveability is something that all of us determine for ourselves."

From the New Yorker Online 2004 - Article by Paul Goldberger, Suburban Chic http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/040913on_onlineonly02?040913on_onlineonly02

Good luck with your individual evaluation & look for our Checklist to be available soon.