Choosing a NEW HOME… the Long Read

If you’ve considered the stay-move list noted earlier and you’re going to find a new home, only relocate to a space that makes you feel good.  Don’t choose to move into a space unless being there is a positive experience for you, no matter what anyone else, in particular a salesperson, has to say.

Whatever is prompting you to leave your current home should be a priority in your new one. For instance, if there is no place for privacy for residents now, then make sure they have privacy in your new place.

The sorts of changes mentioned in the other articles in this month’s focus, (May 2021) on renovating a current home are a plus to find already in place in a new one—but if you’re buying new (or building new!) there are lots of additional things you should check out in a potential new home.

The Ticklist for Choosing a New Home

One of the most important things to consider when you’re considering a new home is whether you and the people you’ll share your home with tend to be more extraverted or introverted. In the course of your life, and in living with your housemates, you’ve probably learned how extraverted you/they are.  If you are more extraverted you’ll feel more positive about a home that has a more open plan while people who are more introverted prefer a more segmented interior, in other ones where there are more walls separating one sort of space from another—family rooms from kitchens, for example.

These responses to spaces can’t be denied or ignored.  If you’re more extraverted an open plan is a plus, and since you’re extraverted, you’re apt to enthusiastically make this point to anyone who will, or has to, listen to you!  If you’re extraverted and sharing a home with introvert(s) make sure at least some of the public and also the private spaces are broken into individual zones/rooms with walls and doors.  If you’re an introvert and somehow find yourself in possession of an open plan home, somehow find a way to screen areas of your home off from each other – the larger and less “see-through” the screens the better.  Create walls out of moving boxes if all else fails!

We Are All Different Personalities

We also differ in terms of how open we are to giving a-typical, new (at least to people like you) sorts of experiences a try.

Open Minded People

If you’re more open, you know it.  You more receptive than others to experiences that are novel or unusual.  You’re the person whose shoes are blue when everyone else’s are black, the person who tried Tibetan-Cambodian fusion food before anyone else you knew.  You are, in short, the person willing to “give things a shot.”  If you’re more open to experiences, don’t let anyone in the purchase process push you to buy a home “just like everyone else’s.”  Live in the home that intrigues you, that’s different in ways that you value; don’t succumb to peer pressure, it’ll never make you happy.

More Conscientious

If you’re a more conscientious soul, which means you’re the person who meets deadlines without reminders and actually picks up their socks, you’ll want a home that can be kept neat and tidy.  Ample storage space, enough for all your tools and supplies and memories is important to you.  So are materials that are straightforward to clean and don’t show their age—or age in a way that enhances their beauty, as many woods do.

People who are conscientious want to live an organized life.  You want a kitchen with enough drawers and cabinets for all of your wedding presents, all of them.  You want a space to tuck the laundry hamper.  If enough drawers and cabinets and closets are not already in place in any potential home to house the things you need to put there, the things that keep your life moving along happily, make sure you have a viable, actionable, doable, etc., plan for building in more, adding armoires, etc.

You do not want to live a disordered life, and any attempts to do so will leave you disgruntled.  You are also likely to be even more concerned about having a bright home interior and one that seems methodical in design, perhaps, for example, one that’s more symmetrical.  Also, if you’re more conscientious you’re more apt to value a slightly more rectilinear home than others.  By “rectilinear” home, I mean one with rectangular arches, not curvy ones, between areas of a home, one where ornaments such as mouldings feature straight lines not curving ones, and cabinet handles that are straight bars not arched ones, for example.

If you are curious about what kind of person you are, Dr Sally Augustin writes about it in her book Designology (Amazon, or Bookshop.org), which you might like to get a copy of.

There are aspects of any home that are important, regardless of personality.

Your new home needs to provide options. Options for where to be and what to do while you’re there.  Without choices, the quality of your life plummets—we like to be able to make decisions, just to make decisions!  You need a couple of places where you could sit and read quietly and a few spaces to hang out with your friends and family.  Also, windows you can open are very desirable, if you can possibly add them to your home.  Windows give you a lot of control not only of your home’s ventilation but, literally, how it smells, and the ability to open or close windows when you wish is great for your psychological health.

ZONES

Almost as much as you need choices in your home, you need zones for various sorts of activities.

Some sorts of zones are so obvious that you don’t even think about them.  Homes often have an easy-clean zone for example.  This is the area with the tile flooring instead of the hardwood, for example.  A space where people will take off dirty boots is apt to have the same sorts of surfaces built in as a kitchen, where, even for the best of cooks, things do occasionally go wrong.

More extensive zoning, for example, by type of planned activity, is sometimes not as consciously addressed, but you should definitely consider public-private zones.  Do you want to find a pod of party guests chatting in your bedroom during some gathering, for example, or do you want it to be clear, via doors that close, for example, just what is open to all and what is available to only the select few?

Also, you need to be logical about how people will live in your home.  Eating areas should be near where foods are prepared, bathing places near dressing ones, etc.  Interior views, from one part of a home to another that link spaces with related uses are great, particularly when at the far end of that “sightline” is a window that opens to the outdoors.

 

Ceiling Height Matters

You’ll live your best life in a home with ceilings about 10 feet tall—shorter seems cramped, taller seems too formal to relax and savour life.  Putting a light colour on a ceiling will make it, or any other wall, for that matter, seem a little further away than it actually is, but not much.

Perception tricks are only so effective.  If you’re looking for a new place to live try to find one where the ceilings are at the “right” height and the rooms are the right size for whatever you’ve planned, whether that’s a spacious space for mingling or a home office where you could, perhaps work with a couple of teammates around a small table or a bedroom where you plan to add in a Zen zone for meditation.

Using masking tape, measure out how big distinctive pieces of furniture, such as pianos, actually are, how much walk-around space needs to surround each, and be real.  There’s no more negative feeling than planning to put a dining table into a lovely nook, only to find out that the nook is too small for the chairs that go with that table.  Also, make sure doorways are wide enough for everything to move into the space you’d want it to be.  Consider ceiling height again if you plan to pivot a sofa so that it fits through a doorway or onto an elevator or lift.

Where’s the Sun?

In any new-to-you home, consider the sun.  It will, hopefully, continue to come up indefinitely and if it’s not in the “right place” your life can be much less than optimal.

Natural light is like a magic elixir for all of us—it boosts our mood and our mental performance, as well as our creativity, as long as it appears in our lives without glare, so build in options for at least minimalistic, glare-blocking window treatments.

Also, consider house orientation.  A morning person?  You’ll enjoy a bedroom with east facing windows that allow you and the sun to being the day together.  Not a morning person?  You will likely have a less positive response to morning sun, I feel certain.  For those of us in the Northern hemisphere, rooms oriented to the South are likely to have a pleasant ebb and flow of daylight throughout the day, trees and other buildings permitted.

What Can You See From The Windows?

Views come with windows and ones of nature help us refresh mentally and to calm.  These are the ones with trees and plants, if you can possibly incorporate them—even nature you bring into your house via window boxes makes it a much better place to be.

If you have a view of a courtyard or some other manmade space that you can’t populate with a few plants, try to add a fountain with gently moving water.  Research shows that it’s just as refreshing to look at a man made view with this sort of water features as it is to look at a view of green leafy plants.

Pre-Planning

An important consideration when you’re selecting any home are your physical capabilities and those that you will share a home with.  Have early onset arthritis in your needs, for example, carefully consider whether you want to live in a multi-story home.  Worried that your young children or aging visitors might tumble down stairs and injure themselves?  Again, consider that single floor home.

Conclusion

Applying insights gleaned from environmental psych research will streamline the process of renovating your current home or selecting a new one.  Using the research highlights shared above as you consider where to live can help make choices made ones that elevate your life.