Unique on the Outside Only...

I used to love looking at Dutch row houses in the newly built neighborhoods... but then I moved to the other side of town where the houses weren't much to look at.

and although some of the photos I have posted on this blog have been unique on the outside... almost all of the Dutch row houses, two under one roof houses, and even free standing houses all have about the same general floor plan that it is utterly boring.

The Dutch can be some one narrow minded - and it reflects in the "plattegrond" - in other words, house layout.

My friend started studying architecture at the Technical University here in Eindhoven. I have been eager to hear what kind of projects she gets to work on. It really seems like a very fun study. If I go back to school in the future, I would definitely like to study architecture - probably at a community college in the U.S. though - as my Dutch language skills suck.

Anyway, she has said that the Dutch government sets certain standards of how wide and deep a house can be and architects tend to just go with the minimum requirements... and that is why we went up with the same old boring layout...

Anyway, I remember seeing one of those "I'm a Mormon" video messages on Youtube about a lady who went back to school, got her degree and now redesigns homes. And that is something I think I would love to do. Bev Gosling (This lady is so cool, she's designed houses, subdivisions and more... stuff I only dream about).

I am always, getting out my block-graph paper and redesigning row houses. I have done it for years. I am very good at coming up with alternative ways to use the space given in this row homes.

For example, our home is 5.8 meters wide by 8.4 meters deep... 3 levels - and when we bought it we completely gutted it out and have made it our own. We tore out some walls, put in new ones - and have made this home fantastic. But just the other day, I was thinking about how one could make this home even more special - just by moving the stairs over there, opening up the ceiling and giving the room a vaulted space up above... could really improve the space and overall feel of the room...

ahh, I was saying to my husband, I really wish I had some money to play around with, you know, buy a house, completely redesign it and then sell it on or rent it on. That would be great.

He said, well, why don't you get a degree, go work for someone else and then you can do that all you want, with someone elses money? Yeah, that would be great.

But in the meantime, I think I will start throwing some of my redesigns up on this blog for a record keeping!