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Architecture: Small-house philosophy attracts big interest

For a man who thinks small, Ross Chapin is in big demand.

The American architect and author from Whidbey Island, Wash., has been busy fielding calls from around the world, from Japan and Australia to Spain, England and right next door in Canada.

Everyone wants to know more about the small-house philosophy he’s helped to pioneer across the border and what he calls “pocket neighbourhoods,” an old-fashioned community-planning concept repurposed (and newly coined) to fit with modern urban demands.

“Perhaps this is in response to ‘big,’ ” Chapin said of the global interest in small housing in an interview earlier this week in Vancouver, where he delivered a talk on the small-housing trend at the University of B.C.

“I think there are people all around the world who are trying to find approaches that are more sustainable, more humane, more livable. That’s a challenge for all of us in a finite world.”

Livability and sustainability — not to mention affordability — are key words in the Vancouver region right now as cities struggle to balance a need to accommodate an estimated one million more residents over the next 25 years with a desire to preserve green space and limit urban sprawl.

That discussion has encouraged a range of new housing options to spring up in recent years in what had been predominantly single-family home neighbourhoods from the west side of

EMPTY NESTERS: Empty nesters carve out ‘boomer caves’

Those looking to get away without leaving home are creating rooms to watch movies, sip wine, or otherwise relax.

Preparing to renovate their new Back Bay condo, Bill and Lisa Vanderweil were sure about one thing: They wanted one cozy “getaway” room where they could relax, watch TV, read, or just talk.

So they converted one of the three bedrooms into a cross between a small entertainment room and an old-fashioned den, complete with wood paneling, big-screen TV, wet bar with a small sink and refrigerator, large chenille couch, club chairs, and other items to give the room a relaxed feel.

“This is the spot where I just want to hang out,” said Bill Vanderweil, 67, managing principal at Vanderweil Engineers LLP. “The room is so much fun,” added his wife, Lisa Vanderweil, 52. “We love going in there and watching Pats games and movies.”

Empty nesters such as the Vanderweils are carving out special spaces within, or outside, their homes — favorite spots to call their own or intimate spaces they can share with family and friends.

Call them “boomer caves,” such “getaway” spaces come in all sizes, shapes, and varieties — movie rooms, wine-tasting alcoves, intimate patios for alfresco dining, gardening sheds, basement exercise rooms with saunas, studies for work and pleasure, free-flowing kitchen-into-living-room spaces.

“We’re doing a lot of our work for empty nesters and others over 50,” said Greg Childs, business development manager for Concord’s Gallagher Home Builders Inc., which handled the Vanderweils’ recent condo renovation. “People are less formal than they used to be. They want more intimate and yet communal spaces, for themselves and family.”
Whether it’s the perfect reading nook or a casual place to enjoy a glass of wine and good conversation, here are some of the more popular indoor and outdoor caves that people are creating for themselves.

Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff

The room features wood paneling and club chairs to make it a “spot where I just want to hang out,” Bill Vanderweil said.

Indoor caves

Movie/entertainment rooms. They’re classic — and come in many different sizes and styles and prices. Paul Apkarian, owner of Paul Apkarian Architects Inc. in Westborough, said movie rooms ­— also known as “home theaters” or just plan “entertainment rooms” — remain the most popular dream of people trying to create that ultimate comfy, escape room. Depending on how extravagant people want to get with the electronics and furniture, the

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DOWNSIZING: Why I Love My Minimalist Kitchen

Whether you’re moving into a smaller space, or just need to create more space in your kitchen, downsizing to a minimalist kitchen can make you happier.

A kitchen doesn't have to be big to be fabulous — just use some creative storage solutions. All images: Lara Edge for HouseLogic
You know that feeling you get after a major haircut? When your head feels 10 times lighter? That’s nothing compared to how you’ll feel when you downsize your kitchen to a minimalist kitchen. I’m still reveling in the feeling of light-headedness it gave me.

I won’t bore you with gritty details of why my husband and I had to leave our kitchen that was big enough to be its own apartment and had enough counter space to tease you into collecting every imaginable kitchen gadget.

The point is: I don’t miss that kitchen. I love, love my new minimalist kitchen.

Here’s why:

It saves me money

It’s simple economics: When you have less storage space, you buy less. Seriously. ‘Nuff said.

It’s keeping Alzheimer’s at bay

It forces me to be creative, exercising my mind to seek alternative solutions. Some of my solutions:

Since my countertop space is limited, I didn’t want to waste part of it with a dish rack. Instead I made my large strainer a multi-tasker:

Pitchers as vases: Instead of keeping vases and pitchers, I just use pitchers to show off my flowers.

One set of glasses for all beverages: I must have eliminated four shelves of glasses when I downsized. Who really needs

BOSTON HOUSING NEWS: Boston, developers betting tiny Seaport apartments will be a big thing

A small platform, painted black with images of kitchen appliances and living room furniture outlined in bright neon, was celebrated Thursday as the future of housing in Boston’s fast-growing Seaport District.

The platform, with a faux wall on one side, was a mock-up of the ultrasmall apartments under construction at the Seaport’s newest residential building, the Boston Wharf Tower on A Street. With units as small as 450 square feet, the apartments fit Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s call for more affordable housing in the district for young professionals who want to live near work and social attractions.

“From the very start of our plan for the waterfront and Fort Point Channel, we knew housing would be a crucial part of the equation,” Menino said Thursday during a ceremonial ground-breaking at that $100 million Boston Wharf Tower. “This project will help turn this neighborhood

VIDEO: Super modern design in a small space.

MARKET TRENDS: Competition Heats Up As Senior Living Providers Prepare for Boomers

Providing plenty of choice for the coming generation of senior living residents seems to be a key component of differentiating communities and rising above the competition, and a Boston Globe article suggests that current residents in many communities are getting a first taste of what’s to come. 

That first taste, unlike in times past, won’t be Jell-O, says the article: 

Choice is the buzzword for a wave of high-end senior communities opening or expanding in area communities.
As the industry prepares for the aging baby boomers, it’s starting to practice on their elders, who increasingly demand more options and financial flexibility. The products are not just indoor swimming pools and granite countertops but also a la carte pricing that allows retirees to tailor their services.
“The traditional ways aren’t necessarily the best ways,” said Patrick McShane, a spokesman for the Groves in Lincoln, a $130 million independent-living development that offers residents the nursing or personal care they need to stay in whichever apartment or cottage they choose.
“As the boomers continue to age, this is certainly a segment of the population that is very used to having choice and being able to shape where they live and what they drive and what they eat, and that should never end.”

From wine-tastings and day spas to more flexible accommodations for couples who may require different levels of care, senior living communities are ramping up their product

MARKET TRENDS: Rethinking the 55-Plus Market

SOME would-be buyers who visit Villagio, a 55-plus housing development in South Brunswick, think they’ve arrived at the wrong place.

To members of a market segment said to avoid stair-climbing, second-floor bedrooms are not the only surprise. Villagio has a basketball court and a jungle gym, but at least so far, it lacks a clubhouse, which at a typical development of this type is usually among the first elements built.

“This is not your father’s adult community,” Mr. Gueyikian said during a recent tour of the development, a 100-acre property punctuated with 3,000- to 4,000-square-foot stucco houses painted in shades like amber, rose and terra cotta (although elevators are an option for their buyers). “The thinking was in the senior market that you sell your house and downsize, but some people don’t want to go to a smaller house. They want a new home with bragging rights. Today’s people are looking for the Porsche S.U.V., they’re not looking to buy a van.”

The 55-plus market was especially hard hit by the downturn in the housing market — so much so that in 2009 New Jersey passed a law allowing such communities to convert to serving the general populace. In any case, said Tim Touhey, president of the New Jersey Builders Association, “there’s been an evolution in the health and conditions of families.”

“Some 55 and older are still working and want office space,” he said. “Some may have adult children living at home. They want more variety and choice. And the development community is driven by what the market wants.”

In other words, Mr. Gueyikian may just have hit upon something. After several years in which, he said, buyers seemed to lose interest, Villagio is building seven houses, adding to the 43 that went up in late 2007. Long-range plans call for 210 homes.

A builder of million-dollar-plus houses in Holmdel, Marlboro and Colts Neck, Mr. Gueyikian said he identified an interest in his vision of 55-plus housing when meeting with a group of homeowners at his development in Ramapo, N.Y., which has retirement-age buyers living in $2 million to $3 million

Baby boomers appear to be sacrificing their own retirements for the sake of their children, even though their children are, in most cases, adults, according to a study released this morning.

Ameriprise Financial in 2007 surveyed three generations—boomers, their children and their parents—and learned that less than half of boomers (44%) were trying to save for retirement while also providing support for their children and parents.

Fast forward to December 2011: The portion of boomers saving for their own retirement has fallen to one in four (24%)—but they’re still helping out their families. More than half (58%) are assisting their aging parents, including helping them pay for groceries (22%), medical expenses (15%) or utility bills (14%).

“It’s disturbing that people are still providing the same, intense level of support, up or down, and they’re five years closer to retirement,” says Suzanna de Baca, Ameriprise’s vice president of wealth strategies. “This is not registering with boomers.”

The phone survey included 1,006 baby boomers—born from 1946 to 1964—who have $100,000 or more in investable assets, 300 parents of boomers and 300 children of boomers who were at least 18 years old. The survey had a margin of error of three percentage points for the boomers and six points for the other two groups.

At the same time that boomers are providing all kinds of handouts to their children—paying utility and insurance bills along with college tuition and car payments—they also have “this weird level of guilt and concern” that their children don’t know how to manage money, de Baca says.

Meanwhile, the children receiving the handouts say their boomer parents haven’t talked to

RETIREMENT: Getting ready to retire? Start by rightsizing your home

If your long-term plan is to keep working, investing and living where you are until the day you retire, and then change your lifestyle and financial life, you are practicing what I call "cliff living" — living one way until you abruptly leave the world of work, then leaping to a whole new level of life and finances.

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Instead of waiting for this dramatic turn of events (which, incidentally, many people can no longer pinpoint in their future), I recommend living a "blended life," one that incorporates some major changes as early as possible that can continue seamlessly into your retirement years.

In other words, rightsizing your finances, work and lifestyle so that you ease the transition, and at the same time help to ensure that your income and assets (inflow), as well as your costs and liabilities (outflow), are well-suited to retirement or semi-retirement.

Small is beautiful

Current home sales are following this rightsizing trend; according the Census Bureau, the median floor area of new homes fell to 2,094 square feet in the third quarter of 2009 from 2,309 square feet at the start of 2007. The National Association of Builders agrees that the median size of new homes is shrinking, pointing out that rooms are getting smaller, and some of the luxury amenities that were popular last decade are disappearing—including opulent bathrooms and kitchens.

What about the market?

My clients — along with a lot of other homeowners out there — are leery of selling their property in today's unfriendly real estate market. However, I argue that this could be a good time to make a change.

The question you should be asking yourself is not "Is my house worth less than it was before?" but rather "Is my house worth less than it will be in the future?" If you're staying put because you hope that the answer will be yes — particularly in the next few years — it's important to understand that there is no guarantee that the market is going to recover at any kind of reasonable pace. And when the market does change, it won't have "the perfect storm" of easy money, dropping interest rates, and strong economic conditions to accelerate as it did in the past.

So if you are in a position where you would not buy your home today because of your situation (whether family size, finances, or location), you should take action toward rightsizing.

Sharing your home

Another option for rightsizing housing costs is to cohabitate, either in your current home or in a shared dwelling. This is becoming more common, as grown children move back in with their