February 11, 2003
Home and Garden
Heidi and I joined our friend Ali last week at the Minneapolis Home and Garden show. We had a blast and it feels like we walked about ten miles inside the Convention Center, but we know it wasn't nearly that far.
So many things to see, and so many ideas that would be wonderful to incorporate into our home. Unfortunately, I feel that the trend toward larger homes is affecting the ability of the average homeowner to utilize some of these technologies in existing homes. Sure, with a wholesale revamp of our house, some of the greater pieces of technology would be easy to install, but in most cases, I don't plan to rip down the walls of the house.
So, as I ponder the work to be done on our current home (which I love) we cast our gaze on things that will improve the value of the house yet not outpace the neighborhood. Egress windows. Home networking components. Upgraded appliances. Radiant heat flooring. More efficient mechanical equipment (furnace, water heater, etc). Since most of these things can be added during a remodel without completely re-engineering the house, they seem to make practical sense.
Of course, if I were having a home built to our specs, and if I included all the great new technology and whiz-bang gizmos, the house would vastly outpace my wallet, but it's fun to dream nonetheless.
It's not so far a stretch to see our house with some great new stuff... maybe even the gazebo and hottub we chatted about, but perhaps the waterfall one-ton landscape rocks will have to wait.
Posted by MEK at February 11, 2003 01:57 PM