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12/23/2005 Archived Entry: "Underground Living"

Jack has had a dream of living in a hobbit-hole type of house (but I don't think this is really going to happen for us anytime soon), so I was interested in these LJ posts from Suzette Hayden Elgin about the underground home she's been living in since 1980. (Via brisingamen's reading list)

Hobbitry: living underground, part 1 -- Light. "George built the house with a very open plan that had no hallways at all, with one huge central room and all the other rooms opening off that one, because in 1980 I was having to spend quite a lot of my time in a wheelchair. He had no way of knowing that moving to Arkansas was going to get rid of the need for that wheelchair, so he designed a floor plan that would let me get around in the house without having a lot of barriers to deal with. That turned out to be a good decision anyway. If we had the usual hallways and doors it would be much darker inside; with the open plan, the front window lights much of the house very well."
Hobbitry; living underground, part 2 -- Mistakes. "The worst mistake was failing to make the house big enough. We were trying for maximum efficiency and a simpler lifestyle, and trying to make our funds stretch as far as possible, and we achieved those goals. But we built a house for an image of our future based on two adults growing old together. We had no idea that several of our children -- and their children -- were going to move to Arkansas and join us, so that there was a serious need for a 'rec room' of some kind where the kids could hang out, and for a guest wing where people could stay while finding jobs and places to live."

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