To go away or stay home...

This is a question for the Memorial Day Weekend coming up that many of us ask ourselves and family. Then again it's not only the holiday weekends that bring up this question. It comes up on numerous occasions as we consider travel to new areas and trying out resorts, lodges or camps.

I had the occasion to visit Big Bend National Park recently on a birding trip with my wife and friends and then visited the Davis Mountains to explore this beautiful area. We stayed at the Indian Lodge which is a unique inn located in Jeff Davis County northwest of Fort Davis within the bounds of Davis Mountains State Park. Built in the 1930s, it was opened to the public in 1939.

When we "discover" a new place with intriguing environments don't we all think, "wouldn't it be nice to have a place here?" We think about this seriously at least for a time and some of us actually make plans to come back and look for property maybe as a place to retire to permanently or to have a second home. It is an intriguing process, this finding our own space.

Others of us consider not having a second home but improving our own place or buying a principal place to live with the amenities we would like to live with. This is what some of us have been working on and we set out to make our own space something like the resorts, lodges or camps we have enjoyed visiting in our travels. Is this at-home resort life possible?

The concept of living with a pool as an architectural feature in your landscape is compelling and can create an atmosphere found in some resorts. There are some simple concepts of adding not only a pool but a "pool environment" that has caught on with homeowners where the landscape architect works to incorporate pool rooms as space that creates an outdoor/indoor integration. This is an extension to the ideas of creating outdoor living space that was touched on in an earlier post Outdoor Living Rooms.

Some homeowners are actually creating a resort at home with very luxurious pool houses with kitchens, baths and entertaining spaces so homeowners and their guests can mingle about & enjoy the experience. Indoor-outdoor design holds the added appeal of outdoor living with indoor comforts and is more attractive in warmer regions like Southern Arizona as where we are more apt to open the doors year-round.

A fireplace, whether indoor or outdoor, is another popular element of a pool house or backyard oasis. The fireplace is an ideal spot to gather for family time or assembling a group of friends rather than going out. Pool areas with comfortable furniture and outdoor fireplaces continue to gain popularity in Arizona since when the sun goes down the perceptible temperature can drop quickly. An article in RDB magazine on luxury pool houses shows just how exquisite some of these projects become. Some homeowners have actually achieved the feeling of arriving at their own personal resort as they have managed to design & build their own at-home oasis or purchased a home having this feeling.

Looking toward another great month of mixed indoor and outdoor living in the Upper Sonoran desert has me reading about outdoor spaces, landscape design and outdoor rooms. This concept of integration of indoor and outdoor space has been in my thoughts lately as I start working toward designing such space at my home on the Salero Ranch.

Tucson Home integration of backyard oasis with porches off home and casita where French doors bring "outside in"

Actually since we built our home and moved in 2000 we have "dragged our feet" in getting the "landscaping done", and now I am so glad we waited. Once you have "lived with a place" for a while, you come to see it in a different light, quite literally. I have watched the seasons change, felt the warmth of the sunny south exposure and watched as the ocotillos flourish on that side of the home and noted the cool to cold north side of the house where the soil stays damp and shade predominates. This living with your home for a time before finishing (in the traditional sense) it doesn't fit the typical model for construction scheduling and timing move-in for new homes because there are both design/build packages and packaged expectations on the part of the owners. If your plans will allow for it, you will save 2 things by waiting to finish your home until later. First you will save money because you will have time to get designs and bids done in a more leisurely manner. Second, you will save time in what it might take to re-do or customise the already executed landscape plan that once lived with, is not actually what you would have wanted.

So as I have been reading I came across Steve Martino & Associates whose Landscape Architecture firm received the ASLA Professional Design award in 2006 for RESIDENTIAL DESIGN AWARD OF EXCELLENCE. This remodel of a home in Paradise Valley Arizona was clearly what the type of example I had been looking for to provide me with some inspiration for my own project.

Here is a link to an article that will be in my May Newsletter on Outdoor Rooms. It gives some perspective on how popular the trend is becoming as we spend more time around home as a nation. What is not mentioned that I feel is an additional reward, is that the assessor typically looks at "heated & cooled" areas to assess a homes square footage (covered porches are assessed but not at the same rate as heated living space). This is a way to not only enjoy the outdoors, but possibly save on real estate taxes as well since you would be adding "outdoor living space" vs "indoor living space".

Here is one vendor with packaged models for outdoor rooms. Fire Stone Outdoor Great Rooms.