Locomotoring

Our home! This summer marks the 10th year we have resided here, the longest we have been in any one home as a family, and the longest I have lived anywhere. The house itself is over 90 years old. It has strong bones. I wish that no tree was harmed in its making, but our home, and homes like ours, wiped out California’s old growth Redwood forests. And now, while I am trying to untether myself from my existential guilt of living in a 90 year old house that is built with a 1000 year old tree, Philip Stielstra is planting Redwood trees up the Pacific northwest to give them a chance against climate change (link).

The house has a sister house. Once upon a time, the house next door and this one were owned by two sisters, the two built the two homes to a single template, that of a ranch style house shaped as a J. The sister house was remodeled by its current owner from a J to a D. And we remodeled ours into a O, with an inner courtyard at the center of the O. I found myself particularly grateful to our architects once I realized that the pandemic has left me with a home office. A home is a shelter foremost and then, if one is lucky, an investment. But when the home is thoughtful and flows to accommodate you, it elevates your mood every day. The inner courtyard does wonders to the intimacy – no part of the house feels remote. The design is in synchrony, the new parts holds their own ground and do not compete with the charm of old parts. The sloping land is used cleverly so that the tall ceilings of the new do not overwhelm the old. Tiny spaces have been given special attention, so they become jewels, spaces to look forward to rather than avoid.

Thanks to our architects and the amazing Mikiko, our house appeared in Sunset magazine earlier this year (link). Since the publication, we named our house the Aangan house. Many houses in India, particularly those that have the luxury of space, have a central courtyard around which the house is built. The concept of the central courtyard comes from our anemoia (link), we grew up in cities and watched Ray’s movies with wistfulness. Not taking entropy into account, the house looks exactly the same as Mikiko’s photos. Although our view of the blue sky is criss-crossed with a very large number of utility wires – power lines and internet – another reminder of busy cities in India!