Share your design for a natural AP friendly home HERE!

[KindRedSpirit]

I keep thinking of ways we could change our home to better suit our lives.I think a solar dome house or yurt would be the best for us.Until then,we are living in a square single floor house in the city,with one tiny window on the south side.( We have windows all around,just not on the south.)We have 815 sq. feet split into 3 bedrooms,1 bathroom,1kitchen/laundry and a main entry/family room/den/dining area.Some of my basic ideas are-
Solar panels
add greenhouse/glass porch on south entrance
open up the attic into an all family co-sleeping loft
put laundry outside-build on a mud/laundry room on west side
eat Indian style on the floor/blanket table-get rid of bulky table and chairs
get rid of couches and have big cozy cushions-stackable,and great for forts!


I see most of MY issues are addressing the small space,but using less space is part of living naturally for some folks.
As far as designing around the AP aspect the co-sleeping loft would be a huge factor,as,I think,opening up the main room to removeable dining and kid friendly cusion/furniture would relieve a lot of space issues stress and teach cleaning and creativity as a part of the pattern of daily life.

I'm exited to hear some of your ideas !!!

[Amys1st]

for us, living in an AP friendly house is being our closenit selves.

We were on track to buy my inlaws home that has 4 bedrooms colonial job with lots of space etc. ITs great when the whole family comes over and we do holidays there etc. Its only 5 blocks away great everything.

Well we stayed there overnight last year while we painted our house and I was pregnt. With just the 3 of us since they were out, the home seemed huuuugggee. Then they got home, it still seemed like a huge amount of space. Since we are only having the 2 girls and not anymore, it dosent seem like a need for a very large spread out home.

For us then, a home that either has room for cosleeping or bedrooms closer together. I dont want a huge master suite away from my girls and neither does DH. Down the road, a master bath would be nice but now with 2 small girls its fine.
We have a very small inconvenient tv area. Its down in the bsmt close to the play area. Its not very inviting which is how we like it. I noticed dd dosent spend a great amount of time in front of the tv because she is all alone. She would rather be near us upstairs near the kitchen area which is where most of the family action is.

Kitchen- everyone shoudl be able to participate in the kitchen. Stools so the dc can help, they can "wash dishes" like my dd likes to do etc. Having them know their way around the kitchen teaches them to be resourcefull.

PC- We have a laptop that is all around so its easy to monitor what is going on. DD1 is starting to know her way around the pc and its not in a room somewhere but right in front of us.

Our whole family participates in gardening, shoveling snow, raking leaves and so on. It shows our kids how to again do things and be resourcefull. Dd2 is still little but we wear her and she can particiapte right along.

Our main floor is open. It has the eating area, living area w the stereo, as well as the kitchen. Since our house is smaller than larger, its easy to be together all the time. No need for baby monitors etc since the baby is within earshot even during a nap. The only exception is night time and the kids are asleep and we are out side in the back yard or garage, thats when the monitor is used.

We also scratch cook so dd is learning at an early age about healthy eating and cooking.

[North_Of_60]

I think this stuff tends to lean toward NFL - natural family living (at least for the solar panels and what not). No? I guess the open-air, unsegregated aspect is AP.

We have a small house as it is, so we're always together. I like that. I think the important thing is not making it such that everyone ends up leading separate lives under the same roof, and that goes for kids and parents.

[Amys1st]

For me as I said, I AP home is one where I am close to my family. I also like there to be a very user friendly aspect so everyone can participate in what is going on. But because of some of our habits like gardening, building our own almost everything, less of tv etc, it kind of defaults to NFL too. Sorry!