Who is Our Designer?

"We shop at cookie-cutter stores in cookie-cutter malls and eat at cookie-cutter restaurants, not because the food is special but because it is familiar."
--Leonard Pitts

One of my favorite TV shows is "House Hunters." I'm not alone, because it is the most-popular show on HGTV. Each episode features someone shopping for a house and considering three different possibilities. It is rigidly formulaic yet oddly satisfying. Not only do we get to see inside lots of houses, but we see how people select where they will live.

Some people seem keenly aware of their own needs and choose based mostly on affordability, comfort and convenience. Others choose based on specific features and extra size. Sometimes someone makes what I think is an irrational choice to live an extra 30 minutes from his/her workplace to get an unnecessarily larger house.

Every once in a while a very interesting house is shown--perhaps a charming, unusual design or a vintage house in wonderfully-preserved condition. I find it rewarding when these houses wind up being chosen.

There's a spread in this morning's San Diego Union-Tribune about a one-of-a-kind midcentury house, lovingly and passionately restored to its original design. (See it at http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060903/news_mz1hs03moder.html)

In restoring the house, the owner, Keith York, committed a number of "House Hunter" no-no's, including installing the same model cooktop and oven as in the original design, and removing two bedrooms from the side of the house, reducing the overall square footage. He's quoted in the story as saying he's thinking of moving the rear wall back to its original position, further reducing square footage.

As I read this I realized that many of us have allowed our homes to be, in effect, designed by realtors for sale, rather than allow our homes to be designed simply to live in. Good realtors are good stewards of "what sells." In a way, they carry contemporary taste and trends--at heart, I think this is what is fascinating about "House Hunters."

Surely our homes are more than interchangeable commodities. If so, who is our designer?

(photo by Paul Body)