Sterling Pointe Estates Owners Association

Is Your House a 10?

1. Does it inhabit its site as if it belongs? Or does it clash with nature and the surrounding buildings?
   
   
2. Does the design create inviting "rooms" outside? Or are the outside spaces awkward leftovers or just paths from the car to the house?
   
   
3. Does the roofline provide a sense of shelter and a coherent feeling for what the inside spaces are like? Or is the roof a jumble of unrelated, disproportionate shapes?
   
   
4. Are windows and skylights used to give rooms a balance of pleasing natural light? Or are some rooms gloomy and others too bright?
   
   
5. Are the rooms and components -- walls, windows, doors and so on -- in good proportion to each other? Or does the house feel unbalanced, with some parts too big or too small?
   
   
6. Does traffic move gracefully to and through the house? Or is the entrance uninviting and the inside traffic pattern confusing?
   
   
7. Do the main rooms mix public gathering spaces with cozy private spaces? Or are people forced to choose between being with others or being by themselves?
   
   
8. Does the house have places of refuge that look out onto the rest of the house or outside? Or does every place in the house feel either out in the open or closed off and claustrophobic?
   
   
9. Does the house offer pleasing spaces between indoors and out, such as porches, breezeways and window seats? Or is the house a fortress, cut off from the outdoors?
   
   
10. Do the house's materials complement each other? Or do the roof, walls, windows, steps, flooring and other materials clash, with rustic and refined materials mixed carelessly together?
    
    

The more "yes" answers to the first question of each pair, the closer your house comes to the ideals of Patterns of Home.

Source: Patterns of Home: The Ten Essentials of Enduring Design by Max Jacobson, Murray Silverstein, Barbara Winslow