14 West Hawaii Real Estate | September 28, 2018
Natural light sets a nice mood, and builders seek more of it
The first year that Bob Webb
Homes used transom windows
in the showcase house
the company built for a
home tour, visitors described the
house as bright, warm and inviting.
While few mentioned the windows,
company representatives said tour
participants were responding favorably
to the additional natural light
provided by the horizontal windows
above the home’s more traditionally
placed windows.
“They couldn’t quite figure out
why our house felt different,”
said chief operating officer
Scott Shively. “It was all the
natural light. It just makes
you feel good.”
Taking a lead from architects
who design office
buildings, residential builders
and architects say they are
increasingly looking for ways
to incorporate natural light
into homes. (Numerous studies
have shown that office
workers with windows are
healthier and happier.) In addition
to transom windows,
many new homes include
large sliding glass doors, interior
glass doors and thoughtful
window placement that
lets light pass through multiple
spaces.
Improvements in weatherproofing
and insulation
materials and in installation
methods for windows and
doors have made it possible
to increase the amount of
glass in a house without creating
drafts, said Shively.
“We’ve figured out a better
way to layer houses,” he says.
“We can seal the entire house
up around the windows.”
In many cases, architects
are incorporating these features
because they see their
value — even if clients don’t
request them, says Stu Narofsky
of Narofsky Architecture
in New York City. Sometimes
the additions are simple, like
placing a bedroom window
where the light it lets in will
illuminate a hallway, or adding
glass panes to a door for
the same purpose. Other additions
are more dramatic, like
making an entire wall of glass.
Bob Webb’s latest show
home, designed for the 2018
BIA Parade of Homes in Columbus,
Ohio, features a retractable glass wall
in the living room and a basement
workout room that’s delineated by
sliding glass, barn-style doors. More
Midwest builders have begun using
the retractable walls, which have long
been prominent on the West Coast
and Hawaii, because they too have
undergone improvements that allow
them to be used in colder climates,
Shively said.
The see-through doors to the
exercise room serve two functions, he
said. They help incorporate the workout
area into the main room and provide
natural light to the whole space.
The doors work because the architect
also incorporated deep, wide window
wells into the basement’s design. “It’s
amazing what those deeper wells can
do. It makes a huge difference, and
that light bleeds into the rest of the
lower level,” Shively said.
In several homes that Narofsky has
designed, he has found an extreme
solution for incorporating natural light
in the lower level: digging out the
layers of soil around the basement. In
the space that’s created, homeowners
have planted terraced gardens and, in
one case, added a pool.
Homeowners who aren’t planning
to build a new house still have
options — at a variety of price points
— for bringing more natural light into
their space, said Jim Bimstefer, an
associate broker with Keller Williams
Realty in Baltimore.
“When I’m going to sell a house,
one of the first things I address is,
‘How can we get more light coming
in?’” Bimstefer said. “More light makes
a house feel bigger.”
The solution can be as simple as
trimming bushes and trees that are
blocking windows, removing screens
or keeping blinds raised during showings,
he said. “There a lot of little
things that can increase the value of
the home,” he said. “If there is vegetation
in front of the windows, absolutely
cut it back. Clean the windows.
Let the natural light in.”
Other options can be pricier, like
adding glass doors, enlarging windows
or installing skylights. Those
improvements are best done long
before listing a property so that the
homeowner can enjoy the benefits,
he said. The budget considerations
are “completely different” if you
intend to live in the house for many
years before selling it, Bimstefer said.
“Go crazy. Pull the walls down. Replace
the old front door. Open it up.
Put as much glass in as you can.”
As a remodeler, Christopher Wittmann
regularly considers utilizing
natural light when helping homeowners
plan renovations. Depending on
the project, he might suggest larger
windows, glass doors or removing a
wall, said Wittman of Callen Construction
in Muskego, Wisconsin.
He doesn’t hesitate to suggest
more glass these days. “The energy
efficiency has increased in windows
and doors,” he said. “You can create a
lot larger footprint in glass.”
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