05. Scale
I know this place is big, but how big?
Lot Size Comparisons
One challenge I have designing the landscape is wrapping my head around the scale of the place. Seen in plan, the house and yard look deceivingly small. Seen in comparison to other houses, this place looks gargantuan. The house is large, which is not that unusual, but it is nearly all on one level, which is unique.
Another comparison that hits close to home is looking at my childhood home versus where we are now. You could fit 18 of my childhood home lots on our current property. When I was a child, I thought that our yard was pretty big. For the neighborhood, we happened to have the odd lot that was slightly bigger than average, but even still it was only 9,514 square feet. I recall that there was the covered patio, the big tree with the playhouse and swing set, the raised lawn area with the vegetable garden beyond, and we even had a side yard with the ping pong table.
In my childhood home, we fit a lot of unique spaces into a very small space. I don’t want to lose that sense of scale in our huge lot.
The next step is to revisit my spatial plan. Should I make some changes?