Nowhere to Hide
Are Open-Concept Home Plans on the Way Out?
Isn’t it great to enter an open, sunlit home and gaze from the entry through to the kitchen, the family room, and beyond, without obstructions or walls? Maybe … or maybe not. For sheer aesthetics, few layouts rival the open-concept plans that won favor in the mid-20th century. As postwar families grew and the average house size shrank, designers opened communal interior spaces to make houses seem larger, brighter, and more pleasant for entertaining. By the 1990s, open-concept designs had become the standard. Then, along came another mega-trend: the move to working remotely. As homes began doubling as workplaces, the shortcomings of open-concept plans loomed large. Avoiding interruptions by family members, children, or roommates in an open- concept floor plan is difficult. Also, in an
era of soaring energy prices, open-plan designs are expensive to heat and cool. Designers are responding by creating more homes with closed rooms or separate spaces that allow for privacy and quiet. Meanwhile, open-concept plans aren’t going away completely. If you are a remote worker stuck in an open- concept home that isn’t working, consider these strategies to aid concentration. • Try to transform a room or defined space close to your internet router with a door you can shut. Many remote workers have converted closets, garages, laundry rooms, and sheds into functional offices. • If you manage to create a dedicated workroom, you will probably spend a lot of time there, so consider ways to make the space multifunctional.
Add compact workout gear, a meditation mat or chair, or a window seat for reflection to break up that monotonous focus on work. • If your only alternative is to
continue working out in the open, use props to signal to
others that you’re working, such as noise-canceling headphones or a standing screen around your desk. And as Nir Ayal writes in his influential book “Indistractable,” the most important boundaries may be mental. Cultivating the ability to focus intensely on what you’re doing and manage the psychological discomfort that leads you off track can help you create the privacy you need. Regardless of your future work setting, these skills and room strategies will help you improve your productivity and sharpen your focus.
ASK YOUR CONTRACTOR
Estimate Roofing Costs in Seconds
As many as 1 in 10 Americans has fallen victim to home-improvement scams, including many involving dishonest pricing, research shows. Some contractors give homeowners a lowball quote, then jack up the price sharply and demand more cash in the middle of the project. Other scammers charge a large down payment to begin work, then disappear with the cash. Older homeowners are most often the victims. We make a point at our company of honest pricing and firm, reliable quotes. We recently began offering a new online pricing service that underscores the high priority we place on transparent, trustworthy pricing. To receive an instant estimate of the cost of reroofing your home, navigate to the top right corner of the home page on our website and click on the
orange “Get Instant Quote” button. Then, spend a moment typing in your address, your name, and your email, and you’ll receive a satellite image of your rooftop. After you answer any questions about the roof slope, you’ll receive an estimated quote for a new roof. When a customer is ready to move forward with their roofing project, they can call us to come out for a full inspection to make sure the online quote they received is accurate. The online tool can’t account for all aspects of every job. For example, if the house is on a steep hill that would be difficult for our crews and trucks to access, we would have to include an additional charge in our final quote. But based on our experience, the quotes delivered by the online estimator are mostly accurate.
The option has been very popular with visitors to our website. Homeowners appreciate having a ballpark estimate of what a new roof would cost today. This enables some to budget for the cost in advance. The estimator also allows a homeowner to test the waters without having to make an appointment for one of our estimators to come to their home and do a full inspection (takes about 1–2 hours). As this online tool shows, we aren’t playing games with people when we price our projects. Our quotes don’t contain hidden surprises. We apply the same straightforward combination of mathematics, experience, and expertise to deliver quotes to all of our customers, regardless of their age or experience. We look forward to doing the same for you!
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