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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Taking stupid and unnecessary risks
  • Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2005 10:53:47 -0700


In 1990 one million people went to the hospital or morgue from falls down stairs---and kids, elderly with second story bedrooms typically do not survive a fire whose killer heat and fumes rush up a staircase.
Two-story houses and their staircases are killers no one should allow in family living quarters any more than uncaged thirty-foot Boa Constrictors.

I am currently wrestling with a home design dilemma pertinent to this subject. I like a shed roof high toward the sun, with a row of clerestory windows above the south greenhouse-porch. Using optimal roof angle to capture November-February heat, even with the intelligent one-room house depth, perhaps 24 feet maximum, and beginning at seven feet height at the north wall, such a roof creates a very high ceiling at the south part of the interior. This is a space waste and, perhaps more importantly, represents a huge amount of cubic feet that need to be heated and cooled beyond what good solar, shade and insulation design provides. One partial solution I am exploring is having a loft library-office up there. So, to the matter of access. Elevators are too expensive. Stairs take up a lot of space and are dangerous if the mind wanders, even if made one-person wide and with overkill on the handrails. Both stairs and a heavy library ladder are problematical to aged joints. What is the solution?






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