What makes a good porch?  Question: what are the characteristics for your dream-porch?  The book Pocket Neighborhoods is full of fascinating little asides.  Page 24 includes a thought-provoking list of six rules-of-thumb for designing a good porch. Porches are important because they provide a transition place between inside and outside. They also provide a transition between public and private space.  I've never...

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I'm currently reading Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small-Scale Community in a Large Scale World (2011/Taunton Press) (book) (website) by Ross Chapin. The forward is by Sarah Susanka, author of The Not So Big House. Pocket neighborhoods are clustered groups of neighboring houses or apartments gathered around a shared open space — a garden courtyard, a pedestrian street, a series of joined backyards, or a reclaimed...

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The Spare Key Springfield blog now officially exists. ...

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