I've been wondering about this. My wife and I have frequent discussions about this particular subject. While I acknowledge there's some value in making things look good I'm a believer in getting things done adequately so that whatever is being done gets done quickly, simply, and inexpensively so it will do the job its intended to do without alot of frills. It bothers me to burn up alot of time just for the cutesy effect. I really like the concept of synergy but that can lead to an unconventional aesthetic element but will reduce the work and time required to get the desired effect.

What about you folks? How important is the role of aesthetics in your homestead projects and long term planning?

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), May 20, 2000

Answers

You guys sound like my wife and me, we're totally opposed on the form/function thing too. Im almost totally in the function camp, I'll go along with form to appease her until it begins to interfere with the function of it then I stop there.

Besides, something thats well made/does its job well and is efficient has a intrinsic beauty all of its own.

The wife couldnt care less if it works well/is sturdy or if its not, its gotta look cute. She drives me up a wall with it sometimes so then I tell her "I'll make it as well as I can, after that if its gotta be cute you're gonna have to do it yourself."

-- Dave (AK) (transmach@hotmail.com), May 21, 2000.

Uh-oh.......I think I have a foot in both camps here! First - please define cute: I personally am lusting after a pink flamingo water sprinkler at Wal-Mart (but can't convince myself to spend $6.99 on it) to me, it's cute, if somewhat tacky. You couldn't pay me to put one of those "granny bending over so her bloomers show" cutouts in my yard though. Guess it's a matter of different taste (however questionable).

For me, it depends on how bad I need it, how often I have to look at it, how ugly it really is, how well it works, etc...

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), May 21, 2000.

I've made both functional and attractive and just functional items. I am most pleased to gaze upon the project that looks good too--In other words all those misshaped odd pieces of wood I used for the little chicken house are painted to look more uniform. I am pleased to show others the ones that look good and I made myself.

Lots of time form assists function--a well painted, in good repair outbuilding will last longer. Clear bird netting is cheaper than tarps and is easier on the eye.

Now and then I drive up my drive (as my customers do) and assess how a stranger might see the place. Often leads to some changes. Like better weed whacking or driveway repair.

-- Anne (HT@HM.com), May 21, 2000.

Uh-oh.......I think I have a foot in both camps here! First - please define cute: I personally am lusting after a pink flamingo water sprinkler at Wal-Mart (but can't convince myself to spend $6.99 on it) to me, it's cute, if somewhat tacky. You couldn't pay me to put one of those "granny bending over so her bloomers show" cutouts in my yard though. Guess it's a matter of different taste (however questionable).

For me, it depends on how bad I need it, how often I have to look at it, how ugly it really is, how well it works, etc... After all, I am the one who used the sump pump to gutter to garden set up. BUT! It was one, or maybe two days a week and it could be taken apart and laid neatly in the edge of the garden when not in use. My ex is an absolute genius at creative engineering - the only thing I've ever found that the man couldn't do is get along with me! But sometimes we would go head to head when the difference between nice and damned ugly was a matter of a few minutes.

Fer instance: one place we lived, we built a two story barn type garage first and lived in it for about a year while we built the basement (and finished it to live in) of our new house. We insulated it and covered the insulation with OSB (oriented strand board/underlayment). Now OSB has printing on it in huge black letters - on one side only. How much longer does it take to put it up with the print side facing the wall? I won, by the way. We put drywall upstairs of the garage instead of OSB because I insisted - we hung, he mudded, I sanded and painted (and stenciled) because I was the one who needed at least ONE nice thing to look at. I also painted and spattered the plywood floor - a waste of time in his opinion, worth it in mine. I only put up with the tarp covering the basement stairwell doorway until I could find a door at a rummage sale that fit, then hounded him until he installed it that day (the tarp was his "improvement" over the view of stud lumber and insulation backing that was sending me over the edge - it was the view from the kitchen table. I tried drinking my coffee in the living room, but it just didn't help!). And I flat out refused to allow him to drag home an avacado green cookstove someone offered him, I used my crock pot and electric skillet for two weeks until I found a white one for $10.

My raised bed garden that I have now is a copy of one I built when the ex and I lived in town for a short time. It took too much lumber, too much time to build and was a pain in the butt to level and get set exactly right - per him. Until people started ooohing and ahhing over it - then it was all his effort (thought about braining him with the shovel, but he was in the middle of building me a new kitchen at the time, so I decided to hold off).

I guess I would go by the following rules: If it's really ugly, or embarrassing, don't put it in the front yard where folks can see it. If it's inside, will visitors see it and pity your wife? Publically? To other people? Then take the time to make it pretty - or at least get it to a point where she can take over and pretty it up herself. Is it a major improvement over what she had before? Leave it. Can you do it her way with not too much effort? Do it. Will she be happy every time she looks at it? Do it NOW!

Good luck, guys!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), May 21, 2000.

I SWEAR I didn't hit the submit button! Ooops!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), May 21, 2000.

John, yes, I am with you. Function. Even in the furniture in the house and the types of trees I plant. Only if the materials were of equal quality and one was the more attractive for the same price, would I consider the aesthetics of a project. Something sturdy and useful; that's beauty.

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), May 21, 2000.

Back in the day before time began--I traveled around the country staying in different states about 3 to 4 months each. I hated motels so I would rent a cheap old place. At one such place in SLC, Utah--they had intended to build a concrete block garage but had building permit problems. So, I built the entire furniture set in the house with concrete blocks and some cushions drapes and towels from salvation armies dumpster. When I left I offered to move the block outside but the owner ask me to leave it--he said " now I can rent the place as furnished" So, I prefer function ! If it works and works well than you can usually find a place to hide it when company comes a calling. My ugly but highly functional exercycle/grainmill combo sits under the stairs.

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), May 21, 2000.

I am visual in extremis! I am almost A.D.D. in moving through the world, and how I experience it. Aesthetics are very important to me, because it represents some kind of order out of chaos. This probably sounds nuts, but I consider myself otherwise mentally healthy!

With the exception of a couple of ad hoc projects (i.e.,temporary shelters for the sheep/goats out of pallets and plastic tarp) EVERYTHING structural goes on paper first, and is discussed by the two of us before construction. It's just as easy to take the time to make something attractive as it is to make something that looks bad. Really!

Our homestead is a work in progress but as an example, our barns are red, our outbuildings are dark green, our house and bunkhouse are white, our fences are painted white, and our friends and family remark on how nice things look. We scrounged most of the lumber and materials, based the designs around what we had that was available, and made it happen. Our roof designs and pitches are all planned to be about the same. And so on... We will never be on Martha Stewart's show (No way!) but I am happy with what we have achieved here, and so are the neighbors. BTW, there is NOTHING "cutesy" around here at all. No gimcrackery, just basically constructed, but nice to look at, stuff!

In general, I think it's just a matter of perception styles...different people are comfortable with different attitudes. Bauhaus "form follows function" combined aesthetics with functionality. I don't agree so much with the minimalist aspect of Bauhaus (I like the occasional windchime and garden ornament) but I agree on principle. And they did design some great architecture.

Whatever! I hope you enjoy your homestead and it serves YOU well. That's what counts!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), May 21, 2000.

I like both. I want function but I am a bit nuerotic in that things must not be cluttered! I like clean lines, visual interest with little assault , and did I mention, NO CLUTTER. I can't think when things are in complete chaos. I will stop at the end of the day on a project and clean up so that when I begin again everything is easily found. I don't have a partner at the homefront to worry about, but my business partner is the exact opposite of me and can find anything in the midst of the tornado path that she calls "the office".

If it works that is paramount, if it looks good and doesn't do it's job, it is helping no one. If it looks good and does it's job, it soothes the psyche as well as aiding in whatever task it was designed for! That is a win win combination.

-- Doreen Davenport (livinginskin@yahoo.com), May 21, 2000.

If it works that's usually good enough for me!!!!

-- Suzy in 'Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), May 21, 2000.

I find that I thrive on chaos. I follow the old saw Beauty is Function. If something does what it's supposed to, there is beauty in it. Primping it up to make it look cute detracts from it's innate beauty. My chicken pens to an outsider looks awful. But I used salvaged materials on 7/8ths of it. It does what it's supposed to, keep chickens in and predators out. I'm happy, my chickens are happy, and life's too short to worry about 'beautifying' it.

-- phil briggs (phillipbriggs@thenett.com), May 21, 2000.

I'm throwing in with Suzy and Phil here at the end. No frills, lots of chaos. Martha Stewart wouldn't even use me for a bad example. Some people in this area have some evergreens. Every year the family gathers. The family "expert" (and only he is allowed) trims the trees to identical cone shapes. Other family members follow in turn carefully raking the cuttings out of the trees and off the ground to be deposited in the garbage. I have evergreens too. Trimmed by sheep and mice and the occasional falling branch from another tree.

Friends tell me I "have" to have lace curtains and valances and pictures with bundles of twigs and fake flowers over them. Not for me. No frou-frou. Same thing outside. No cute signs, or rear-end cutouts. If something works, that's what it is supposed to do. If not, rework it. We don't completely ignore aesthetics. We're planning a new building now and (somehow) it will at least be suggestive of the buildings around it. But cost and ease of building will be even more important. Neatness counts. And paint helps a whole lot.

But since we're telling our dirty little lawn ornament secrets-does anyone know where I can get vultures? Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), May 22, 2000.

Have you tried collecting road-kill out on the highway and piling it in your front yard???

I really, really don't want to ask this, but I really, really, really gotta: Why do you want vultures?!? Where are you planning on putting them? I am assuming you mean wooden cutout ones, I hope so, anyway!

I do have lace curtains (very simple panels, hung inside the window frame on a tension rod - only curtains I have) and pictures on my wall - mostly relatives, some barn paintings done by a friend, and birds. I don't do the frou-frou ribbons and twigs stuff. I have a bunch of chicken cookie jars, pitchers and crocks and other old stuff on top of my kitchen cabinets (where the soffit OUGHT to be, according to Pop). I do have other stuff sitting around, but if I bought it - it has a function and can be used. If other people bought it, well... Have you ever noticed that if you buy one or two of something that appeals to you, all of a sudden other people start giving you the same type thing as gifts? I probably have 75 glass juicers - I collect them all right, I collect them in a box out in the shed until I can figure out where to put them!

I'm not saying form is more important than function, but with a little forethought and ingenuity, it is usually possible not to make things look TOO ugly.

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), May 22, 2000.

If push comes to shove, it's always function first. But if I have the resources to use, I'll make something as good looking as I can. I don't like overly ornate (no lawn ornaments here, but we have a wind chime and a flag). However the wife and I do enjoy neatness and it's inherent beauty.

Like the flower boxes my wife wanted (the front yard is her domain!). I could have slapped some together out of scrap wood, but spent $10 to buy some hangers and end caps and used some scrap aluminum gutter I salvaged. Already painted, won't rust, warp, or rot out. And it added a tremoundous amount of color and impact to what was a rather bland house. And I've had several people tell me that the view of the yard from the road is very "park like" - simple, neat, and beautiful.

I think it's important to be as neat as possible, as a place that is neat looking has a lot of impact and doesn't look trashy. I also feel that this helps garner the respect of neighbors. And if they respect you, they'll probably be more willing to work with you when problems come up.

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), May 22, 2000.

I've been planning some landscaping,scoping out bushes and such wherever we are out driving around. When I talk to my husband about it, he says he can't keep flowering stuff in his head, that if you can't eat it, what good is it?...I said, beauty feeds the soul, honey. Practical is good, but don't forget to feed your soul.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), May 22, 2000.

I suppose I'm a sad story here. What I'd like to be able to do is build stuff that is functional and aesthetic in appearance. What I'm usually capable of doing is to just build something that's functional (usually, anyways) that's ugly as a mud wall. Eventually, once it's proved its functionality I stop being embarrassed at how ugly it is.

My hen house built out of salvaged materials is a case in point. I'm no great shakes at carpentry, I wouldn't want anybody to look too closely at it but it *is* functional and none of the neighborhood dogs have figured a way to get in yet so I'm generally satisfied with it. I'm even going to paint it white and stencil "La Casa Del Pollo. R. Cogburn, proprietor" on the side! That's aesthetic isn't it?

..........Alan.

The Prudent Food Storage FAQ, v3.5

http://www.ProvidenceCo-op.com

-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@netscape.net), May 22, 2000.

My friends call me Mary Stewart, Martha's Sister, frills are a part of my life! I need cutesty! My middle name is either Organic or Cutesy! I have an artistic flare about everything I do! It is just who I am! And I totally believe my hubby did not pick me for his wife- -for functional--it was the cutesy!! He likes the cutesy if I don't go to extremes! My house has to be in order--& how I decorate it is an extention of my personality! I have fresh flowers in the house as long as anything is blooming! I have never served a cold drink in the summer without a mint leaf in the glass! I had friends die laughing when I told them I had a wadeing pool in my living room as a home for our baby ducks & geese(until they out grew it & had to go out side). They still ask my hubby if that was true as they can't believe it! I don't wear makeup because I'm allergic--but i have my toe nails painted--& have been known to have on earrings while working in the garden. Our yard is as decorated as the inside of our house! I have flowers planted everwhere! It doesn't hurt to be cute & functional!!

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), May 22, 2000.

My husband and I focus on function and durability. We still have 5 kids living at home and sure enough, someone will push a chair against the wall and dent the sheetrock or the new screen on the door will have a tear in it 24 hours after installation. Clean is our main issue. Our floors are cement, our living room ceiling is unsheetrocked. I like it that way. There are little straps on the ceiling to brace the floorboards upstairs. I use those braces to hang laundry by the woodstove during our cold Maine winters. To me, anything that cuts down on unnecessary expense and is useful is beautiful.

-- Bill Tower (bbill@wtvl.net), May 22, 2000.

I personally,don't have any use or patience for cutesy,especially if it's not functional.But,I do like things that are well made better than things that have just been thrown together out of rusty chicken wire and baling twine! I also like things that are easy to keep clean,and that don't require a lot of upkeep to look good and function well.Yes, the white,lacy,frilly bedspeads are beautiful, but they are just not practical, and would look bad in a few days around here,so we have quilts and denim bedspreads. I do think that if your farm is also a business,for example, people come here to buy goats,it sure pays(literally) to have the place looking halfway decent.My goats may have the same bloodlines as the other goat breeder's,but if they are in a pasture and barn lot cluttered with old cars and rusty junk,and the barn looks like a wreck,people just aren't going to think of the goats as being as valuable as they might if they were in a clean,well built barn.In our garden,food crops have the top priority,and very little time or money is spent on flowers.We have beautiful flower beds,but they are all perennials or annuals that reseed themselves with little upkeep.The woman who lived here before me had planted a lot of perennial flowers right in the garden beds,here,there and everywhere.When spring came, it was always a hassle to till the beds without wrecking the flowers.Then they also fell over onto the veggies,etc.I have been moving them all into one area that isn't good for food crops,and the garden will be only for veggies and fruit.But given a choice between something handmade and something mass produced,I will usually pick the handmade item,for example, a hand thrown pottery mug over a cheap one from walmart.It is more satisfying to drink from and wash and care for something that looks pleasing than something plastic and cheap.And, I have to admit, that I do enjoy milking the beautiful,well built goats more than the strictly utilitarian ones.There are times when asthetics and function go hand in hand.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), May 22, 2000.

I'm a practical person who also thinks life is too short to plod through it without smelling the roses from time to time. So, I enjoy things that are pleasing to the eye..."cutesy" is a bit of a putdown word for something that will give pleasure...and I enjoy pleasure with my practicality. So, whenever possible, be it using rock, instead of ties or wood for my raised beds or building the compost bin out of cedar instead of pallets, not only because it lasts forever, but because it is a pleasing wood to look at when it is linseed oiled....I like both. I see photographs as I look around my place...not cutesy, but aesthetic and soothing. Life is too precious to form it into a box to be stacked neatly with great practical purpose.

-- Jim Roberts (jroberts1@cas.org), May 24, 2000.

Aesthetics are important to both husband and myself..we are visual folks..gotta look , gotta like what we see..if it does not give us a sense of contentment, then it is not a good thing.Having said that, we have an area of our yard which has never seen the mower, wild things grow there (and live there)...we put up a sign "environmental experiment area"...we were just too lazy to run the mower around the tight spaces and saw no need to run out and buy a weed whacker just so the neighbors would be happy.The rest of the lawn is mowed when it gets too high to see the rabbits...as far as long term projects....we are planning to build a pond at our new home, but are not into goldfish or exotic plants..or much landscaping..if it suits wild ducks, it'll suit us just fine.So, I guess it vastly depends upon what makes an individual comfortable..lucky for us, husband and I have exactly the same comfort level...natural in appearance, with function in mind.

-- Lesley Chasko (martchas@gateway.net), May 24, 2000.