“Community allowed humanity to survive and thrive.”
Community Is Our Foundational Pillar
As we realized that our Drury Lane neighborhood and our town are the true inspiration for this project, community became the first and most important pillar of our philosophy. This connects to the fundamental truth: belonging is a universal human need and why community has been part of human evolution since the earliest hominids walked on earth. When Mike and I chose to stay instead of move, we were really choosing the most precious gift a community can give: that warm sense that tells you: “I belong; I am at home here.”
While simply managing an extensive house renovation is a big job by itself, we were eager to challenge the typical paradigm of “house project = headache.” Instead we asked ourselves: what can we do to make this project a community-building effort?
“I belong; I am at home here.”
While simply managing an extensive house renovation is a big job by itself, we were eager to challenge the typical paradigm of “house project = headache.” Instead we asked ourselves: what can we do to make this project a community-building effort?
Assembling a strong team of experts:
Our design team of experts includes an architect who focuses in sustainable builds, an interior design team who are skilled in form, function and aesthetics, a solar specialist who can ensure we create the optimal solar system for our home while also helping us navigate the various tax credits and agreements that accompany such a system, landscape gurus to plan out all the foundational aspects for our yard to become a high-yield garden retreat, an eco-focused engineering team to ensure everything we do will be structurally sound, a third party verifier to help us navigate the LEED process for a sustainable home.
Involving our local and global community:
Reviewing our plans with our immediate neighbors over an afternoon of cake and tea. We wanted to make sure our neighbors were pleased with how the house would look as well as comfortable with the overall renovation process. We were thrilled when some of our neighbors gave us additional input that made our plans even better. (picture of one-pager)
Enrolling two critical town councils – the Arlington Heights Design Commission & the Zoning Board of Appeals -- into the project.
Thanks to our architect’s ability to take our vision of renovating the home in a way that maintains the historic charm of the neighborhood and design architectural plans accordingly, our local Design Commission enthusiastically and quickly approved modernizing the home. (Design Commission sign)
We also secured approval to extend beyond the average setback of the home to have a full front porch by sharing our desire for the home to truly benefit our community and serve as a place for neighbors to enjoy. Thanks to our amazing neighbors who also came to the hearing or wrote their endorsement for the front porch, we won unanimous approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Hosting a project kickoff – Happy Boolo Open House party – before the renovation work began. Inviting neighbors, family and friends to stop by and check out what this holistic house renovation entails, we wanted to celebrate all the amazing people in our lives who have inspired this project. We were thrilled when our Mayor Tom Hayes and other Village Trustees joined us for the event and the project inspired newspaper coverage by Chicago’s Daily Herald and Forbes.
(Video of the party – Jason to create; Picture of us before the party; Signed wall)
We have reached out to various friends in the building trades and even our landlord for our rental home who also happens to be a builder for advice.
We check in with neighbors along the way to ensure that the renovation process is working for them in terms of noise level, parked cars, etc. Many of them are generously sending us pictures and videos of the process along the way.
We have enrolled several friends – artists, gardeners and other creative spirits – to contribute personal touches to our home. (picture of Bettina’s
Infusing the design process with one of the driving passions behind the project – sharing homemade food with others:
During the design phase (pre-pandemic of course), we hosted all meetings and working sessions with team members at our home and served homemade food. Whether an all-day meeting with our designer to finalize the kitchen layout or a meeting with our architect and designer to review final placements in our master bedroom, we shared some of our favorite homemade dishes. (Meeting 1; Meeting 2; Meeting 3)
When given the choice of having our November 3rd Design Charrette (an official all-day meeting to review what LEED credits we will achieve with key design team members and our third party verifier) at the architect’s office or at the 3rd party verifier’s office, we chose our home as the venue and planned for a homemade meal. This ensured that all of our experts were fully enrolled to our vision in the same way.
Enrolling the tradespeople into our vision:
While we keep project communication between our architect-GC and the tradespeople on the job, we still make a point to meet each person or team contributing to the build process. We share the background of the project and let them know that their work is critical to our vision. Pre-pandemic, we shared homemade treats at the job site, and now we provide pizza lunches every so often. Once the project is complete, we look forward to celebrating with all the people who actually built the house.
Building the actual home structure to foster community:
We have made many design decisions to ensure the renovated home supports our view of community:
Designing the structure and flow of the common area on the main floor to accommodate friends, family and neighbors gathering for dinners and celebrations once the renovation is complete
Providing easy access through sliding glass doors to our backyard retreat where we can connect with our neighbors
Making the front of the home an inviting place for all to enter, a relaxing place for us to relax and share a casual hello as neighbors take their evening walks and a gathering spot for social activities by building a formal front entrance and front porch.
We hope our Happy Boolo home can enhance our already strong local community and serve as a meaningful gathering place to talk, share and learn about happy, healthy, sustainable and community-oriented ways to live. We also hope that it inspires others to think about ways they can build stronger community in their own world.