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Show NOVEMBER 22, 2000 WASATCH COUNTY COURIER ee | | The Instant Guest Room | | square pil- feel ‘lows, known as European size, are perfect. , You'll find these ideas and Daybeds also are great in family and playrooms when many more for creating guest children’s rooms or nurseries. — several guest areas are needed. rooms in the new book Better Family holidays often include — Even though I have a guest Homes and Gardens Bed & Bath young guests, and it’s a good room in my current house, I Decorating Ideas & Projects idea to add an extra bed in your use a futon as my den (and (Better Homes and Gardens child’s room. _ extra guest space) sofa. . Books, $14.95). Another idea in the hock 3 is In a more traditional, counWhen space is tight, one of to create a daybed in a child’s" try or cottage style home; a my favorites is to include a room by hand-painting or sten- convertible sofa can be the ideal daybed in the study, den or sit- ciling a headboard on the wall. substitute for the conventional ting room. Daybeds work well When space is really tight, living-room sofa. Buy a convert- . because they create extra sit- remember the futon or convertible sofa the same way you do a ting and reading areas when ible sleeper sofa. Such a piece mattress: try it out in the store. _ you don’t have guests. anchors your living or family Unfold the bed and lie down on Anything from a simple sturoom during the day and still it. Test out several sofas 1 in dif- . dio bed, converted from a sin- welcomes overnight guests. ferent quality ranges. _ » extra pillows, my guests right at home. . - day times, one or more fold“down beds can be a cost-effec- storage. Include a small table’ tive solution to a short-term — space crunch. = Remember the basics and cover the mattress with a thick, Check with an architect, remodeling contractor or interi- quilted pad before making the bed. Guests appreciate an or designer in your area for a extra blanket, oversized pil lows for reading and relaxing, and a soft coverlet or throw. For the ultimate instant guest room, install a pull-down. — er ry guest room during busy holi- trunk in place of a coffee table that your guest can use for -andlampforreading, the addition of a reading lamp, — oversized pillows for reclining Big or wood | , eee f My secret to making a -§% daybed comfortable is as easy > \ as including plenty of firm, relaxing. | local source and installer. When. space is tight, little extras count in making your guests feel welcome. Include a small, empty chest that can dou- ble as a nightstand. And add an alarm clock, reading material bed. Such beds, which are sold and water carafe. If possible, alone or as part of modular units, offer guests the comforts _ make sure the designated space has a radio, small television and _ ofa standard mattress because the mattress doesn’t have to be telephone. Purchase a_ hotelpliable enough ‘to fold. When style, fold-up luggage rack to the bed is stored away, tucked- | store in a closet. Arrange fresh in linens can be left in place. flowers in a vase at the bedside For decorating options, table. Emulate upscale hotels hang a print or poster above the with a turndown service featurbed. Or, if you are having cus- ing candy or ‘cookies on a pretty | tom cabinetry designed and plate. installed, consider having nar- — _ The instant ae row shelves built above or on. now complete. room is the leit and ee Soda to grow favorably-on our side of the fence. The world. other side was truly another The “Spring Meadows Apartments” were built by the same contractors, around the same year. However, over time they had gone in a completely different direction. It may have been. a combination of their landlord’s managing philosophies: casual background checks, government subsiMAI THEW HEIMBURGER * SPECIAL TO THE COURIER _ dies welcomed, and maybe even the snooty attitudes of its neighbors, but whatever the reason, Spring Meadows (contrary to its name) was a scary place. As I walked through its grounds on ot so long ago in a valley not so the night in question, three pre-pubes- far away... I was walking home from: my bus- cent girls were strolling through the stop on Salt Lake City’s State Street one evening. Having circumvented a dead end, and slipped through a gap in parking lot, talking loudly of sex. On a whim they asked me if I had a car, but told me where to go before I had a a fence, I had only to jump a creek chance to reply. Old dilapidated vehi- before ‘arriving in the back parking lot cles sat rotting, plants were trampled, of our “apartment community.” To my surprise, someone had finally erected a fence along the creek so as to sepa- and the air was heavy with the smell of artificial living. This, within sight-through the sturdy new fence-of our own relative para- rate our apartments from those next ‘ dise next door. | There are two main problems with store-the ones I was now in. I had to walk the length of the fence-about two — _ blocks each way-in order to get home. My wife and I lived in the -“Stonehedge Apartments.” Though they were built in the 70’s, they had been kept up over -the years. The apartments were actually large by today’s standards-almost 1,000 square feet-and were designed well. The grounds were equally pleasing: several ponds attracted muskrats, ducks, and geese, with occasional sightings of woodpeckers and swans. Roads and sidewalks were swept clean, and even the above scenario. First, no one should | have to live in a shabby place like Spring Meadows. There should bea minimum _ acceptable level for housing that society _ should determine and enforce. Not that screaming Sade “hyper-base”, and - Meadows. Even in our. “paradise” occasional gunfire. It should encourage - there were some three-hundred and pleasing environs where man feels a _ sixty families living on approximately ~ part of the larger natural world, rather — ten acres. If the average family size _ than a prisoner enclosed in a tight maze — was three (even higher next store) of three-story cinder blocks. Finally, it that adds up to over a thousand peo— should include some measure of choice: ple! One thousand people spending where tenants can choose a place that 2/3 of each day cramped into a tiny — suits their needs, a place of which they _ square of land in the heart of a metrocan be proud-rather than “whatever the -politan area increasingly wracked by _ Market leaves to them.” | crime and pollution. Which brings up the second point: But Spring Meadows was worse. perhaps the trend towards placing all. _ Often that year, my friends there left but the most wealthy into cramped _ their homes for work-usually low-pay- apartments and tenements is wrong in ing, service-sector jobs reflected by * and of itself. Over-population aside, their choices in housing-only to come there seems to be enough room and - home and find that while their pay had - enough money in America to bring. remained static, their rent had about earnest housing reform-if it was increased to take a disproportionate a desire of those in power. Clearly, percentage of their overall paycheck. however, such reform does not rank. _ Often, then, both parents had to work high enough to alter current trends. to keep up, so children were sent off to ‘When we left our apartment in Salt school with the hope that they would | Lake City to come to the Heber Valley, be inspired by the sacrifices of an the last few open fields in that area absentee family instead the. solidarity were being filled in with duplexes, conand immediacy offered by local gang dos, and high-density apartments. The alternatives. And Spring Meadows was creation of future Spring Meadows one of the better alternatives in the city. continues because the Market favors . It was a vicious cycle of high propefficiency and profitability over all erty values, high-density building, and other economic values. Thus, even in high rents; and the high social costs _ the healthiest of economies, stratificathat resulted had to be paid by people tion of income and housing becomes _ on both sides of the fence. the end result of an often illusory eco- _ But that was long ago in a valley far _ this level has to be imposed by govern- ment mandate: it should flow naturally - from the compassion of the Have’s to the needs of the Have-Not’s and on to an agreeable standard. 7 This new standard should consider | proximity of community without forcing people to have to suffer a cacophony of nomic growth. n anec_ Apartment living-while ofte essary step-was never meant to be the away, ~ "rm Even in Paradise You Must Pay the Rent pTHELAST Tee er having the platform built in. and | Cie TCE for a daybed. bedside table, lush bedding and | tbe sides of Bie bed for necessties such as an alarm clock and Teen es, I’ve used a futon, a pull-down bed unit, or a convertible sleeper room and living room. But with firm- yy lightweight wicker with an alcove or nook, consid-. sofa in just about every possible and determines how comfortable _ Possible locations for a pull: and comfort. Shop for the frame | the bed:will be. Choose other — down bed are a home office, a finish and mattress cover fabric furnishings, such as the coffee family room or playroom. The bed could be positioned that works with your interior. table, that can moved with ease ~Well-made futons are easy if your sofa is in fairly frequentbetween bookcases. If you need more than one to convert and often used in “ly guest use. Or substitute a _-. sls the years. In different hous- location: the den, basement play- sicher acticin, price points. Futon mattresses: - ness of the mattress, which | reading lamp. some real finds in upholstered or metal headboards ‘if you look. Or if you have a room ve dealt with both situations to thickness also vary in construction quality for custom daybeds. There are oe can accommodate? the foot board translates to a com- consignment. and resale shops _ son? Or with more overnight visitors than your one guest ‘bs addition note > - - | and thankfully we will never have to face the same issues here in _ Heber Valley, right? Right? American Dream itself. It only seems normal because so much of our popuMatthew Heimburger is a professor lation is getting used to it. -. of American civilization at BYU. He Of course, Stonehedge was just as lives here in the a Valley with his. illustrative of the problem as Spring a: and son. ayn quandary of no guest room this holiday sea- ariatiufnenieed with a padded headboard and fortable bed for a guest. | ~ And here’s another tip: shop faced with the are rn 1A Futons with wood and metal frames at all rn re you | ! se :gle mattress and box springs on a frame, to a custom daybed” LINDA HALLAM mining BY _ EDITOR, BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS BOOKS _» FOR AP SPECIAL FEATURES |