Giving thanks

It’s a clear, crisp Thanksgiving Day in Norris. The rain from the first half of the week has moved on, leaving us with sunny skies today. Most of the trees have lost their leaves by now, and their branches fan out against the sky.

view of trees today while seated at kitchen table

On this day of giving thanks, we are thankful for the opportunity to experience living in the New Norris House. There are many things we appreciate about living here. To list just a few: the wide kitchen window, the skylight and the partitions that make interesting shadow patterns, the forest views, the comfy living room chairs, the long kitchen counter, the beautiful wood floors, the heat lamp in the bathroom, the cozy feeling created by the low ceiling in the bedroom, the pops of green from the houseplants, the way light streams in through the windows, the plants outside that will transform the landscape. We’re grateful to be living in a house with solid construction and careful design—architecture that leads to happiness.

skylight patterns and shadows

We wish you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving, and a day in which you find much to be thankful for.

In through the out door

Doors are symbols of new beginnings, opportunity, transitions, the unknown, and mystery. Doorways are often a precursor to the personality of a space, leading one to anticipate or imagine what might be inside. Entry doors are practical and functional, essential for controlling what comes in and out of the house.

ceremonial entrance with view of shared green space

When homes were constructed in Norris in the 1930s, the ceremonial entrances typically opened to shared green spaces between houses rather than directly to the street. The primary entrance to the New Norris house follows this pattern—when looking out this door, there are views of a shared forest and sloping hillside. The door is on the east side, and is accessed by stairs. Entering here places you in the living area, with a view directly into the swing space.

east entry with stairs

There is also a wider door on the west side which is accessible by a ramped walkway. Entering here brings you to the mudroom hallway with tile floor; exiting through this door provides access to the wood framed electrical enclosure where the recycling and garbage cans are stored.

west entry with outdoor electrical enclosure

Having two entrances can be convenient, especially when it’s raining—entering from the west side onto the tile keeps the wood floors dry. However, not everyone coming to the house knows there are two entrances. Visitors or delivery people knock on the door they perceive as the front door, and some choose the door up the stairs while others choose the door up the ramp. Their door choices may be influenced by the direction they take to get to the house; the door seen on approach might appear as the primary entry option.

west entry with ramp

The sound of knocking on either door resonates about the same inside the house, so it can be difficult to decide which door to answer. On several occasions, there have been a series of comical near misses—I open the wrong door and while walking across the house to the other door, the visitor has decided to do the same outside and soon starts knocking on the opposite door. The back of each door is made of cedar, so the opportunity to open either door and catch the refreshing scent while doing so is rather pleasant.

cedar on back of east entry door

The other set of doors in the house are the French doors in the living space. They open out to the deck and provide views of the backyard and forest. While not main entry doors, they allow easy access to the outdoor living space and the gardens, continuing the thoughts of the door as metaphor.

french doors in the living space

Photo 3 courtesy of UT College of Architecture & Design

Photos 4 & 5 courtesy of Ken McCown

Fall Volunteer Planting Day

When it comes to adding new plants to your landscape, most people think spring is the best time to plant. While some plants do well when planted in the spring, many plants, including trees and woody shrubs, benefit from fall planting. Trees and shrubs that are installed in the fall ultimately grow better because they have better conditions for root growth. In the fall, cooler atmospheric temperatures and decreased daylight hours signal the plant to stop growing above ground. Because the plant is not using as much energy to grow leaves and stems it has more energy to invest in root growth. Even though fall air is chilly, the ground remains relatively warm, and this further encourages root development. The roots continue to grow until the ground freezes, and in the spring root growth resumes or increases at an accelerated rate. Spring installed plants are at a disadvantage because their initial root growth is occurring in cool soils, while fall installed plants already have a well developed root structure. Well developed roots become increasingly important as cool, rainy spring weather gives way to hot, dry summer - a plant with well developed roots is much better equipped to deal with heat and drought then a plant that has a short and shallow root structure.

This past weekend we held a volunteer fall planting day at the New Norris House to complete the Phase II planting of trees and shrubs. We installed 55 shrubs to stabilize the slopes and provide food and habitat for wildlife.


We also planted 9 trees to provide buffer zones between our property and the adjacent properties. We planted 1 large dogwood in the front lawn as an accent tree. As the dogwood grows taller it will develop a horizontal branch structure that will frame the front large window.


The weather was perfect for digging and planting, and we had about 20 volunteers come to help. The day was a great success and we were able to install all the plants before lunchtime!

Thank you to all of the volunteers and Little River Nursery for providing the plant materials and donating the dogwood tree!

Fall color, inside and out

Autumn is here, and leaves are turning and falling. The riot of color outside changes a bit every day. Brown, red, rust, orange, yellow, and ochre leaves are mixed with green grasses and shrubs, and collect in piles when they fall.

from green to red to orange to yellow

Last week as I stood on the deck and looked at the trees in the back, it struck me that the colors used in the house are perfect complements to the colors in the fall landscape. Although white is the predominant paint color in the house, there are two other colors used on walls that can’t be seen from the main living area. The bedroom and bathroom each have an accent wall in golden yellow, and the swing space and loft each have an accent wall in reddish orange. Both colors match leaves hanging on to some of the trees around the house; the visual continuity of the outdoor and indoor is pleasing to the eye.

bedroom & bathroom

swing space & loft

Because the colored walls are balanced by white walls, the light coming in through the windows creates a reflection of that color on opposite walls. The photo below shows the effect—the only wall that is painted is the one down the middle, and the color faces the left. The light entering the skylight on the right has a much cooler tone since it is reflecting off a white wall. (View the original photo here.)

The furniture cushions and pillows are a light leafy green and buckskin, with one pillow in a contrasting reddish orange fabric similar to the paint color. The floor and kitchen counters are made of wood, with the floor a red oak and the counter a lighter more yellow oak. Houseplants have leaves ranging from chartreuse to dark green. Tile in the entryway is blue slate (although not visible from the house, reminiscent of the expanse of water on Norris Lake). All these interior colors have easily identifiable foils outside, and bring nature into the house this autumn.

furniture cushion

red oak floor

entryway tile