Technology changes the way we live, but sometimes those changes aren’t for the better

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While it’s obvious that technology changes the way we live, sometimes those changes aren’t for the better — and sometimes we hardly notice what we’ve lost. 

Take air conditioning, for instance. Before it became common in Canadian homes, houses were designed to provide as much comfort as possible without active cooling. One result was the widespread use of open verandahs. 

A good verandah creates a transition zone between outdoors and indoors. You get shade, whatever breeze happens to be blowing, and a place to enjoy the outdoors even when it’s raining. 

This is one reason I built a wraparound verandah around my entire house. It completely changes the experience of living in the place. We’ve got couches out there, a hammock suspended beneath the roof and several Muskoka chairs. The covered space is also excellent for year-round barbecuing. Pouring rain doesn’t matter when both you and the grill are under cover. 

Verandahs also work well with a mudroom – a related home feature that has also fallen out of favour. A mudroom extends that transition zone between outdoors and indoors, while providing a place for coats, boots, shoes and all the other things you don’t necessarily want spilling directly into the living area of your house. What puzzles me is the widespread preference for uncovered decks instead of verandahs. 

Decks certainly have their uses, but they leave a lot to be desired. There’s no protection from rain, little protection from summer sun, and none of the shelter a roof provides for exterior doors, windows, siding and the deck surface itself. A covered verandah is simply a much more useful and protective place in a much wider range of weather, especially here in Canada. 

I suspect one reason decks became so common is that they’re easier and cheaper to build. There’s no roof to construct, no need to tie that roof into the house in a weatherproof way, and considerably less material involved. 

A deck does provide a kind of transition between indoors and outdoors, but with a roof above it, the usefulness goes up dramatically. And that roof doesn’t have to be complicated. 

Years ago, many verandah roofs were built with a separate finished ceiling below the rafters. This looked good, but it involved considerably more work and also created a small enclosed attic space where unwanted animals sometimes decided to move in. My preferred approach is simpler. 

I fasten rafters to a ledger board attached to the wall of the house, then cover those rafters with 1 1/2”-thick construction-grade 2x8s rather than plywood to provide a solid base for shingles. The boards are thick enough that 1-inch roofing nails won’t poke through and become visible from underneath. The rafters and underside of the roof boards remain exposed, creating a simple, attractive finished ceiling without actually building one. There’s one trick that makes this sort of approach enormously easier: finish the exposed roof wood before you put it up. 

Cut rafters first and stain or paint them while they’re sitting comfortably on sawhorses. Do the same with the visible side of the roof boards before installation. It’s far easier than trying to coat hundreds of square feet of wood overhead while standing on a ladder. Anything that keeps me from painting or staining an angled ceiling above my head is worth doing. 

More importantly, though, a covered verandah changes how you use your home. It gives you a place to sit, talk, read, eat, watch a storm roll in or simply be outdoors without being entirely exposed to the weather. 

Modern house designs have better insulation and better air conditioning than ever before. But I’m not so sure they always offer better places to live. 

Steve Maxwell spends time most evenings sitting on his verandah while enjoying the covered outdoors. Visit him at baileylineroad.com and join thousands of people who get his free email newsletter each week.