No place like home - Bernard Salt on the evolution of the Aussie home

Thought some would enjoy this article by Bernard Salt on how the Aussie home has changed over the centuries. Light hearted but insightful, as always from Mr Salt.

No Place Like Home - the Australian

"Houses were simple when I was a kid: three bedrooms, a kitchen, a lounge room and a bathroom. Fancy houses had dining rooms. The idea that a house might have two bathrooms never entered my head. The lounge room was the "good room" and fastidiously preserved for entertaining guests, priests and suitors. Suitors never got near a bedroom in the 1960s.

The kitchen's layout was simple: combustion stove, sink, refrigerator, table and chairs. The concept of entertaining guests in the kitchen while a meal was being prepared was foreign - probably a hangover from the 19th century, when the kitchen was associated with domestic service. In the early decades of the 20th century the kitchen was associated with the lowly status of women; it was regarded as a place of toil.

Outside there was a wash house, which posh people called a "laundry", a wood shed and a lavatory. Sewerage networks arrived in our cities by the middle of the 20th century, and the loo came inside. Then it got all uppity and started to be known as the toilet. Up the back of the block was an instrument of environmental torture known as the incinerator. All manner of rubbish - paper, cardboard, rubber, plastic (not that plastic was common) - might be disposed of there, the only rule being that it could burn. Clean households burnt rubbish; dirty households allowed rubbish to accumulate in compost heaps.

I suspect that initially the garage was little more than a converted stable; it was hidden behind the house. But the garage broke free from its backyard mooring and began its great migration: first it settled as a separate structure alongside the house and soon inveigled its way to a position under the roofline of the house. Finally, like two thwarted lovers, garage and house were as one. This was a radical move for it changed the way we lived. Access from the garage delivered householders and guests into the kitchen. As the status and earning power of women evolved, so too did the status of the kitchen. It became a showcase of household wealth, power and social connectivity.

The humble tool shed that once commandeered an entire end of the garage quickly moved into the kitchen. The once dark and masculine shed was trimmed, slimmed and reimagined as a utility drawer. No need for a vice, saw, plane or chisel; the modern utility drawer contains little more than flat and Phillips head screwdrivers, a pair of pliers, an adjustable wrench and perhaps a light hammer. No need for male tool-handling expertise because everything in the utility drawer can be deftly managed by today's can-do women.

I am not convinced that men have reacted to this emasculation of the tool shed by commandeering any part of the kitchen, but recent moves to introduce mini-bar fridges and outdoor sinks to the barbecue area do appear to be steps in this very direction.

The formal lounge room has had an Ikea makeover and has merged with the kitchen to become the family room. In this room, couches offer multiple dozing arrangements and some armchairs are even replete with cupholders. The dining room has disappeared; families now eat - or graze - on the go, on the couch, on the deck or at a breakfast bar. And if they do eat together it'll be on a Friday night down at the local Thai or Vietnamese.

The way we live may well change as dramatically in the future as it has in the past. Who knows - we may one day all have beds with built-in cup-holders. The very idea is as uncomfortable to us today as was the idea of, say, entertaining suitors in the bedroom.

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Good one @theperthurbanist

Not common but I have seen a few of these around. This is one of the biggest changes I have seen recently:

 

Those things are a gigantic waste of time and money. Deadset get a charcoal bbq for $50 and the food will taste better than what you can do with that.

Super intelligent putting it between two windows too. Have fun cleaning oil and fat of the glass.

 

I have seem them in some of the houses I have inspected. They don't look like something I would use or put in any of my properties. Something I find a bit odd is that on the other side of that window is a kitchen...

 

I love an outdoor bbq setup. We have such great weather in Australia, can cook just about all year round outside.

Going back years ago my grandpa cooked just about everything outside on the BBQ - was more an very old oven and stove top.
From breakfast bacon, eggs and hashbrowns to dinner roasts.

 

What the hell are those things in the picture? Grill and ? Pizza oven?

 

We just need to have more and more.
The evolution of any species in nature is the degradation of its environment until that environment cannot support further growth. Then there is a mass destruction of that species with only a few environmentally fitter individuals surviving to carry on further growth.

The human race is not showing any intelligence in its growth above the typical behaviour of bacteria in vitro.

 

And one day we will evolve to equivalent of MRSA and contaminate planets.

Given the choice, I prefer reasonbly sized house with a large garden rather than huge house without outdoor space

 

sink
posh barbecue
pizza oven
bar fridge

 

Hah! My new house design has not one, but two man caves, as well as a sewing/hobby room for her! Benefit of not having kids.

 

yeah well I got the sink and fridge but never seen BBQ or home pizza gadgets like that before. Whole point of a BBQ is an open flame/coal/smoke effect I would have thought. Otherwise put it in the fry pan or grill in the kitchen. but what do I know.

 

Ditto

But one man cave is a Double walled sound proofed recordning Studio , and the other has the tools / Work Bench and storage area . Then there's the study ...

Cliff

 

That posh bbq/grill thing works like a normal barbecue if you open the lid

I have no idea what closed lid cooking would be for. Baked chicken?

 

Yep, I grew up in a house like that and being the 2nd youngest in a family of 6 had to share a room with my little sister.

Parents built an enclosed patio and I relocated the first chance I got to set up shop in a sleep-out. Had red-backs and all sorts of insects as companions. Did a deal with them; "You leave me alone and I will leave you alone". Worked out fine

Hot in the summer and freezing in the winter as it was just a tin roof and walls. I loved it as I had my own space and mates would jump the back fence and come in through my plastic window. Massive concrete pool in the back yard was a bonus.

Great memories!

 

Sounds like a similar way we grew up, although i now have the a Gas BBQ on the patio as well, I prefer to cook meat, especially marinated meat outside, save the house and clothes smelling like a BBQ rib takeway joint.

I would love the outdoor kitchen, but with a proper woodfired pizza oven, charcoal grill, sink, bar fridge, BBQ and TV. I have a two mates with these set ups and 8 months a year its a fantastic way to entertain, family, friends or just relax watching TV.

P.s Would also go well with a pool area.