Family and relationships

Man: I've been through the drawings for the Abernathy house again. Separate front door for the grandmother, her own kitchen. It's lovely, but I can't help feeling we've designed two houses that just happen to share a wall. Woman: That's exactly what the family asked for, though. Mrs Abernathy was very clear at the first meeting. She adores the grandchildren, but she's run her own home for thirty years, and the last thing she wants is to feel like a lodger in her son's house. Man: Fair enough. But think about ten years from now. If she needs more help, three steps up to her own front door will be a real obstacle. And the corridor linking the two halves is so narrow nobody will use it casually. Woman: The steps I'll grant you. We can grade the path into a gentle slope instead. But I'm not convinced a wider corridor would change how they actually live. What brings people together is a room everyone wants to be in. Man: The garden, you mean? Woman: More the kitchen. At the moment hers looks out onto the street. What if we turned it round, so the window opens straight onto the shared terrace? She keeps her own space, but everyone can see when she's about. Man: And she can wave the children in, instead of them having to knock at a front door. Yes, that would do far more than fiddling with the corridor.