The Hole in my Roof

There is a huge hole in the roof of my house. And most every house in my neighborhood. You can see them from space. But that's OK, these holes are meant to be there.

These are the famous Eichler Atriums.

Walk through our front door, and you're still outside, in a 200 square foot enclosed courtyard alomst completely surrounded by walls of glass. Three sets of sliding doors connect the atrium to various rooms of the house. It's fun seeing the confused delight when someone sees it for the first time -there's nothing quite like walking into a house with no roof.

Last year around this time, when we were just newbies in our Eichler, I had this to say about them on the Eichler chat board:

This is our first Spring in our 'new' eichler atrium.... When the kids are awake, the atrium is a great play spot for water games, riding trikes around in circles, and just general running around barefoot. When the kids are asleep, the atrium is a nice bit of solitude. I especially like sitting out there in the early morning, or late at night, and just enjoying the quiet.

I love how the atrium brings the sunlight in during the day. At night, we turn on the hallway lights on the far side of the atrium for really mellow mood lighting in the living room.

....

I cant imagine putting a roof over the atrium, but I know that the previous and original owner was featured in Sunset magazine decades ago for a clever atrium cover he designed and built. That cover's long gone though, so maybe he decided he liked the atrium open after all.

A year later, we still enjoy it just as much.

Here are some other things people have been doing with their atriums:

Shades
Covers
The atrium pictured here looks like ours, but bigger.
This atrium is completely unlike ours, but the same floorplan