In this economic downturn, during which even the rich have retreated to their homes in greater numbers than they have in decades, Nana Wall Systems, Inc., a Mill Valley, CA company, specializes in putting even the most affluent Americans out of their elegant homes.
 
But, in this case, it’s all about the fact that many of them have opened up the walls to their homes, thereby helping these savvy homeowners to better appreciate the beauty of nature and the land upon which they live.
 
Have you ever considered eliminating a wall of your home and leaving it entirely as an opened space? Probably not, even if you could easily re-seal it whenever you wanted to?

Well, you can. More and more, smart homeowners are choosing to install Nanawalls to replace their traditional ones. By doing so, they get to enjoy open-air, unobstructed views as they please. They get to live a ‘greener,’ more environmentally sustainable lifestyle, one that they can be most proud of, especially in that they now can dwell in a more expansive home, even while its actual square footage is quite less.
 
In the United States, it all started 20 years ago when Nana Wall Systems, Inc. was first to bring operable glass wall technology to our shores.
 
A Nanawall replaces the traditional wall. Nanawalls’ ceiling to floor, three+ feet wide panels are precision-built to be folded up, accordion-like, and stacked on both sides of the opening in an outward or inward manner. Voila! Now you have an open-air plaza-effect right there at your home. There are even several Nana Wall Systems that can be cleverly hidden out-of-sight in specially built parking bays. Yet whatever way one chooses to stack their Nanawall panels, one thing is certain as by now you’ve guessed, smart homerowners get to enjoy sweeping, open-air vistas of their outdoor areas deriving from it a decidedly primitive, back-to-nature feeling.
 
Nanawalls gives them, their family members, their friends and guests, a huge “Wow Factor;” it is an unmistakable feeling that comes from being more ‘at one’ with nature, simply because a borderless state exists between their home’s perimeter and the property’s outdoor areas.
 
Yes, as many smart homeowners around the nation already know, a ‘Nana-ed’ room appears as if it was built without a wall ever having existed across that expanse, this is, of course, until these precisely-built, floor-to-ceiling glass doors are closed up and easily bolted up again, real tight.
 
Once a Nanwall is secured and fastened, that room is totally weather-resistant. That’s why thousands of ‘Nana’-homes are situated where, during part of the year, cold, blustery-weather conditions dominate, like directly strung along Seattle’s various island waterfronts, or in the mountains and valleys of Aspen or Vail, CO, or down south in ‘hurricane-alley’ where Nanawall’s systems are the main attraction of masterfully-built oceanfront homes located throughout Florida, the Caribbean and in Mexico (in these locales, the homes’ Nanawalls are Miami-Dade County-certified for wind load, cycling and impact).
 
By the late-‘90’s, the popularization of Nanawalls among relatively early adopters changed the up-market window and door products game, especially for those fortunate folks who had visited homes that sported them, or had seen and handled them in Nana Wall showrooms that are located around the nation, and were able to afford to ‘Nana’ their own walls.
 
Despite Nanawalls’ luxury positioning in the window and door marketplace, spending the money to have a Nanawall these days is a down-to-earth type of expenditure. For instance, the purchase price of a Nanawall is about $700-$1,400 per foot. This compares favorably to the cost of installing three pairs of quality French Doors that still would not provide a large, clear opening. Uninterrupted open space makes an enormous difference in the effect,” says “Green’ visionary and Nana Wall Systems CEO Ebrahim Nana. "But, of course, the key aspect about using our products is the utter exhilaration ones feels by living The Nana Wall Lifestyle in that it distinctively integrates indoor and outdoor areas. As important a factor is that smart homeowners find that they never again have to build as big as they normally would have sought to do, whether for a new construction or a remodel job, “ he adds.
 
Today, Nanawalls have caught on mightily with architects who create what are simply the best and most progressive residences extant. The same is true of forward-thinking builders, developers and well-informed homeowners who, nowadays, are familiar with what Nanawalls can do: dramatically expand a dwelling’s living space, particularly if they choose to build smaller.
 
Renown architect, lecturer, and author of the “Not So Big” series of books, Sarah Susanka <www.susanka.com>, agrees, “Most people don't realize that the house they live in is only part of the home. When you design your home to include both inside and outside space, extending the perceived boundary beyond the four walls to the property line and beyond, you’ll find you’re living in a much larger area than you knew you had available. 
 
Other major-league architects, remodelers, developers, as well as crafty homeowners, note that when they put a Nanawall in a residence, it actually becomes the focal point of the homes’ spatial design; a Nanawall almost always turns into a home’s main facilitator for the enhanced enjoyment of one’s daily lifestyle.
 
Over the years, thousands of smart homeowners who use Nanawalls have proclaimed that they, too, feel what’s probably that same freeing feeling that’s akin to that felt by many Third World inhabitants who live closer to nature in their open air dwellings, be they in certain African countries and in those that dot the South Pacific, for instance. But, in Nanawalls’ case, an invasion of insects doesn’t stand a chance.
 
Nana Wall offers a series of collapsible pleated screen panels that ride upon a single 1/4" high x 3/4" wide floor track so that the tiny, unwanted visitors can’t get in. These multiple panels are connected to create very wide screened openings, up to ten feet high, with magnetically secured openings wherever desired. [Each four- inch wide vertical cassette can expand to 3' 7" of reinforced, pleated screens. Now, smart homeowners can say, “Goodbye” to all those uninvited, little biting devils].

Nana Wall’s goal, in flexing what today is their 20 years of experience and offering as many separate systems, is to see to it that, sooner than later, millions of people will routinely open and close their walls at will. And it’s more than a dream, as Nana Wall is nicely on its way to realizing this aim. In the doing, Nana Wall Systems serves to reduce our nation’s carbon footprint and contributes to environmental sustainability, as it continues to show smart homeowners better ways to build, as Susanka rightly puts it, “not so big.”
 
Environmental priorities are one thing, but let’s talk dollar savings and moneymaking. By designing a smaller dwelling, people naturally pay less for the building cost, then they also save plenty on the cost of their home’s energy usage, not to mention that they can probably spend less on the yearly cost of their property’s maintenance. And if those Big Three reasons aren’t compelling enough, installing Nanawalls, in most instances, increases a home’s re-sale value over that of its project investment cost.
 
Back to the issue of our species’ viability, Nana Wall Systems’ dedication to improving Humankind’s way of life comes none too soon, Al Gore would probably be first to echo the following statement: If we can’t get with the program of learning to do more by using a smaller amount of our natural resources, we just might not make it to the next millennium.
 
“The average new house is 45 percent bigger than it was 30 years ago, according to a recent “National Geographic” magazine cover story.**  But we now know that it does not have to be that way; the accelerated rate of improvements that those in the building trade are making these days, give us much reason to hope for our continued survival.
 
So it’s by acting on tips like this one that smart-homeowner.com readers can live quite admirably in a smaller home that more fully embraces nature and, by doing so, they are of benefit to us all.
 
**  (Source: “National Geographic,” March, 2009, issue, entitled, “Saving Energy: It Starts At Home,” Page 73).