About 5 years ago, we purchased some acreage. We got a pretty good deal on it, but it was not in our home town. We were not ready to move yet – the J.O.B. was holding us back – but the land seemed like such a good deal we couldn’t pass up on it. We put the money down, started making payments, and started plotting and dreaming about the perfect house to build.
The house was going to have beautiful vaulted ceilings, a HUGE mud/laundry room, a room for each child, a school room, a solarium, and a loft upstairs for the extra needs…. projects, etc. We drew on napkins and envelopes until we had it just right. Once we had finally settled on every detail and felt satisfied that the house was ‘perfect’ the square footage topped 4000.
Building began – along with our anticipation. We had been waiting SO long for the dream. It was finally within reach! The more construction progressed, the more we each began to have a nagging feeling that something was not quite right. For some reason, the house just did not match the personality and rhythm of our family.
The ceiling was too tall. The rooms – too big. By the time the house was done – it felt more like a lodge or museum – not the cozy cottage we had come to long for. Thankfully, our plans had changed anyway and projects took us to a different town. We never did move into that house, but were were given a gift. We were given the chance to understand the “myths” that lie behind the dream…. and we were given a second chance to get it right.
This is what we thought we valued:
- Big
- Grandiose windows
- A showboat house in which we could “feel” successful. Though I don’t think we overtly felt this way, there may have been an element of keeping-up-with-the-Jones’s
- A separate “room” for every activity. One for school, one for crafts, one for plants, one for work, one for cooking and the living room of course.
Since then, this is what we have come to understand:
- We are responsible for caring for the earth and building in a sustainable way
- The learning, crafting, care for plants and cooking IS the living. We don’t need a separate room for each. However – we still do need a separate space for work.
- Along the same lines…. we are all in the same room all the time anyway… so why build all those extra rooms to sit empty?
- We are not the Jones’s – and for that matter – we don’t want to be the Jones’s
- Small fits in with these values
- Quality. Small design makes available extra resources for top notch construction, material and design. Nothing beats Quality.
- Cozy fits our family’s culture best.
Technorati Tags: Green Building
Homestead Mama | 
02 5th, 2008| 
