So long story short, if I detest my house, why not just buy a different house. Why downsize. Why not just buy a sheetrock box with much less maintenance and call it a day.
Maybe we should. Really, who's to say? Any major decision one makes is a risk. Usually we make big decisions when forced. A birth. A death. The loss of a job. It removes a lot of the angst, really. You accept the change and you shrug your shoulders. Them's the breaks. But when you choose to do something you do not have to do, it becomes a voluntary risk. If things go awry, it's only yourown fault. So there has to be a pretty compellingreason for leaving behind a beautiful house in a wonderful neighborhood when you've been making it work for 5 years. For us, the reasons are several. Some of the reasons are pragmatic and selfish and some of them are lofty and pretty philisophical.
To start, the pragmatic. The amount of money we can save without a house payment, with tiny bills, without the colossal upkeep of such an old home, is quite motivating. Is it a fact of modern life to be mortgaged-and-billed to the teeth? It doesn't have to be, but it is the status quo. What will we do with that money? Save for the house we will grow old in, unless that tiny house somehow becomes the home of our dreams. I'm not sure how likely that is, but you never know. The Master and I have decided that once we reach a certain point in the saving process, we will take a home-saving break and, after saving for it, we will take the children on a Serious Vacation. As in, Europe. The children want to go to Madagascar, but we are still hoping they'll come around. In 8 years of marriage we have taken only 1 vacation aside from visiting family- and that was 3 days in Branson 3 years ago with a free hotel room. Less square footage equals less to clean, less to upkeep. At least in theory...
The Master was initially inspired by this:
http://www.youtube.com/v/SbRvsWuWNUM&autoplay=1
He started asking how small of a house we could live in and still grow our family. I started thinking about that and haven't stopped since. Americans consume. A lot. More, more, more. As the culture in general makes some green moves- organic milk, anyone?- production doesn't slow down. It's ok, right, to buy more as long as it's stainless steel instead of plastic, organic cotton instead of polyester? Everywhere you turn, a new LED display pops up. Liquor stores, schools, churches, everyone seems to need one. Can life be simpler and homes be smaller and people be happy? That's what I want to know. I think the answer is pretty obvious. Because, after all, most people in the world live much smaller than I do.
Sometimes I'm haunted by things... a display at the local nature center says that a pioneer family used as much water in one day as a washing machine does in one cycle. Our orthodontist has an awesome slide show in his waiting room about http://www.charitywater.org/ . Last month as we waited for our appointment, I was mesmerized. When was I last that happy over my basic needs being met? Even many impoverished Americans live in comparative luxury to the rest of the world.
Why has the average American family come to need so much to be happy- heck, even just to function? What do I need to be happy and to raise my family?
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