Monday, July 19, 2010

We want to live small...

ok, if you haven't noticed, we are trying to downsize.
our goal in to get into a house about half the size of ours.
which, i realize, makes virtually no sense to lots of people.
and yes, i realize our family is growing.
but we really feel like it's unnecessary for us to have this much stuff and this much space.
anyone who knows us well, knows this is our goal.
small house, super energy efficient, possibly even a net-zero home, and a larger piece of land to have a big garden and maybe even some chickens.
not kidding.
but we cannot sell this house.
it's beyond frustrating.
anyway, i got an email today from my brother-in-law. (who also may find us a bit crazy, but he loves us anyway.)
he sent a link to this video.
honestly, this looks so appealing to me.
obviously it is not possible with 3 kids and a giant dog, but one day, maybe one day, paul and i will live in a "tiny house"....and maybe we won't even kill eachother because we'll be so happy there. :)
we'll see.
a bit out of reach for us right now, but pretty cool nonetheless.
what do you think??

10 comments:

Holly said...

I love the living smaller and with less - I feel like we went that direction when we came here and our house feels ginormous to us still - which just means we might be able to go smaller next time!?

I also like the use/reuse stuff too though and everything he used looked brand spankin' new - why not salvage and make it look cool?
'tis possible!

also, from a Jesus point of view I hate how sometimes it become a 'worship' for people - that part weirds me out

but, put that aside and I love the idea!

p.s. it's not a new concept - we could just go down and get a single wide ya know ;-) and those come used real easy!

Cassie said...

hilarious holly, we thought maybe we just just move into our pop-up camper! :)

truly, we are looking at a piece of land that has an old house on it and a couple collapsed barns...thinking we could reuse all that material in a "new" home on the piece of land. we have been super excited thinking about it, but have the small problem called currently owning a house. :)

(oh...and you hate how "what" becomes a 'worship'?)

Lisa Borglum said...

Try imagining living in that house in the middle of the winter with Paul after a night of Mexican... or pork chops or ....

Kerry said...

I've seen this man's work I would love to live somewhere like that. I think I would need to live there by myself though! When we bought our house (about 1500 sq ft) it was plenty of room for the 3 of us. As our family has started to change, and continues to do so. I don't think we're at a place where we can downsize. I have thought about renting a storage space for all the extra clothes/items we have on hand for whomever may walk through the door.
Did you see the article in the Times yesterday about a neighborhood in the QC that is being "de-constructed" vs. demolished? It's right up your alley.
Someday you'll have your prefect little dream house.

Eric and Pam said...

i LOVE that small house. i would move today if E would do it. can you design one for me, cass, that houses 4 teen/tweens and allows them a small alone space to go when they are having an attitude?

Beckysblog said...

I saw this last week and I've seen another one just like it but made over by a woman it was so cute.
My only question...if I come visit...do I get the camper? or a tent? Id prefer the camper. so keep that!

Cassie said...

lisa...did you see the bedroom? he would be banished to the bedroom often.

kerry...do you have some sort of link or something to the QC story? sounds interesting!

becky...you could stay in the pop-up. we'll have plenty of room on our 15 acres. :) we could have a camper community right there! ha!

pam...paul has a home designed for us already. i'll him work on one for you next. but i don't know if eric will go for it.

Tisha said...

I love it too. Really try hard for the simple life already - so challenging to do. A tiny house would help that. Not with the kids though. Unless it was somewhere warm where they could spend their time outside year round. They need space to expend energy! Especially when we school at home....
I so admire when people step out of the rat race and live completely counter culturally - with less junk. Because most of what we have really is junk!
Hoping your house sells Cassie so you can live the life you desire :)

Sarah Guild said...

I saw this and thought this concept was quite nifty. You seem quite well-versed on the topic, but Jamie and I have dreamed about incorporating ideas from "The Not So Big House" into a home design at some point. Well designed, using less space, less energy, etc. You can find the book on the internet, if you haven't read or browsed the website.

Holly said...

"what" = anything other than Jesus Himself really but specifically to this guys story and others like him that I've seen, living smaller/with less is the whole focus of their life and it in itself is what 'changes' their life - rather than the power of Christ, I totally believe that living with less and smaller allows more time and room in our lives to do more for Christ, but ultimately it's about Him, not the size of the house or the amount of things, that's all!
this from a girl who has been going smaller for several years now ;-) but all with the idea that the less I have the less I have to take care of and the more time I have to invest in His purposes - and THAT is what changes lives!