the small house movement

25 October 2009

I am a fan of small houses. :) I always have been. I don't know why I liked them when I was a kid, although I suspect that good descriptions of cozy cottages in books probably had something to do with it.

Although, I do remember a "design your dreamhouse" project I did in third grade when I lived in Australia that included an indoor swimming pool and horseback-riding arena, so that can't have been a "cottage".

I just read an interesting article that said the "McMansion" fad is dying down in house building. Some people are warming up to the idea of small houses because of the economy. Here's a quote from the article:

According to the Better Homes and Gardens study, top priorities in a new home include an affordable price, natural light, and comfortable family gathering places. The era of supersizing may be ending, Butler said, with buyers looking for a home that is "right-sized, organized and economized."

That explains just exactly how I feel about my ideal house. I should note, however, that I only have one, smallish child, who does not take up terribly too much space. If you have four or five teenaged boys and a Russian Wolfhound, cozy cottage living is probably much less appealing. What is important to you in a home? Please don't feel bad if you want to say "Gigantic." :D I'm just stating my personal preference for cottages. I also like big, rambling farmhouses! And those huge wooden A-frame houses you always see in the snow somewhere, with an entire wall of plate glass windows looking out on a valley of trees, and the living rooms that go up to the rafters, with the gigantic stone fireplaces.

Anyway, here are the links from the small house movement/New Urbanism list I used to have on the old blog, in case any of you are also into looking at pictures of cute little houses, or reading about them. (I don't agree with all the tenets of New Urbanism, for the record, but I like the bits about "don't be greedy" and "be smart about how you use your space" and also "stick the garages in the back and have lots of sidewalks so you can walk around without getting hit by a car.") Our friends John and Eileen lives in Kentlands, which is a New Urbanism development in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and I just love that place.