Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.
Ronald Reagan
Author Archives: Claire Middleton
Building New Small Houses
This recent article about builders who think new construction should include smaller homes brought joy to my heart. It has been so long since I’ve seen a small house being built. But it no longer makes sense to only build McMansions. Young people can’t afford them.
Having lived in a large home for many years, I learned that while it’s nice to have lots of space, cleaning it takes too much time, and paying for it takes even longer. And even after we paid off the mortgage, we still had an enormous property tax bill to deal with every year.
Since we moved to a small, well-designed small ranch (1000 square feet), I’ve come to truly enjoy the freedom that comes with not having so much house to deal with. I hate to think of how much time I spent decorating that big house we had. Now that we do everything on a smaller scale, I love having so much more free time. I can see where that would really benefit busy young singles, couples and families.
I hope that article is a sign of things to come. I can’t wait to see a new subdivision filled with lots of small, energy-efficient, well-designed little homes. If I didn’t love my little house so much, I’d be tempted to move to a brand new one.
Quote of the Week
I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and I think, “Well, that’s not going to happen.”
Rita Rudner
Change
When I moved my blog to WordPress.com from Blogger, I had all sorts of plans for the theme I found, including lots of photos. Of course, that meant I had to take the time to find appropriate photos. Since then, I’ve learned I just don’t have the time for that.
Life is keeping me busy. Writing another book is keeping me busy. I have to acknowledge this and deal with it. Changing my blog’s theme is one way of doing so.
In life, sometimes you have to declutter. Not just your home, but your activities. I’ve dropped a few activities because there doesn’t seem to be enough time to do things well. My book comes before the blog, but I hate to give up blogging. So I’ll just make blogging simpler. Hope you don’t mind the lack of photos…sometimes I think people have too many photos on their sites, so maybe I’m adding balance by having a mostly photo-free blog.