Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Small Home, Simple Living

We have lived in this house for a year and a half now.  It has been a learning experience... it is considered a tiny house in Frisco.  Frisco is filled with lots and lots of "McMansions," and it's abnormal to have a house under 2,500-3,000 square feet, let alone one that is only 1275 square feet.  Growing up, this is the size of house that I had.  But it was more common in the tiny town of Kyle, TX (it was tiny back then... not so much now).

Having lived in a big house at camp (about 2,800 square feet), a "decent-sized" house in Oak Cliff (about 2,000 square feet), and now this one, I can tell you a few things that I've learned.

A house, is a house, is a house.

We weren't happier in a big house.

We weren't happier in a "decent-sized" house.

A house doesn't make a family happy.  Period.

In fact, I have found myself learning to be more content here than ever before.

I have less stuff, which means less mess.

Our family is always close together, literally.

Our mortgage is very small which means a lot of things... including the fact that we'll be able to start paying off debt (after Christmas we'll be hitting it hard!)... we'll be able to "live" more... doing the things that we love to do... and even more importantly... we can give more.

This house means living simply.

In this year and a half, we have made many memories... and they have included lots of playing games, cuddling on the couch, fires in the fire place, baking together in our tiny kitchen, and kids playing happily together (using their imaginations!).












When I talk to people about our small house, I constantly hear that a big house isn't worth it... it is harder to clean, harder to keep up, more expensive, and the family is always separate.  So I wonder, why do so many people live in big houses?

This video is amazing because it allows people to think about how the size of a house does not equal happiness; bigger is not necessarily better.  I couldn't live in a house that small with three kiddos, but the idea behind it is amazing.



Robert and I would love to buy some land in Colorado one day and build a small house there :-). We would love to be able to just go backpacking and white water rafting whenever we want!  We'll see!

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