Loving Simple Living

Excited to share this guest post from Carmella.  I have ‘house envy’ of her cute little place.

Our Simple Little House

The light can’t help but fill the room. Everywhere you look, there’s a window welcoming its arrival. Even if you look up, there’s a window there at the ceiling, in that high dormer, not to mention the one in the gable end that breaks open a view of treetops and sky.

The white plank walls and ceiling seem to expand in all that light, making one believe there’s more space than there actually is. And all this light and all this white is anchored steady by the color of wood underfoot.

Stretching across the far end of the room is the simple kitchen with its painted cabinets and open barn wood shelves. Opposite this, floor to ceiling bookshelves line the wall near the slip covered sofa and vintage easy chair.

An antique pendant light hangs above the dining table that’s pulled up to a banquette tucked beneath a window on the adjacent wall. The ship’s ladder stairway leads to the loft where three boys bunk; the hall leads to the bath, the master bedroom, and writing nook.

This is our house. It’s just 665 square feet.

Not so long ago, there was more. More house, more stuff, more debt; more to care for, more to clean, more to store. Like most people, we’d taken the traditional path toward the American Dream; the path that lead toward the well-paying job, the good-size house (and its 30-year note), and the lifestyle that seemed to always have us ready to spend.

Then, unexpected job losses and the real estate crash of 2008-2009 detonated an explosion of the perfect financial storm. In the tumult, we lost nearly everything.

And there we were, dumb-struck, black-eyed, and sweat-stained, standing at ‘Square One’. Read the rest of this entry →