My take on small homes

I like small homes.  I've been a disciple of architect Sarah Susanka since I first read her book, The Not So Big House, years ago.  Bigger is NOT better.  (Hey, I'm talkin' housing here, OK?)  Huge rooms with 20-foot ceilings are not cozy.  They're cold and echo-y.  I should know....I've built enough of them.

I build BIG houses because that's what people pay me to do.  As Willie said, "If they've got the dime, I've got the time."    Most are well over 5,000 sq ft.  But for myself, I want the comfortable, cozy, affordable lifestyle a small home offers.  Here's an example:

This is a 2012 small house award winner by Seattle architect Matt Hutchins and featured in Fine Homebuilding Magazine.  It's about 900 sq ft and is actually in the back yard of their 1926-vintage primary residence.  They no longer needed 3,000 sq ft as their family is now grown, so they built this in order to stay close to their friends and their long-time neighborhood and then leased out their big house.

Most of my clients request I install in their kitchens $35,000 ultra-high-end appliance packages when truth be told, they rarely use anything but the microwave.  Something like this (again the Seattle award winner) would work just fine for 99% of us....me for sure.

The trick is to learn to put every single nook and cranny to use, like this entertainment space (TV, old vinyl records, CD's, etc) tucked under the stairs.  I have a thousand ideas such as this that can make 1,000 square feet live like twice that much.

Something like this is what I want to some day build for K and I.  Fortunately she and I think alike, at least on this.   ;)  

The objection will come from the cities who don't want small houses.  Their rationale is they'll have to provide police and fire protection, water and sewer service, trash collection, parks, streets, etc, and small homes won't generate enough tax revenue to pay for those services, while a 4,000 square footer will provide way more than enough.  It's all just a numbers ($$$) game to them.  Today small homes are usually "zoned out".

One option would be to go out in the country and build....cities have no jurisdiction there....but I refuse to live out in the sticks.  I have no idea if I can pull this off, but I'm gonna try.  It may take years for all the stars to line up, but it'll be worth the effort if it works.  Wish me luck.

S

Now taking applications for a guy to do...well...everything!

We're apartment shopping once again.  I/we like where we live, but since they built a new complex just to our south, we have no view anymore.  As expected our rent is going up a little....not a killer....but to me it's worth less without the view we once had.

The biggest factor leading us to look around is that K has said she wants an apartment with a patio / balcony. We have a beautiful little private courtyard surrounded by balcony units, but none are available now.  So off we went yesterday to see what our options were elsewhere.  We went to four different communities, two of them really nice, but trying to sync what they'll have available when we want it is tough.  And the thought of physically packing and moving again....UGH!!

I did some rough calculations last night and it looks like me just building something for us is the way to go.  It would cost us less than renting.  'Course, after I figure in the cost of having a guy come in to mow, edge, hedge trim, fertilize and water, rake leaves, wash the windows, clean out the garage, paint, take out the garbage, change light bulbs, change a/c filters, and sweep the porch, it would probably be pretty much even.  (Yes, I've totally embraced this "retirement" thing.)

Building a new home is also the carrot we need hanging in front of us in order to save more money.  Just by eating one less meal out and thinking twice before buying things like we normally do I figure we've saved at least $100 this weekend.  We can probably put aside another $5,000-$10,000 this year if we keep this up.  

Hey...that might get us a pretty nice couple days vacation in Aspen.  Sweeeeet!  ;)

S

Cars and Coffee, January, 2013

It was an on again, off again, and finally on again decision on whether to go to Cars and Coffee this morning.  The bugaboo....it was 38 degrees with a wind chill well below freezing.  Brrrrr!  Still, the possibility of seeing something new and unique overrode good sense.  (Haha!  Like I have an abundance of good sense anyway.)

Attendance was about 40% of normal.  Still there were some interesting sights there.  What I noticed was the hard core petrolheads seemed to be those with BMW's, Lotus's (Lotii?), VW's, Italian exotica, and hot rods.

A nice BWW Z4M.

How about a Ferrari 458 Italia Spyder, aka "Mid-Life Crisis"?

I personally prefer the more gentlemanly Ferrari 599.

Yes Virginia, you can put lipstick on a pig...er...Bug.

And of course there were an assortment of the eccentric, odd, and just plain weird:

A Citroen SM.   It's French, which makes it all three...eccentric, odd, and just plain weird.  (But a classic nonetheless.)

The hot rod guys always do such a nice job.  This one was very understated, but wore it well.

Oh, and the boy racers were there in force, too.  This Ford Focus ST was very nicely accessorized, actually.  Nice job dude!

But you know me....there's got to be something British in here somewhere, like this Morgan...

...or this mint Austin Healey 3000.

You VIL drink ze Red Bull!  Ja?

For a moment there I thought I must have been the 50,000th visitor and won this Jag!  Park Place Motorcars, Park Place Custom Homes....close enough, right?

Sorry the picture quality isn't the best, but with the first photo I tried to take my camera battery said, "I don't think so."  All I had was my phone camera.  You do what you have to do.

Maybe next month the weather will be more cooperative and we'll have more cars to look at.  Hope you enjoyed...  ;)

S

Where was this advice when we needed it?

Today would be a good day to be a wedding planner in China.  The BBC reports there is a wedding boom in China today because "4 January 2013" in Mandarin sounds similar to "I'll love you all my life."  

I think it might be advisable for anyone planning marriage to research which date sounds like "I'm gonna make your life a living hell!" and plan accordingly. 

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Heard on Duck Dynasty:  "It's OK to be creepy if you're old."

Finally.  I've waited my whole life for this!

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"Meggings".  Really?  Why?

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First our gubment outlawed further manufacture of old fashioned incandescent light bulbs, mandating compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL's) instead because they're more energy efficient. Now we learn that these CFL bulbs are dangerous, possibly causing skin cancer.  It seems they emit ultraviolet rays so strong they can burn skin and skin cells.

In every bulb scientists tested they found the protective coating around the light creating "phosphor" was cracked, allowing dangerous ultraviolet rays to escape.  They're advising us to stay at least two feet away from the bulbs when they're in use.  

Sheesh!  I go outside and I get skin cancer.  Now I stay inside and still get skin cancer.  I can't buy a break!

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I was sure that Speaker of the House John Boehner, aka "Boner" would not be re-elected to that post by the new House sworn in yesterday, but DOH!....he was, with just 5 votes to spare. This tepid support makes him pretty "toothless".  He's being likened to a cemetery superintendent....he has a lot of people under him, but no one is listening.  

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The December unemployment report is out and it showed 155,000 jobs were created last month.  Interestingly, the most active hiring sectors of the economy were in manufacturing and construction, two of the hardest hit by the recession.  Maybe the "Buy American" initiative is catching on.

It's Friday.  Out.  ;)

S

Screwed again, and we didn't even get a kiss

So our politicians tell us that we're broke....way past broke, actually....because of all the old-timers now signing up for their Medicare and Social Security, which, by the way, they PAID for over their working lives.  (And if the tax rate was insufficient to keep those trust funds properly topped off, whose fault is that?)

But wait....now we find out that a cool $76 BILLION DOLLARS in special-interest tax credits was included in the recent "fiscal cliff" legislation.  Lobbyists such as the firm headed by former Senator's John Breaux (D-LA) and Trent Lott (R-MS), representing companies like General Electric and Citigroup, secured for them an extension to the provision that allows multinational corporations to defer US taxes by moving profits into offshore financial subsidiaries.  (Their profits are all credited to subsidiaries in low-tax countries like Luxembourg where they might have nothing more than a PO Box.  They then pay Luxembourg taxes, not US taxes.)

Known as the "active financing exception", this is the tool that GE (and quite a few others, too) uses to avoid paying nearly all US corporate taxes.  Also blessed with sweetheart tax breaks were companies like rum distiller Diageo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, the American Wind Energy Association and the Motion Picture Association of America. (I checked and Park Place Custom Homes didn't get crap!)

Obviously their shareholders are ecstatic, but how is the taxpayer's interest served here?  

This scam was one the Obama administration insisted be included, and the Republicans feebly and quietly objected to, then voted "aye" anyway.  ("I'll vote for yours if you'll vote for mine?")  I wonder if we went back over the past 30 years or so and looked very carefully how much of our $16 TRILLION DOLLAR debt could be attributed to these kinds of giveaways?

No....no kiss, or dinner, or a movie, or even cab fare home.  Just a plain old fashioned screwing.  "I feel so....so used."

S

Time to eat crow. Pass the Tabasco, please.

*Your picture here*

Okay, I've already made fun of New Year's resolutions saying nobody ever follows through, but I'm having second thoughts about the subject.  For the past year my friend Pixel has been updating us on her "54 by 54" project....54 things she wants to do/try before her 54th birthday.  Now Bug wants to do something similar and has listed a few things on her blog.  One of them struck a nerve with me:  She wants to pay off a considerable chunk of her debt.

K and I need to do the same.  I say "need", which isn't true.  We can easily afford our lifestyle and service our debt, but still, it's debt.  Ewwww!  If we didn't have that debt we could perhaps take some of those exotic vacations we've dreamed of.  Other than that I don't really want for anything.  

K, on the other hand, has dropped hints recently about us buying/building a home.  I have no burning desire for one, but I'm not opposed, either.  I've had many homes over the past 35 years and what I remember most is the work that comes with them.  All K sees is decorating it just the way she wants, with all the features she's seen on Pintrest (?) and in magazines.  If I could find a suitable property I could probably build one for what we're paying now in monthly rent, so financially it makes sense.  And of course I want her to be happy....a pretty powerful argument.

Still, that debt (much of it medical related) complicates either travel or a new home.  Our big vices are dining out and buying books/magazines.  As things are now we can't walk out our apartment door without dropping $20-$40.  It would be quite a shock to stay in more and eat "Helper", but it would probably be a good exercise in self-control.  I think we need to do this.

Resolution.

S

My wish for you

Happy New Year!

May your health be swell, your pocketbook full, your pantry overflowing, and your grin ear-to-ear.

S