“What humans do over the next 50 years will determine the fate of all life on the planet” – Sir David Attenborough Many have asked for an update on life with compost toilets, graywater, and rainwater systems. Today is the perfect day as we are busy cleaning our...
"All you need is the plan, the road map,and the courage to press on to your destination" – Earl Nightingale That old adage about bigger being better, may not be so true as we age. Building a new house during our last chapter gave us an opportunity to pause and...
In April, we celebrated one year in our new home. While they say time flies, I have felt more like I am living in slow motion than at warp speed. This is partly due I’m sure to the slow and serene surroundings we now find ourselves in but I also think, at least in...
"Simple living is skillful living" - Satish Kumar For many years, I have strived to live a more simplified life. What does that mean you ask? For me it means having more of what I need and use, and less of what I don’t. It means having space around me, and this...
“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water” – W.H. Auden It may have been a simple and well researched decision, but it was also expensive, time consuming, and challenging. Still, we are confident we made the right one – to install compost toilets. As a...
“Home is where one starts from” – T.S. Eliot It’s been more than a year and a half since we broke ground on our new build. While most of creating a new home involves looking forward, gratitude has had me spending at least some of my time, looking back,...
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in,where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” – John Muir I was born in a city. I have spent the past six decades in cities and towns and many of my vacations in places like...
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” – Aristotle “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” – Aristotle First, I want to thank all those who continue to comment on the blog and on the build. I appreciate your...
“I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.” Henry David Thoreau Building our new house has always been about the numbers; square footage, the budget, the orientation to the sun, the property lines, the size of the...
circa 1995 “It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags! - Dr. Seuss I can see it now. Everyone gathered together just like we have for the past 25 years, around our long dinner table, on Christmas Eve. I’m in the kitchen...
“Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.” Charles Eames I have always been more about practical than pretty. When I got my first job as a teen, I remember my mom’s advice was to “buy separate pieces, not dresses, they are far more versatile and...
Recently, during a break in the build, and with some time on our hands, we decided to reflect on leaving our home of 25 years; what will we take with us, what will we leave behind, what has this place and home meant to us. I grew up in different houses; my...