…….a lil’ bit about living in a “small home”.

O.k. So, before it was even considered eco-friendly to choose to live in a small home, my husband and I were completely on board.  We love to eat out, experience the local art scene and travel-that is before Covid-19 reared its ugly head. So naturally we have a big budget for those items that bring us great joy.  Where did we choose to “tighten our belt”?  On the square footage of our home.  1300 square feet precisely.  Pure bliss!

We live in the quiet Crocus Hill neighborhood of St. Paul.  Living here is a bit of a dream for me.  I lived in CT in my 20’s and I fell hard for New England.  I always said I would go back.  However, I’m still here!  St. Paul has a little bit of that New England charm that I love.  I am really grateful to be living and raising our children here. 

We chose a small, 1951, mid-century modern house to be our home.  Would you believe me if I shared with you that it is the one and only house we looked at?  Both my husband and I loved it from the start.  A mid-century modern home in a sea of turn-of-the-century homes!  Oh, with central air too!  Did I mention that we also have a wooded backyard with rain, vegetable and butterfly’ gardens?

Our home is a 2-bedroom, 1300 square foot house and there are four of us living in it.  How do we do it?  Well, we adapt.  Our son and our daughter currently share a bedroom.  They love it and its working!  We know that one day soon the music will change.  Our oldest will have to have his room in the lower-level, finished basement.  I’m not a bedroom basement fan at all.  However, it is what we will need to do.  We chose to invest in making memories rather than investing in square footage.

When we made the decision to remodel our kitchen we were able choose what we love.  We hired a kitchen designer who helped us to maximize every inch of our very small kitchen.  A couple of key design improvements that we did, and that really opened up the space, were remove the soffits to bring the cabinets to the ceiling, add “secret drawers” in the toe kick areas and implement a retractable stove hood.  I do love that hood!  It is so quiet and discreet!   We chose to put the children’s keyboard on the other side of the island.  Placing it in the kitchen motivates them to play for me while I am cooking or baking.  We love our kitchen and we are so pleased with how it looks and functions.  It truly represents who we are and what we need.

I could go on and on about the joys of living in a small home. Small square footage is for me!

Peace + Love

R