Eleventh post in the series
My guest today is very, very special to me. Although we only know each other through our blogs and emails, we have become dear friends. It's pure joy for me to welcome Kim of Exquisitely Unremarkable to A Joyful Cottage today. Kim's story goes to the very heart of what Living Large In Small Spaces is about. She's a great communicator, and I know you're going to enjoy reading her words as you tour her charming cottage. By the way, I paid her to say all those nice things about me and my blog. ;-)
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I have been reading Living Large In Small Spaces each week since the series began. I was hooked from the start, however this was not a surprise. I know Nancy, and I was already a big fan of her blog long before the series ever began. It's a wonderful place to visit, a place I feel at home, relaxed and understood. I bonded with her immediately, through her words, before we even spoke, it was all in the name...A Joyful Cottage...wow. Powerful words.
Here was a woman who understood that living in a cottage, a very small space, could be a wonderful, happy, fulfilling experience and it could be a choice! Imagine that! There was someone else out there who thought, as I did, that teeny tiny cottage living was THE dream, not a mansion or a 4,000 square foot penthouse, but a home with room for just enough ~ a kindred spirit for sure!
So when Nancy asked me to share my own home, I was thrilled. We do not live in a large house, but we live here happily and by choice. It is not a starter or stop on our destination to bigger digs. While I am not certain about the square footage, I never cared to measure and we didn't buy our home through a realtor, so there was no requirement for the seller to list it, it's small! It was built sometime in the 1920's in a very hilly, summer beach community. Our particular home was actually built as the first year round structure in the neighborhood, big billing at the time, although we don't really see any difference between our cottage and many of the other bungalows that were specifically built for summer!
The "year round" layout boasted a living room, two teeny bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen big enough for two people to stand inside. There was no dining area and the basement was covered with dirt. Fancy! By the time my husband and I bought the house, the basement had been finished, a dining room had been added, along with a master bedroom and bath. The entire house needed work, updating and an addition to make the kitchen functional, but we adored the home, its charm, its location and, frankly, its price, so we snatched it up.
We were in love with the house and felt like we had hit the jackpot. I have to say, others were not so impressed by our choice. We live in the land of bigger, better, more and our new home was none of those things. It wasn't a big step up from our old home (which was actually right across the street~ I kid you not ~ when we moved, my husband wheeled our barbecue over!) which was only 900 square feet, but to us it felt enormous. More importantly, it felt doable.
I was a stay at home mom. My husband was a child of divorce and my mom was widowed when I was in elementary school. It was very important to both of us to try to keep me home with the kids, to give them something that neither one of us had growing up. While we could've afforded a larger home at the time, we liked that fact that this one was super easy on our wallet. For example, if my husband lost his job, we would be fine here, family vacations weren't something we would have to do without and debt was a word we wouldn't ever have to carry around with us and our young family. It also meant that we would be able to renovate the house and yard to make it our dream cottage and still not break the bank.
In the beginning, we tried to explain our reasoning to others, how we actually loved the cozy footprint, how we were generally all in the same small room hanging out anyway, that this was the dream house, but eventually we gave up. A guy my husband worked with asked if we could afford the house and when we told him yes, he told us "then it isn't big enough." We kept getting comments about how our "next house" will be the big one, as if this couldn't possibly be the goal. Even the kids' friends got in on the act. One little girl literally said, "This is it?" when we pulled into the driveway for a playdate.
Yes. This is it. Three small bedrooms, a living room, tiny family room and a kitchen. The furniture is all small in scale, nothing standard ever fits. Private conversations are very difficult to have. You can't load the dishwasher on a Saturday morning without waking everyone in the house and when someone sneezes, it's broadcast loud and clear. I live here with the people I love most in the world and being close to them is a gift. Why I would need any more room is beyond me.
Of course, after more than a decade here, people still ask if we're going to finally take that next step or build up. I have quit trying to explain myself. I just say that we are content here and that the house may be small, but it has a great layout and lives very large.
Of course, that may just be our attitude!
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I love your attitude, Kim. Thank you for inspiring us with your story and beautiful cottage.
Kim is a writer, wife and mom who shares loads of great crafts, DIY projects, decorating tips, giggles and "a lot of red" at her blog Exquisitely Unremarkable. Be sure to visit her for more inspiration.
Living the (Cottage) Dream was featured here -
Join me next Saturday for another post in the special series
Living Large in Small Spaces
From the comments I've received on this series, many
people have been encouraged by the homes and lives shared here.
If you live in a small space I'd
love to feature your story, too.
people have been encouraged by the homes and lives shared here.
If you live in a small space I'd
love to feature your story, too.
Send me an email and let's collaborate.
(See the "Contact Me" page for my email address.)
(See the "Contact Me" page for my email address.)