A Million Here, A Million There

Two senators exiting the Capitol, talking about the federal budget. One exclaims: "A million here, a million there -- pretty soon, you're talking real money!"

Last night I skimmed The Not So Big House. I started by reading and looking at the pictures... and after about half an hour was looking at the pictures and reading.... and then was looking at the pictures... which segued into looking just at the really cool pictures. Which occasionally were so cool as to force me to drop to sublight so that I could read the associated text. Finally, gorged, I put the book aside... picking it up on occasion just to nosh, to use a phrase from my childhood, poring over the pictures, reading the words with renewed feelings of delight and satisfaction.

I realized two things, both points made in this excellent book:

One: Small doesn't mean tiny, it means 'not large'. I had thought the book focused on houses that were in the 1800 square foot range. In fact, it doesn't focus on size per se at all, but where it does mention it, the size is up to about 2400 square feet. At the end, it's talking about gihugic megaultramansions, but for the most part, its in the range I mentioned. The focus is not on the size of the house, its on the use of the space. Although the author doesn't say it, I think that she'd agree that you can have a four thousand square foot house that fits the precepts of the NSB house if all of it is used all of the time.

Two: Small doesn't mean inexpensive. She says that the cost of a small, well thought out and well-detailed NSB house can easily be 80 or 90 percent of the cost of a conventionally larger house. The reason is that a lot of thought and care go into the smaller house, with finer accents, significantly more precision in layout and execution, and generally better materials. What you end up with is a high quality house that you use all of, all the time, but not one that is lighter on the wallet.

In my case, I was thinking about 'gee, we could do that' about a half dozen things in the book -- an elegant bathing pool (sorry, but I don't think there is a better way to put it), a charming library nook, a good piece of cabinetry -- and realized that not a one of those things would come from the local WalMart or Bobs Quicky House Builders. Some of it could, yes, but not most of it. Those costs add up. Pretty soon, you're talking real money.

This is not a reason not to do it. We're still tickled by the idea. And the book gives some suggestions that will help us to decide if this is the way we want to go. But if we do, we have to understand that it's a substantial financial commitment. Quality's rarely cheap.