Deja view: The small house aesthetic of The Cottage Company
Mid Mod Pam on Aug 16 2008 at 8:00 am | Filed under: historic preservation
I just came back from a week-long vacation in Maine - where I saw plenty of authentic vintage vacation cottage enclaves. Demonstrating yet again that small may be the new big… less may be the new more… this recent story from the WSJ:
The Newest Cottage Industry
Saturday, July 19, 2008 provided by
Buyers Snap Up Small Homes; 1,000 Square Feet for $599,950
Peter Moon’s family of six snuggles into bench seats for dinners together. Their house is 1,100 square feet, a bit smaller than two squash courts. “We really don’t need more space,” says Mr. Moon, a 46-year-old software designer. “I don’t mind being cozy.”
Mr. Moon says he and his wife dumped a much larger home in Boston three years ago to seek a simpler, greener life here. Mr. Moon recently persuaded his parents to sell their 2,000-square-foot house on New York’s Long Island and retire to a small neighboring cottage. “We’ve lived in bigger, older houses, but this is by far the most livable,” says Mr. Moon. “There’s no place to accumulate junk.”
The designers of the Moon family house, Ross Chapin and Jim Soules, think small in a way that is practically un-American. They build tract houses that are half the size of the average U.S. home and cost a lot more per square foot. What is surprising is how quickly they sell them. The men are building their fortunes with buyers willing to pay more for less. Customers, such as the Moons, say they prefer taking up less room and using less energy. Click here to read the story in its entirety…
How comforting to know that I’m unwittingly part of the latest trend! Well, that is, minus the high price tag for the house. The *small space* thing I’ve got down.
I agree…but I’m also a little happier in a “small” space; I think I like the coziness. My annoyance, if I have one, is that the builders/developers are exploiting this as people always do, and we’re getting “less” (space) for more money. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for it, especially these little bungalow communities (there are also some in the Seattle area, where I used to live), I just also strongly believe in affordable housing, if there is such a thing.