small house experiment

I am still here!

we made it across the country safely and are settling into our new home...pictures soon!

Just a quick note as we are still internetless and I am just borrowing for a few minutes.

My family and I are embarking on a new adventure.

My husband is busy working on his portfolio to apply to architecture schools in hopes of fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming an architect. In the meantime in order to save a few dollars we have accepted an offer from my parents of their garden cottage for one year of free rent...of course this has its pros and cons as you can imagine!

Cute cottage, on my parents property (of 32 acres)....approximately 600 square feet...family of six!

So - are we crazy?

We have decided to make an experiment out of it! As previously stated my husband has always wanted to be an architect and we have both been very interested in sustainability. We decided this would be the perfect time to test: how much space does one family actually need??? Do we need mcmansions?

On our way through Canada I noticed a lot of older subdivisions, particularly in Winnipeg that had rows of tiny houses that I am sure housed large families post-war. I think we can do it. I found a christmas ornament two years ago (not long after moving into our 3000 sq. foot home in Nova Scotia) that said "Love grows in small houses"....we shall see...

Relax...

I have a few things to share today:

The first is I have finished my classes!!! I feel so relieved. This batch has been really difficult, especially with my hubby finishing off his master's degree at the same time. I ended up cramming six classes into three months, lots of work but I am finished (until October anyway)! I can almost stop and take a breath.....

The second is I have four days left in Nova Scotia. We hit our favourite beach for probably the last time yesterday and feasted on lobster for dinner. So yesterday was a great day (and it was the day I celebrated my birthday as I spent my real birthday writing an essay...not too much fun!)

And third I thought I would share a strange interest of mine. I did take one day off last week as my hubby had to head into Halifax to put up his last (for now) Halifax gallery show (he is an abstract painter). I decided to take the kids on a little adventure and clear my head a bit.

Now as I said my husband is an abstract painter, he enjoys the modern (as well as the old, but he focuses on the modern). I love the old (I am majoring in history after all - and English, but even there my love is the 19th century). My children have been to more art galleries and museums in their young lives than I had been to by the time I was thirty. Anyway, last week my boys wanted to visit the natural history museum and take in the new Venom show, which my daughter agreed to go and see (having a pre-teen girl and three young boys can make choosing where we go a little difficult sometimes!) When we arrived, it wasn't opened yet, so I decided to share my strange fascination with my children.

While we were waiting we headed across the street to one of Halifax's graveyards...

Yes, I love graveyards. Particularly really old ones. (Later in the day we discovered the even older grave yard in Halifax that closed to burials in 1844, but unfortunately by that time the battery on my camera had died...)

The graveyard we did get to photograph was pretty cool too. My kids were not too excited to begin with, but since there really wasn't anything else to do they agreed to come along without complaint. Before long though, they were as interested as I was.

They were amazed at how old some of the graves were...

and how elaborate some of the tombstones were...

Before long, they were off exploring on their own and calling each other over so we could all view their discoveries...

My boys were particularly interested in this tall stone, my seven year old called me over, telling me I wouldn't believe this one...

My sons names are William and James and they are 7 and 5. Finding a William James who died at 6 was a little bit spooky for them...which they thought was very cool.

They all also thought this one was pretty cool...

and they wondered when Harry Potter became a captain.

They also learned that some peoples lives can be very sad, like this poor mother who looks like she lost five children the same year...there were actually a lot of tombstones that listed many children. One family had eight or nine all die within about ten years.

Wandering around a graveyard may be a very strange thing to do with little kids, but I am really glad I took them. They all felt pretty good about their lives upon leaving seeing how sad some peoples lives are, they also saw many stones that had been rudely knocked over by somebody having "fun" and we had a chance to talk about respect and reverence. They also had a bit of fun learning about history and looking around and doing some detective work trying to put families together. And we all had an art appreciation lesson looking at the beautiful stonework. It was one of the most enjoyable hours we have spent together all summer and when we found out that there was an even older graveyard...they all asked if we could pleeeeeease go and see it. I think I may be passing along a strange interest...

We also went and saw my hubby's show...

 a little more modern, but enjoyable as well...although the kids were ready to go home after the first ten minutes. There is just something about history....