anita’s world

Apartment Therapy is currently hosting its fourth annual “Small Cool Contest” where contestants showcase their small (less than 850 sq ft) homes to show how well they have maximized their small spaces.  Although the place we’re moving to is not as small as that (we’re going from 1900 sq ft to 1250 sq ft), seeing the contest entries (over 100 now) has been really inspiring to me.  It’s comparable, I mean, there are 4 of us in our family, while most of the homes submitted for the contest only have 1 or 2 people living in them.  I recently sold two of our sofas (we had three!) on Craigslist and have many more items posted to sell.  The idea of moving to a small townhome is liberating… we’re going to have a simpler, easier life.

How quickly things change!  After a few posts (now deleted) on the subject, and a really cool (if I do say so myself) “Before” diagram, there is no longer going to be an outdoor patio.

See, right now we are renting an old, creaky, drafty home, and we spend a sh**load of money each month trying to keep it warm for our two babies who have not yet learned to use blankets while sleeping.  While for the most part we like this house, we are just sick of living in old homes.  We think back fondly of our little townhouse in Pasadena and feel nostalgic for the easy life we had there – built in the last 20 years, small space, no yard, air conditioning, close to good food – and oh yeah, no kids.

In any case, we had been thinking of moving to a smaller, newer place, picturing in our heads the Pasadena townhouse.  Well, we finally found something similar, which will save us money on both rent and utilities.  It’s also much, much smaller than our current home.  And no outdoor space except a small balcony.  We just signed the lease today, thus no more outdoor dining patio.  Well, it was fun thinking about it anyways.