You don’t buy a lot and build a brand-new house without thinking for about a bajillion hours about the kind of place you’d like to have. For my husband and me, those bajillion hours distilled down to a few core principles rooted in everything I’ve ever learned about place attachment:
- We wanted an infill lot in an existing neighborhood with trees
- We wanted to be in walking distance to stuff we cared about
- We wanted to be closer to downtown
- We wanted a front porch
Five months in, I stand by all those decisions. Maybe the porch most of all.
In builder’s terms, it’s dead space, a $10,000 boondoggle. In life terms, it’s what spans the gap between inside and outside, private home and neighborhood. It’s where we read after dinner and watch the rain without getting wet. It’s the quiet vantage point from which I can greet (okay, spy on) the neighborhoods.
When I get ambitious, I’ll mimic my friend Dawn’s family and institute weekly “open porch” nights. Pop some popcorn, stir up some lemonade, and issue a standing invitation to stop by and chat.
Do you have a porch? Do you want one?
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Shameless self-promotion portion of the newsletter
Just another month till we’re ready to kick off our new online mini course! For not much time or money, it will make you less of a mess after a move.
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7 items of interest
1. The nutty finances of living where you want to live.
2. This will make you want to move to a small town. In Texas.
3. When place attachment means running for office.
4. Gentrification summed up.
5. The world’s most Instagrammable mural.
6. Are you anti–open concept? “Nothing is more maddening than trying to read or watch television in the tall-ceilinged living room with someone banging pots and pans or using the food processor 10 feet away in the open kitchen.” #FirstWorldProblems
7. A short podcast about the travails of moving. (I got interviewed!)
xoxo, Melody
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