I don't personally struggle with this issue. Troy builds beautiful stairways and railings for people with gorgeous homes. I go into those homes with him and I have a real appreciation for their spaciousness and beauty, but I am not envious. I know that a great house can be part of a happy lifestyle, but the house alone doesn't MAKE a person happy. I have found the things over the years that do make me happy, and I have no need for the perfect house. I am a take what life gives me and make it mine kind of girl. But it's not so simple for everyone in my family, and that is our struggle right now.
Pretty early in our marriage Troy and I bought property outside of town and built a house. I was excited, because who doesn't dream of the opportunity to build your own house one day? I had always lived in houses with too few bathrooms, kitchens that were the wrong colors, carpeting that was ratty, and worst of all, not enough closet space. I could take care of all of that! I'm not a person of many wants or needs, I even let Troy pick out the kitchen appliances! I had a vision of the kind of front porch I wanted, and I wanted big closets. That's where my strong opinions stopped. And I did love the house.
Anyway, fast forward to a few years later. Troy and I have two daughters who are the source of much happiness in our lives and he has now decided to buy a building in town and move his business. There is an extra financial burden on our family and my closet space simply is no longer important to me. What is important is the ability to continue to fund fun activities, eat out and travel. We decided to sell the house and buy one close to his shop with a much smaller mortgage. Which means much smaller everything else.
We found a house with happy circumstances- it was within a couple blocks of his shop, a grocery store and the school the girls would be attending. It had a very nice yard, on a corner lot. But it also had the smallest bedrooms I have ever seen in a house. My big closet in our other house was bigger than either of the girl's rooms in this house. I sort of viewed this as a novelty at the time, telling the girls they could think of them more as sleeping quarters than "rooms" and we would make them really cute. It's been about 4 years now and my 6 year old is still good with it, but my 14 year old is struggling. I tell her everyone needs less than ideal situations growing up to brag about to their kids later in life. She can tell them that she had to sleep in a room that was barely big enough for her bed and she liked it! They should be happy with all the luxury they have! It's perfect!
But she's not buying it, and I feel bad for her. So this summer I hope to let her move into the closed-in front porch area of our house, which is still very tight by most people's standards, but bigger than what she has now. And more private. It's either that or buy a bigger camper trailer to park in the drive for her to stay in. Which Troy has actually suggested. I'm just not ready to go that Hillbilly yet.
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