berkeley bungalow

Berkeley and Albany (our next door neighbor) are full of little houses called 'Berkeley bungalows.'  Many of them are engulfed by gardens, others are plainer, and stand alone.  Some have very sculpted gardens around them, japanese gardens, rock gardens, and so forth.  I chose this photo from my small collection of Berk-Alb houses because the overgrown garden is fairly typical.

When we first moved into our house (not pictured), I felt like it was a cottage, not a 'house.'  It took me a long time to adjust to the notion that this small space, not much bigger than an apartment, was to be my home for the rest of my life.  Well, possibly for the rest of my life.  And thirty years later, it's kinda lookin' that way. 

But what I've found out by living in a small house, is that a small house is like a spiritual master.  It teaches you to be disciplined, to minimize your possessions, to keep things clean and neat, to respect other people's needs for space.  You get organized, living in a small house, or you go bananas.  The choice is yours.

I'm the sort of person who gets very creative about all the things I'm going to do.  This can result in dragging in a lot of unnecessary stuff into the house, which then has to be stored until I get around to using it.  In a small house, you can't really do that, unless you want to live in a cleaning nightmare.

A small house can be comfortable and incredibly COZY.  You can curl up as neat and tidy as a cat in your living room in the evenings, and everything is within easy reach.  But it has to be neat and orderly for this to happen.  That's why a small house brings out the monk in you.  Detachment, elimination, subtraction, minimalization, name it as you will: it's discipline for hoarders like my husband and me. 

Our house is not pictured here.  It's on the verge of being painted, so I thought I'd wait.  Frankly, it's not a very attractive house, but it will look a lot better after it's been painted.  Here's another example of a typical, overgrown Berkeley house.  I have to admit, though, I LOVE the PROFUSION of flowers!  I'm really happy that, no matter how austere the interior of the house may be, the outside is running riot with flowers!