The one good thing about having little is that you have little to maintain.

Yesterday, Mike and I looked at a house. We have considered moving closer to Matt and Mel and there was a house available two doors down from them. It was a little larger than the house we lived in when we lived in West Jordan. The great room alone was almost as big as our current house.

It was tempting. That great room would hold three times more geeks than our current house can hold. CodeAway could grow and we could still host it in our home. The master bedroom had one of those huge Roman tubs and a separate shower. The basement was almost finished and Mike could have had his choice of four rooms to put his office. That home gym I had to give up when we moved? It was already set up in the unfinished portion of the basement.

Yeah, it was tempting…

At least it SHOULD have been. I miss that house we used to live in, but walking through that house that should have been PERFECT for us, just filled me with anxiety. That 3818 square-foot home was carpeted. All that vacuuming. I had forgotten how much of my time had been relegated to vacuuming that West Jordan house.

That Roman tub? Yeah, it would have been a constant reminder that I need to RELAX, but whenever I did take the time to relax, I would find that the water heater doesn’t have enough hot water to fill the damn thing. I should relax in a lukewarm, half-filled tub? Nah…

All those empty rooms? We need ONE extra room, not three. What happens to rooms that are unneeded? I know I would fill them up with furniture or projects. I’d have another house full of junk that I never really used.

Last night, Mike and I realized that we CAN’T live next to Matt and Mel. We just CAN’T live in a house that big again and ALL the houses in their neighborhood are freakin’ mansions compared to where we live now.

This morning, we woke up to a foot of snow and more falling. I thought of the huge driveway at the house we visited last night and cringed. The driveway at our current house is tiny and it only took me a half hour to shovel it. My desk overlooks the front yard instead of being isolated in a room meant for a child somewhere in a cavernous house. After shoveling the heavy and slushy snow, I am happy to live in this tiny house.