the new year begs to be ushered in. 2008. double aught eight. the 'noog quietly and patiently waits for us to get our act together. as luck would have it, we finally closed on our house in charlotte, and given the difficult real estate market these days we are amoung the fortunate. of course it took a young california couple with an eye for something different to appreciate our little bungalow.

so, the new year begins with the search for property, views, schools, and proximity. armed with nothing but preconceptions, we venture forth... furtile land for healthy roots.

The world is too much with us;
late and soon,Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers
Little we see in Nature that is ours...
William Wordworth (1807)

If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger.
Frank Lloyd Wright

No, no, you're not thinking, you're just being logical.
Niels Bohr

Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.
Popular Mechanics (1949)

Always in motion is the future.
Yoda

change is the only constant. entropy is the name of the game. any organized system, through great or minute losses of energy, will decompose. the coffee cup beside me will one day cease to function as a coffee cup. that day may be tomorrow, or 100 years from now. cafe diem!

stuff in storage

my oh my we have collected lots of "stuff" over the past 14 years. reminds me of that great quote from fight club, "the stuff you own, ends up owning you." doesn't get much zenner than that.

in the beginning...

once upon a time there were 2 architects with 2 wonderful (and very active) children who wanted to build their "first" house. having already spent 9 years living in and updating a 1920's bungalo in charlotte, the couple decided to finally start from scratch in ubercool chattanooga.

first we had to bring all our crap to chattanooga, which took several trips, a storage rental unit, the attic of my wonderful in-laws, and three quarters of the rest of their house. of course, being the eco-minded couple that we are, we took as much "stuff" to habitat restore, salvation army, and goodwill as possible. but kids have a difficult time giving up the toys they no longer play with, they imagine themselves spending hours of focused energy reliving the glory days of last month.

so as we begin our journey, we thought it appropriate to record our adventures for all (or few) to witness the trials-n-tribulations of the whole process. the architect becomes the client. groovy.


some of our stuff
so... merry xmas from the browns. and may you have a wonderful new year in 2008.