The late winter of 2017 our friend Hannah had walked through a home for us. Hannah was about eight months pregnant but had kindly offered to lend us a hand in our house hunt. She lived in this town and could easily look a a property, if we needed her to, instead of packing up magnolia and griffin for a 6 hour roundtrip car ride. She walked through our current house for us that winter, a little cottage in town, a big lot, but no gardens to be seen. My first thought was, uh, too small compared to what we were living in. three bedrooms and one bathroom was a change from our bungalow that had two bathrooms and a playroom for our kiddos mess. So we didn’t give this house much of a chance. Months passed and we made an offer on another house that fell through. Desperate, I thought back to the too small cottage and wondered if it had sold. I found the owners number and texted. She was waiting for us to call back. Waiting to see if we’d walk through the house. She had two other offers but was willing to hold off on making a decision if we could get there in a couple days.

And that we did. We packed up the car with a three year old Magnolia and a just two year old griffin and drove across the state to arrive at a little house with a May garden in bloom. I was enchanted by the apple tree, the lupines and tulips growing. She was an herbalist and grew her own food on this lot in town. The house was owned by her grandparents, her grandmother had planted the peonies, grapevine and asparagus patch. she bought it and turned it into her sanctuary. She walked me through the gardens, introducing me too all her plant friends and I fell hard.

The house did feel to small and dated, but we could redo parts of it and make it our home: the reality was we needed a house. Here was a house with potential. Little did I know, this home would be my portal to the plant path. That day, she accepted our offer and we drove back to Milwaukee with a plan. The next day I bought my first book Petersen Guide for Native Wild Plants so I could learn the names and faces of the friends I had met in the garden.

I also saw the smaller home as an opportunity to really commit to some ideas and values AJ and I had been long discussing for our family. Less stuff, learning more skills, growing our own food, spending more time in nature, living small and more right sized. I decided to start my first capsule wardrobe. We started downsizing and giving things away. It was a chance to live with less, live more simply, a chance to slow down and make sure what we were bringing into this new house was what we really wanted.

And that is what this home has been for us the past three years. I started on my plant path after learning the plants in the garden, we’ve constantly said no at holidays, less things because we don’t have the space. We do our best to live organically and maximize the space and storage we have in this home. I cannot quite express the gratitude I have for this place in words, yet, it is not quite working for us. We redid the kitchen, took down a wall to the dining room, painted lots of the surfaces, rearranged furniture, got rid of things and stuff. I’m constantly thinking of ways to maximize the space, organize it and make it feel right for us.

But when there is a line because everyone has to use the bathroom at the same time. Or when winter rolls around and the boots and coats and mittens and gloves pile up in the kitchen at the back door, I get anxious and overwhelmed. I try my best each season to have less, to problem solve, but AJ works remotely, from home. I work from home, we homeschool, I have my garden and apothecary and all in this 1200 sq ft space. and it’s cozy and tight.

As much as I love and am grateful for this home, my highly sensitive self cannot handle it sometimes. So last year we called our contractor over to chat about possibilities. Could we connect the garage and kitchen to make a mudroom? Could we put a bathroom in the basement? Could we add a second story? Could we extend the back of the house into the garden? we’d have to cut down Fiona, our apple tree, We’d have to do extensive foundation work around the garage and house which would destroy the gardens, the space i’d said it tend to, care for and respect. And so began another phase of our journey. Would we buy another bigger house in town, or finally make the leap we had wanted to live in the country…