Kathleen Kellett

There are several practical reasons for buying a small, affordable home, the most obvious being our present economic situation and the second most obvious being that, if you hate cleaning as much as I do, two bedrooms opposed to five indicates much less vacuum time. The latest U.S. government statistics note that the average age range for a woman who chooses to wed is twenty-eight to thirty-one while the average man is twenty-nine to thirty-three. There are more than several reasons for the shift towards marrying later in life including the availability to advance one's education, the desire to seek out partners who are financially stable and a good match for income, among other socioeconomic changes.

Another more poignant reason has risen out of the drive for young people to find their true identity and idea of "self." That quest has often manifested in the search and eventual ownership of property. Paying rent for an apartment is no longer desirable as the opportunity for owning real estate, a co-op, townhouse, condo, or house is almost a necessity.

I'll be honest: I grew up with girlfriends who started having babies between the ages of nineteen and twenty-one. Naturally, they married and settled down. Most of them became exceptional domestic goddesses and have since grown into beautiful women who have gotten an education or capitalized on a hobby. I grew up in the Bible belt. This choice is acceptable if not preferable in a city where seemingly everyone carries Judeo-Christian values. Women stay home with a family and men often suspend their education in order to provide for additional children, since Judeo-Christian beliefs tend to support the concept of a multiple child household.

Here I am though, twenty-nine years of age, unmarried, no kids, and visions of sugar plums--or at least, that scene in Gone With the Wind where Scarlett starts hearing her dead father talk about land, standing in her estate, eyebrow arched vicariously--dancing in my head:

"'Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything. It will come to you, this love of the land. There's no gettin' away from it if you're Irish."

I am Irish. More so, I'm still unmarried, independent, hospitable and eccentric (that part came from the German side I believe). And, to my parent's dismay, I don't care to have children any time in the near future, even if marriage becomes an option.

I've given this a lot of thought and buying a small home seems to be the best way to go. Going forward, I have assembled a brilliant plan to save the money generally spent in acreage in order to invest in utilizing the space a smaller, affordable home has to offer.

Trading Spaces, the TLC cable program nominated for two day time Emmy awards, has captivated its audience by appealing to a fascinating yet practical concept: two families pick a room to completely refurbish for the other using only a maximum of $1,000 to create a designer-home look. The fact that Page Davis is the cutest little cupcake decoration on television or that Ty Pennington became the most popular carpenter since Jesus because of his incredible good looks doesn't hurt either. And, of course, there were the episodes where the participants hated the room. Anyone with a sick sense of humor, like myself, enjoys watching wives excuse themselves to cry in the bathroom over the fact that their free home interior design and the opportunity to appear on national television caused them great heart ache. Possibly therapy.

I've been inspired by the show and can't think of one room I've hated but then again, I'm not one to nuzzle up to the feel of a patchwork quilt motif home. I like color, style, trends, lemons put into a small vitrine for that "pop" of color in a stark white room.

Entertaining at your own home is fun. Having people over to surprise them with your immense amount of aesthetic home personality, well, that's a whole other ballgame!

And speaking of ball game...

I'm no interior designer, but I have happened upon a concept not only desirable, but affordable considering the money a bachelor,bachelorette, or newly wed couple can save upon working with a dedicated realtor and a proficient loan officer.

Gallery Street is a Georgia based company specializing in fine art reproduction. I'm no connoisseur and feel the position is unnecessary in order to appreciate their full color mural printing service. The concept is trendy yet not bound to the flighty nature of trends as murals have graced the walls of establishments and homes alike since cavemen were capable of making marks with the "ink" of ochre and charcoal.

I'll admit to having seen murals on the ceilings of homes in our lovely historical districts here in Southwest and Central Virginia. However, I would be the first on any block for certain with a mural made from a photograph or painting I have personally created and produced.

They very literally set the backdrop for any room.

Can you imagine? Your home is now the envy of the entire neighborhood, including the homes with the broken vacuum in one of several bedroom corners!

Jane Mount, third place finisher in Apartmenttherapy.com's 2006 Smallest, Coolest Apartment contest wanted to give her bedroom a "thicket retreat" feel. She utilized Gallery Street's mural service, providing her own photograph as inspiration. Her results are note worthy:

You can visit the other rooms in her apartment at http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/small-cool-2006-entries/finalist-4-jane-darkos-cozy-thicket-007907

The possibilities are endless. With a little research, there is no limit to the desirable avenues this virtual tapestry lends to the space and design of any home, apartment or townhouse.

Another option is to think outside of the American box and go Euro-Asian.

Stockholm-based company Compact Living creates prefabricated, easy to install lofts for just about any space, although they specialize in making provisions for small apartments. Just contact them with the dimensions of your space and they produce a custom loft for you. However, one can capitalize on any space by taking advantage of available resources.

Perhaps it was the innovative and unconventional thought process that stuck with me, but on one episode of Judging Amy, a television show that ran on CBS during early 2000, I remember how a mother was able to retain custody of her children by creating bedroom space in her government housing for her children. Since then, I have thought of lofts as forward-thinking tool for both single mothers and families who are interested in cutting unnecessary costs to provide a cozy and intimate home for their family.

Now that's what I call thinking outside the box spring (I couldn't get through one blog without some sort of corny joke)!

by Sarah Conaway