Exterior Schematics: The Modern Nature Home

The basic floor plans were completed a few weeks ago, but as the house evolves in whole all the parts get updated, like the addition of hatch windows to connect the guest bunk with the screened-in porch, a mini-bar outside the master bedroom, and some reconfigured doorways on the second floor. Note that despite the likelihood of another baby we will be keeping the house design as is with only two kid bedrooms. :)

When Scott first revealed the exterior schematic our initial reaction was to the very modern design.

Whoa. So modern! Are you surprised too?

We liked it but after a weekend of eager conversation we've really grown to love it, and while it's more modern than we had envisioned for ourselves, it is truly what we asked for and is incredibly well thought out.

Entry

Back

The materials we choose to finish the exterior will integrate the nature element into the design. At the moment we're considering stucco, cedar, fiber cement, and metal.

Both the entry and the "back" front a road because we have a corner lot. The patio concept has yet to be developed.

The next phase of this process will include determining exterior materials, developing the construction documents, and a review by the structural engineers.

The budget is also taking shape as we have identified some key materials and products to use for interior flooring and counter tops.

Here are two (skewed) screen shots of the most recent floor plans:

To see how a house like this can be pulled off in the ways we imagine, check out these images from our Houzz.com Ideabooks.

Making the Call, Thoughts on Trying for a Third Kid

It's a warm rainy morning and we've cleared our schedule to savor a whole day at home for lounging and relaxing. There's a chocolate cake in the oven, the boys are engrossed in minecraft how-to videos, and I'm cleaning out the fridge with a covers playlist. Days like this make me think I could add another to my brood. #springfever #searsbros

I had all but convinced myself that two was enough. 

Two boys just 19 months apart. Same interests, a shared friendship. So neat. So conventional. So very manageable. 

There would never be need for a bigger car. Knowing we were done would be my invitation to purge all the baby stuff I’d hoarded away in the attic for later. Stuff we had purchased with every intention to pass down to more siblings and more siblings. Bins of tiny clothes for every age from newborn to five meticulously organized and stacked high, and myriad piles of plastic bags lumpy with toys—their return on investment yet to be realized. 

With the passing of just a few more seasons, I imagined these intensely physical years of mothering as the backbone on which I’d lovingly carry the salty milk-stained bittersweetness of what the days had meant to me—the sense of purpose I felt, the tender love and emotion that overflowed, the demands that screamed for me to reach and grow, my disappointment and my deepest joy of joys—I’d gather it all up with a fierce adoration, press our best memories to my heart, and we’d jet steadfast into the next phase of our life together with construction of our home on the brink and international travel penciled into the future—plane tickets are cheaper for a family of four, than five or six, didn’t you know?

With our youngest born when I was 28 we would remain forever young, parents with an empty nest at 44. Our shared fantasies of having kids out of diapers, and of sleeping through an entire night uninterrupted, had started to feel not only entirely possible but oh so very close.

The blossoming freedom we’d recently found as our boys grew to be four and five, we wanted more of that. In our marriage, which had fluctuated with great happiness and responsibility over the years, we’d learned to adapt and to thrive, and the elusive promise of a time when we would again have proper energy to give to each other and to ourselves had finally arrived. 

We established equilibrium with greater wisdom for what we needed as people who also happen to be parents.

A vasectomy was discussed—although neither of us made an effort to find out more—and we tabled the conversation for later because somehow the decision to declare an end to childbearing felt as big and weighty as had been our initial decision to begin in the first place. 

To make a decision so final felt like a painful responsibility. More bearable was to let time take the burden for us until one day I would understand for good that the opportunity had passed, and by then our life would surely have melded into whatever it was meant to be and the expected sting of a closed chapter would be lessened in hindsight.  

We did nothing and time passed as we knew it would. At 32, my endocrinologist emphasized that if I valued my future fertility I should consider freezing my eggs—if she were me that’s what she’d do—as early ovarian failure runs in my family history and I already have one autoimmune disease. 

The stakes ratcheted higher. Fertility is not forever.

Perhaps just waiting to see if and when our emotional tides turned wasn’t the best plan after all. If we could save ourselves from the disappointment and expense of waiting too long then the smart thing was to choose a path, knowing that every year could make a difference. 

But oh a passive wait seemed so much easier than committing because I wasn’t feeling like myself—still carrying baby weight from my pregnancy with Merritt, suspended in a body that wasn’t really me—and mothering my two wild boys day to day, homeschooling, life in general, it was all I felt I could handle.

Then there was Andy, adamant since shortly after Merritt’s birth that he was two and through. To make it all work in my mind—to meld my husband’s desires with my own perceived limitations—I built a convincing case that two could be enough for me. 

Certainly Roscoe and Merritt were enough. I had to believe it. How could they not be?

I looked for signs to push in one direction or the other. The scenarios of every day life under a microscope to glean what I could, longing to know if I was cut out for more. 

As my friends became pregnant with their third and fourth kids the radiance of pregnancy was lost on me, and even in the face of the sweetest parts of newborn baby life I was relieved to feel completely unruffled. Even the prettiest sleep-filled babies and peaceful mamas didn’t spark the wanting flame inside me, and it began to feel as if the passing of time really would soothe all. 

Yet, in the back of my mind I knew that none of it mattered as much as I owed it to myself to wait to make a decision until I could find my way back to my pre-pregnancy self, because it wouldn’t be a fair call otherwise. 

Staying fat had made it possible to tuck all the fear and questions away for another day, and avoid trying to solve the puzzle altogether. Ambivalence for wanting another baby, and doubt in my ability to maintain my own standard of mothering in the face of it all added another layer but the fat held all the power because I knew as long as I carried it with me I wouldn’t put my body through another pregnancy.

For reasons beyond having another baby, for good reasons like I was just ready and I had the time and energy to make it happen, I started to let go. The weight that I carried with me into the NICU and well into Merritt’s preschool years, the image of myself that I had grown to know and even like, I was ready to say goodbye—a final triumph to rail against all that my second pregnancy and birth had brought to my mothering experience. I had held on long enough.

The season turned and Spring brought us back in tune after a long Winter. When we emerged all seemed possible and the wanting for another child, a wanting that I had just buried somewhere deep because the timing was all wrong, it resurfaced just as the daffodils and periwinkle were blooming.

To feel the wanting again brings me peace, just as it makes me feel like my world is closing in on me. I won’t pretend I’m unafraid. I won’t pretend that the reality of another premature birth isn’t occupying space in my mind, or that the ugly frightening aspects of NICU life and postpartum anxiety don’t intimidate me. I can’t pretend not to wonder how the waning of my patience and a waxing need for sleep in the first trimester will impact my temperament to mother the boys during that time. I can’t hide that it feels damn good to be me again, or pretend that vanity and body image mean nothing.

I know what mothering in the first five years looks like for me and my memory of the details make this decision one for my bold heart and not for my logic.

The unfolding of the journey is the very stuff that life is made of and I think I’m willing to take a chance without knowing how the story will end.

Seasonal Celebrations: 12 weeks to Seasonal Living and lots of photos

As Winter officially turned to Spring last month it was hard not to celebrate, wasn't it?  

In lieu of Easter, as much as I enjoyed the tradition growing up, we focused our energy on welcoming a new season around the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring. 

We counted down the days and intended to catch the first sunrise, but ended up sleeping in later than usual and woke up to rain anyway. 

I put out a little bowl of milk chocolates and a jar of salted caramels, and invited the kids in the afternoon to pick out some new science tools. Roscoe chose the Visible Man, yet another dissection specimen, and a blood typing kit. Merritt chose a magic school bus experiment kit about germs.

Roscoe typed his dad's blood: O+

We cleared out the craft closet and found vouchers for an ant farm and a ladybug house. We bought an incubator and took a visit to our friend's farm to pick up 8 duck eggs. The embryos are now about 6 days old with tiny beating hearts we can see when we candle them at night.

Welsh Harlequin embryos at 6 days gestation

As if by magic the week that followed was warmer than usual and we enjoyed more time at home in the afternoons, hanging out in the backyard with windows open and breezes blowing through.

We went for a little nature stroll through the backyard and the boys took note of the many signs of Spring: new blades of grass, acorn sprouts, periwinkle, leaf buds. 

Sunlight through the fence, new daffodils, green shoots

We gathered some knitting and art supply scraps to assemble a nest builder for the birds.

Merritt put together a still life from backyard pickings and I strewed some colored pencils and paint.

He was curious what Daffodils look like under the microscope. He found a tiny slug inside one who turned out to be very entertaining under magnification with its little retractable tentacles.

On the patio we drew flowers with chalk on the patio out back and consulted the Smithsonian's Natural History book as reference, one of our favorites.

We played with paint and explored making new colors. 

When April came we took a long holiday weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary as a family on a sprawling farm near Sperryville, Va.

I loved the guinea fowl best. The noisy little watch birds run around in a small flock on the lookout for anything unusual or threatening. Our bedtime routine was interrupted one night by their squawking, and when I had finally given up on the boys finding sleep we peered outside to see that the hens had an unwelcome skunk visitor surrounded from the ground up. The boys ran outside in their jammies to check things out.

One guinea hen in the treetop, five on the ground 

Skunk chase

On Saturday, Andy and I hiked Old Rag, a 9+ mile circuit hike to the top of a rocky outcrop with an intense rock scramble to the summit. We didn't put a lot of thought into preparing for the hike, which made for a mentally challenging climb. We were underprepared for the number of hours it would take, the cooler windy weather that morning, and the demands of navigating a maze of boulders. The heights were dizzying but the views were gorgeous. Andy and I read our vows to each other at the top. I dug for them in the attic boxes before we left and it had been at least six years since I read them last. I had looked forward to discussing ways to revise them moving into our next decade but they read as true as they had ten years ago, even though we wrote them for each other when we were just 21.

I'm thrilled that Spring is here and I want to celebrate it every day. How about you?

Check out the HomeSpun Seasonal Workbook if you're interested in starting your own intentional journey to Seasonal Living.

Week 9 Making Do With Seasonal Flair: 12 Weeks to Seasonal Living Series

Every week of the last 9 or 10 weeks (I'm not exactly on track at this point!), I've felt more in tune with nature's rhythms and myself, and more appreciative of the so-called burdens of winter: The cold! The bad weather! The limited veggies! All the germs! Oh the darkness!

Each week I have been inspired to make the most of the season through the food we eat, the creative things we make, the way we move our bodies and so much more. As I take time to notice and document I'm made more aware and more appreciative.

To facilitate my journey and spoil myself a little along the way I've made thoughtful purchases to bring a little comfort and luxury in the throes of Winter: new taper candles, a new cookbook, finishing salts, cosmetic organizers and green cleaning supplies, cozy socks, loose teas and a tea filter, pretty decor and DIY materials for my seasonal refuge.

In Week 9 Kathie challenges us to "make do" with what we've got. Whether that means using only what we already have on hand at home in our pantry or craft closet, or using only what the season offers us naturally via produce and weather.

This is an opportunity to save a little money, perhaps, but more importantly an exercise in demonstrating our knack for appreciating what we have knowing we don't need to spend more money or own more things to have a meaningful and intentional home life.

You may have noticed I'm a couple weeks behind on this series. I didn't quite live up to this little challenge of making do and I tried to give it another week to see if I could pull something off.

Sure I didn't buy these cool ceramic dyeable eggs to celebrate the spring equinox, and I didn't buy this handsome cookbook or new workout pants as the weather warmed up and I started dreaming of green.

I did gift myself with other items like this set of Celtic wheel of the year cards to laminate and display, and also a copy of Ostara on celebrating spring. Oh, and I splurged for a seasonal color analysis that has changed the way I perceive and understand color in all its forms in my daily life. Ok, I did not give my best effort.

I believe wholeheartedly in the sentiment of the challenge but I also wrinkled my stubborn nose at it. Maybe because we were on the cusp of spring and I had lots of ideas and plans and well, whatever, it wasn't in me to exercise some restraint to make it happen. How embarrassing that I only held back a teeny tiny bit, and mostly didn't even try not to buy the goodies I really wanted.

What about you, do you appreciate the idea of making do? Would this be an easy or real challenge for you in your life and why?

Floor Plans: The Modern Nature House

Our Modern Nature house has an official floor plan! 

The house is larger than we had originally imagined at 2450 sq. feet. I suppose that's still "modest" by today's standards, and the second floor was constrained by the footprint of the first floor so everything up there is a little more roomy than we may have made them otherwise, but still cozy and I think it will grow well with us. 

Furniture in the rooms serve as placeholders for now. 

First Floor:

Garage

Andy's Workshop

Entry with Bench and Storage, half bath

Eat in Kitchen

Living Space and Project Space

Deck

Second Floor:

Guest Bunk

Deck

Master Bedroom 

Laundry/Storage Room

Communal Bathroom

Kid Bedrooms

There's a lot to be said about this floor plan. So many exciting subtle and not so subtle architectural features have been discussed but because we aren't really there yet in the design phase I will save them to share later. There is a connectivity and flow between the different areas of the house, which can't easily be appreciated from the plan alone.

The lot sits near to an abandoned rock quarry from which granite was gathered in the 1800s for use here in Richmond (buildings and monuments, etc.) and cobblestone streets all along the East Coast. We discovered the remains of an old cobblestone quarry road at the front of the property and the whole lot is very rocky (as I learned watching the soil sampling process). Hopefully there aren't any big boulders in the area where we plan to nestle the garage. Soil samples were taken from the lot yesterday to be analyzed and the results will inform the kind of footings needed for the house as it is currently designed. 

Exterior schematics are next and in the meantime we're obsessing about kitchens over here. These two photos continue to inspire the direction of our kitchen design.  

Layout:

Soapstone counters and driftwood cabinets:

The thing I'm excited about right this moment is we didn't build into the design a "home" for the TV. We're going television free in this new house, something I've wanted to do for years!

Week 8 Seasonal Healthy Living: 12 Weeks to Seasonal Living

"Good Health" recommendations are always changing and remain not only tiresome to keep up with but also contradictory in nature. It really depends on who you ask, right? Current health recommendations and practices aren't necessarily backed by good science either so, if you're like me, you pick and choose from myriad sources what resonates with your own world views and then you apply it to your life in ways that work for you.

This week let's not get bogged down with what's "right" for our health, but instead turn inward to listen to what our bodies need and want for food, movement, and mental clarity.

Let's look to nature to ground ourselves. Let's look to the seasons to inspire the way we feed ourselves; the way we choose to move our bodies; how and what we seek for self care.

I had a year of Self Love therapy the year we moved back to Richmond. The boys were two under two and I had just left my DC job on the verge of launching MamaBorn.

"So what do you do for yourself outside of the gym and taking care of the kids?" my therapist asked. I sat there staring at her, unsure what she meant.

While listening to and trusting my body and the natural process of birth had always made so much sense to me, and Attachment Parenting's philosophy of listening to my mother intuition and trusting my baby had come very naturally to me, I realized then in the context of this new role and these new relationships that I had learned to power through instead of taking care. In lack of sleep, emotional stresses, and the very physical relationship that is mothering babies and toddlers, I had all but tuned out my own needs as a person—for hunger, for fullness, for movement, for rest, for solitude, for sleep—and it wasn't working for me anymore.

Adopting the Intuitive Eating* philosophy in particular changed my life and helped me over the course of a year to redefine my relationship with food but I couldn't stop there and have since expanded the concepts to encompass exercise and other aspects of my self care routine. Sometimes it feels indulgent, yes, but being in tune and able to provide myself with what I want and need to be a sane healthy human mother with plenty to give back to the people who matter most to me, well, justification isn't necessary.

This week the weather turned to the cool 60s and we wanted to be out in it so I'm focusing on the ways I moved my body this week.

The Sears Brothers in their signature embrace. Post dinner walk at dusk on a warmish winter night and the river is high. 

My sister and I made it out on Sunday for an hour hike around the marshland near our house. 

We went for what turned out to be a muddy marshland schlep this morning but the sunshine and cool air felt too good. As Spring nears I have renewed energy for what the rest of the year may bring. 

Another morning the weather demanded a change in plans from what I had penciled in as a treadmill run.

I drove to the gym this morning and hopped on the treadmill to run but then decided three minutes later to leave and drive all the way back to my neighborhood and down to the river for a nice long nature walk because it's 53 degress outside, my body is so sore and tired from my workout last night, and the James is just what I needed. I've been on a couple year journey relearning how to trust my body's need for things like food, and rest, and sleep. I think I'm getting pretty good at it. 

I workout Monday-Friday with a long outdoor walk or hike on Saturdays with my sister. (M/W mornings cardio and weights, T/R/F evenings personal training and long steady cardio.)

Now that the weather is warming up I'll be heading back to SealTeamPT, an outdoor fitness program I've enjoyed for the last year and a half. I took the winter off and hired a personal trainer instead, but I cannot wait to get back outside with the group. Rain or shine. It's a snapshot of nature every day of the year and it's a great workout. Spring is almost here and I'm done hibernating!

Does your current health routine serve you in the ways you need and want it to? 

In what ways can you look to the weather, the season, and the natural world to further inspire and guide your routine for fuel, movement, and self care? 

*To eat intuitively is to eat only what you truly want, when you are truly hungry, and stop when you are physically full. For more reading: The 10 Principles of Intuitive Eating. Through intuitive eating I have found my happy place where food is both fuel and pleasure, freely and shamelessly.

Intuitive eating resources:
Are You an Intuitive Eater? Quiz
Intuitive Eating Primer
Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole (book)
The Emotional Eater's Repair Manual by Julie Simon (book)

If you want to check out the 12 weeks to Homespun Seasonal Living workbook that I'm using for these weekly prompts, check out Kathie's blog at Homespun Seasonal Living.

Week 7 Finding Seasonal Resources: 12 Weeks to Seasonal Living

This week in The Home Spun Seasonal Living Workbook we're asked to consider the resources we might gather to make our Winter intentions come to life. (PS. There are only 16 days until Spring!)

Resources may include: tools; skills; information; community events, classes, clubs, or organizations; and experts.

This week I'm seeking:

Babysitters:
We have always had great luck with Care.com. Yes it's a lot of work to find good childcare but the interface is so easy and we have been lucky to find exceptional women to nanny the boys over the last 5 years. I have three interviews scheduled this week!

Inspiration in the kitchen:
I am mesmerized by cookbooks of all kinds and add a few new ones to my collection every month.

These are next on my list:

 Of course a new month brings new veggies to the table too:

Makeup organizers:
Since switching to mineral makeup I have a lot of little jars rolling around in my makeup bags and they are multiplying because I can't stay off Alima Pure's website. I have three small zippered pouches in which I try to contain all my makeup and tools, but digging through them every morning to find what I need leaves something to be desired. My decluttering and cleaning frenzy has extended into the closets and I would love to streamline the way I store my makeup. These acrylic cosmetic organizers would be great to keep the powders neat and upright, but we don't have room for countertop organizers right now and we've put a hold on most home purchases because we're in the home stretch now of temporary living. I'll probably just settle for a bigger zipper case that can hold everything, but which one? If you have a favorite I'd love to hear!

Candle Supply:
With my new fixation on candlelight I've been looking for a place to conveniently, and regularly, buy pretty candles. Big Dipper Wax Works looks great for beeswax candles and Terrain has a new Spring inspired palette of candles available. Southern Season has a pretty selection for every month of the year and I bought some creme and light green sets there for March.

Cooking Classes:
The cooking schools at Southern Season and Sur La Table will release their Spring cooking class schedules soon and I would love to learn some new skills in the kitchen. I have a little vein of Castilian Spanish roots I'd like to be in touch with, or perhaps a class focused on Virginia or Southern heirloom recipes. I'm excited by the possibilities.

Community:
I met with a writer mama over the weekend and was reinvigorated to write again at RichmondMom.com. I needed that little push. I love to talk writing and I want to get together with other writers more often. Especially mama writers.

This Winter, and through this series of posts, I have enjoyed a deeper connection with some of my girlfriends over our shared interest in seasonal living and intentional mothering. I appreciate these friendships so much because they are effortless, border on ridiculous sometimes (Ah but have you seen Fifty Shades of Gray yet!?)—humor is so essential these days—and also inspire, validate, and encourage my process. I need to lean into those friendships more.

What Seasonal resources do you want to gather this week to help you on your way? 

Week 6 Planning For Growth: 12 Weeks of Seasonal Living

I had a phone conversation with a girlfriend last week where I lamented frustration about how difficult the days have been as February brought snowstorms, stomach bugs, and pink eye. Merritt hasn’t been to preschool in 3 weeks and time for writing has been hard to come by. Another storm brews tonight as I type!

While I'm not working now, my writing pulls at me. The more I try to reach for it the harder our days are because I’m trying to do too much; multitasking, juggling their needs against mine.

Sometimes the most obvious answers come to me while I'm processing out loud with my girlfriends. 

"I guess I just need to let go of trying to do anything I want to do when I’m with them,” I said. A familiar surrender.  My friend—also a homeschooling mama with a brand new baby—said, “YES! Don’t try to do anything! It will be so much better.” Exasperated with knowing I said, "Of course it will. 

The next day I let go of the doing and embraced the being and it WAS so much better.  Their squabbles and requests didn’t feel like a burden or an imposition. The pace was slow and easy.

Was it that simple? After seriously MONTHS of frustration? Yes it was. 

Bottom line: I still need to separate my work form my home time—I thought we were passed it but I think I jumped ahead of myself. Tis' the season. This week I've been working on hiring a few sitters to cover four or five hours during weekdays. Time I can rely on to do my writing thing. 

***

This week the Homespun Seasonal Living Workbook asks us to reflect on the intentions we set six weeks ago. To take a look at what is working and what more we can do to extend those successes. To consider what is not working and allow ourselves to let go of those intentions that no longer serve us, just as easily as we picked them up—no self judgement. 

Looking back to Week 1 my intentions included:

Source Local Foods, Prepare Meals to Highlight Seasonal Availability, Tend a Year-Round Garden.  This is natural and easy for me and sticking solely to in-season produce has simplified my shopping and meal planning tremendously.  A little meal inspiration from our table:

• Greek Chicken and Pilaf/whole chicken cut-up, skin on/brown butter, onion, long grain brown rice, pine nuts, currants/ arugula salad with garlic balsamic dressing

• Pastured pork sausages simmered in chicken bone broth with kale, sea salt and garlic/ whole wheat bread loaf with unsalted butter

• Chopped potato soup with onion and kale/ chicken stock, large couscous pearls and bay leaf/ soft boiled eggs/ oranges

• Chicken adobo with soy sauce, garlic, bayleaf, apple cider vinegar/ brown rice/butternut squash and apple mash 

Spend Time in Nature Often, with Appropriate Dress: It has been unusually cold the last couple weeks, many days with lows in the teens. We had a great snow day a couple weeks ago but the boys lasted only 20 minutes and their frolic ended in tears over frozen toes and fingers. Next year I’m going to invest early in real snow boots and full snow bibs for the kids because even though it doesn't snow much here, they need that extra warmth to incentivize their time outdoors. It will be worth it even though they will outgrow them by season's end. They'll get a lot of use out of them and Roscoe's can become Merritt's the following year.

Let the Temperature of Our Home Reflect the Season. Our heater just can't keep up with these recent winter temperatures so we've been surviving and thriving in a cooler house. I received a pair of these weekend socks for Valentine's day and it's cozy to have special pieces to reach for when I want to be warm. 

Merritt turned 4 last week! These kids cannot be bothered with winter clothing.

Plan for Activities and Crafts Inspired by and Reflective of the Season. I'm growing to appreciate the fact I'm more spur of the moment than I am a planner in this realm. I would much rather stock our art shelves with supplies of all kinds and then pair what we have on hand with whatever idea strikes our fancy in the moment. It's not quite as relaxing or as finessed a final product as I imagine it could be if I had a plan to go by, but for now it suits me fine. 

Let the Seasons Renew: Quarterly Cleaning and Organizing. I can't stop won't stop on this one! It's too satisfying to make progress on all the little piles and closets and spots that gather and accumulate the stuff we don't need to keep anymore. Whenever I think I'm done I find more little stashes to unpack, it's why I'm still going 6 weeks later! The trash bins are filling up as is the attic where I store the stuff I don't have a place for. Thank goodness for that extra storage space in an otherwise tiny house.

I'm adding an intention to my list!

Use Light to Cue our Daily Rhythms. Using light to cue our daily rhythm makes sense and is instinctually calming. Early mornings and late afternoons are more peaceful with quiet music and turned down lights. Candle light cues the kids to quiet and wind down as bedtime nears. Friends of ours use light to herd their kids to the rooms in the house they want them to occupy by turning off the lights everywhere else. It's brilliant and it works for us too.

I have really loved this winter and I give a lot of credit to Kathie's workbook for inspiring me to make an effort to be in the moment and to document all there is to love about it. Spring will be here in 4 short weeks but I'm not in a hurry. It feels like Winter now and I am happy.

A simple life is easier and in the end more luxurious. —Terance Conran