why blog?

Several folks have asked: Why do you blog? (perhaps what they're really asking is: Why do you blog so darn much!). There are many reasons, most of them selfish. First and foremost, I love to research and I love to write, so I love to do this blog. If I didn't love it, I wouldn't do it. I also started the blog to write more regularly, something that's important to improve writing. Writing regularly makes it easier to write regularly. Yep. It's true (and it works!).

I've also used blogging to document the research I've done, which has made putting my fingers on it through keywords and search so much easier. In general, writing helps me to organize my thoughts and identify any information or logic gaps. Also, because my bride travels a lot for her job in the electric-industry shoulder seasons (spring and fall), she can review thoughts and potential design choices where-ever she's at (she's like The President: she yields a mighty veto pen). The "Chosen Ones" tab has been very useful in spec'ing the house and talking to vendors (and working with the interior designer). And the social aspect of blogging is neat because we've gotten great feedback and suggestions from our three (maybe four?) dedicated readers, one right around the corner. A hearty thanks for truly making our house and our experience better.

Altruistically, I hope that somebody considering designing and building a house might stumble upon this humble blog and learn something from our experience. Most build blogs I've found and books I've read focus on the building bit, so I thought there might be a somewhat unique (if mind numbing...) contribution if we focused on the whole process start to finish (and who knew that there would be so much drama, at least early on...). And hopefully folks will learn (and be inspired?) by the green and efficiency aspects of the house. Maybe more folks will be inspired to build Modern!

Finally, perhaps this blog will serve as fodder for a book (I can dream, can't I?). Several years ago we were on a plane leaving Albuquerque that hit a flock (that's right, I said "flock") of geese over the Sandia Mountains at 10,000 feet. The collision with 8 to 10 of those birds knocked out one of the engines, ripped two holes in the fuselage, damaged the vertical stabilizer, and sprayed the whole front of the plane with rosy red bird guts (technical term: snarge). Instead of smelling like Christmas dinner, the inside of the plane smelled like burning wires and electronics.

When weird stuff happens on planes, I always watch the flight attendants for clues on how worried I need to be. When ours came out of the cockpit in tears, I got worried. Real worried.

I had a bit of time to contemplate things (big things) before the fire-truck lined emergency landing back in Q-town. Looking back on my life at that time I'm happy to report that I didn't have too many regrets, but one was having not published a book (the novel I wrote in four weeks for NaNoWriMo notwithstanding...). In fact, those birds deserve some credit for us building this house. They introduced a little bit of risk-taking in our lives that we really didn't have before.

Life is meant for living.