Small House Big Door
- Audrey Ann Masur
- Nov 28, 2017
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 27, 2021
My husband and I live in an 810 square foot home. On Guam we lived in a 250 square foot studio apartment. Yes, you read that correctly. We basically did the island thing in a sardine can with a tile floor and windows. It’s a miracle we did not smother to death. Only kidding.
As I was thinking about home decor and my notions about what to have and not to have in the home, I thought it would be apropos to start with our philosophy of the home in general. Now, this is what’s currently working for us, with only one child, and we are all about visiting our friends/family with large houses and will one day most likely upsize (bring on some glorious space, a-men).
For now, we love being as debt-free as possible. We believe in living beneath our means and have found that doing so actually opens up life’s possibilities quite a bit, whether that means extra travel, being able to help others, or save for that ever-impending rainy day. Our two biggest challenges have been storage and hosting–well, other than the top challenge which has been to stop apologizing for our home or making fun of it in a way that appears self-deprecating but is really prideful, because we want people to know that we could have a larger house, blah blah blah.
Storage: Eric built some storage units, we utilize our attic, and we don’t buy very much stuff.
Hosting: We have most events during decent weather outdoors (cue giant table in our yard, a campfire, and twinkle lights). OR we comfort ourselves with the notion that most people on the planet have homes smaller than ours, so it’s okay to ask people to get cozy.
We want our home to be a welcoming place of peace–a refuge where guests can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. We want our home to be stimulating with interesting artwork, books, and conversation. We want our home to have tasty treats where our guests won’t feel hungry for anything except the Lord, if they don’t know Him. A few weeks ago I was looking for a hashtag (which I barely use) to describe this concept, and I found #smallhousebigdoor. Apparently it’s some building unit in Korea, but I still like it for our home–it’s a small place, but we hope to bless many.
Here’s to happy homemaking, whatever that looks like for you!
When I lived overseas as a single, I lived with another family and couldn't host people in the same way as if I had my own home or apartment. However, I did have a car (something that many people in that area did not have) and that became my way of hosting people... Driving them to the city for shopping, Dr appointments, events, picking them up for church, taking them to camp, delivering food, etc. I got to have the same kind of fellowship with them as if they were seated at my table! Moving back overseas this time with a family will look very different and I look forward to figuring out what hospitality is going to look like…