I would love to hear more about how he built a house that fits three kids and a wife by himself. Did he hire help, or literally do it piece by piece with his own hands? It seems extremely hard (but he is a beast for doing it)
It's more accurate to say we designed the house ourselves, and did the finish work. Nearly all of it (excavation, concrete, framing, roofing) was built by hired labor, except the floor finishing, all interior painting, and interior hardware, and some built-ins.
I happened to build the barn myself when we had a 2 year old, and our second child was born before I was finished putting the roof on. You can see there here (and my 2yo helping): https://map.simonsarris.com/p/building-the-goose-palace
I'm building my own place in Vermont along similar lines to Simon's house. I appreciated reading through some of his notes on the design and implementation process after finding this interview. In our case, we bought an antique timber frame from Connecticut and we're in the process of restoring and putting it up on our land in central Vermont. But the design will be similar to Simon's: also a 'new old house.'
Really gorgeous interview, thanks. I'm a longtime reader and fan of the Simon Sarris Aesthetic Twitter Experience and it's a treat to get a deeper dive into how his family does their thing
"If you want to do something, you should try to shorten the path between thinking about it and acting on it ... A lot of problems in life seem to come from a thin film of inertia spread over everything. But you can pierce it."
A great reminder for someone like myself that tends to float away in the thinking process for long stretches before grounding myself enough to act. It really can give rise to unnecessary difficulties that could be avoided simply by acting in small ways every day. As trite as it may sound, sometimes you need to "just do it."
So relatable. I’d be happy to even ground myself enough to act at all on most things I spend so much time thinking about, even if the a path was long… I’ll try to remember this quote every morning when starting my day!
I love so many things about their lifestyle, but I must comment on how beautiful the children's clothes are. I am especially inspired by the little girls' dresses, because the styles are simple yet elegant and look like they'd fit awhile.
I would love to hear more about how he built a house that fits three kids and a wife by himself. Did he hire help, or literally do it piece by piece with his own hands? It seems extremely hard (but he is a beast for doing it)
It's more accurate to say we designed the house ourselves, and did the finish work. Nearly all of it (excavation, concrete, framing, roofing) was built by hired labor, except the floor finishing, all interior painting, and interior hardware, and some built-ins.
I happened to build the barn myself when we had a 2 year old, and our second child was born before I was finished putting the roof on. You can see there here (and my 2yo helping): https://map.simonsarris.com/p/building-the-goose-palace
Or the house design here: https://map.simonsarris.com/p/designing-a-new-old-home-beginnings
I'm building my own place in Vermont along similar lines to Simon's house. I appreciated reading through some of his notes on the design and implementation process after finding this interview. In our case, we bought an antique timber frame from Connecticut and we're in the process of restoring and putting it up on our land in central Vermont. But the design will be similar to Simon's: also a 'new old house.'
Sounds beautiful. Those blog posts of his are fantastic!
Really gorgeous interview, thanks. I'm a longtime reader and fan of the Simon Sarris Aesthetic Twitter Experience and it's a treat to get a deeper dive into how his family does their thing
"If you want to do something, you should try to shorten the path between thinking about it and acting on it ... A lot of problems in life seem to come from a thin film of inertia spread over everything. But you can pierce it."
A great reminder for someone like myself that tends to float away in the thinking process for long stretches before grounding myself enough to act. It really can give rise to unnecessary difficulties that could be avoided simply by acting in small ways every day. As trite as it may sound, sometimes you need to "just do it."
So relatable. I’d be happy to even ground myself enough to act at all on most things I spend so much time thinking about, even if the a path was long… I’ll try to remember this quote every morning when starting my day!
I love so many things about their lifestyle, but I must comment on how beautiful the children's clothes are. I am especially inspired by the little girls' dresses, because the styles are simple yet elegant and look like they'd fit awhile.