About Me

I spent months asking if I should remodel my house. I realized that unhappiness with my house was really a need to rethink my life.

I’ve accomplished a lot. I have degrees from University of Chicago, Columbia University and the University of Virginia School of Law. I’ve worked for a prestigious law firm. I am a mother of two.

After the birth of our first child, however, our professional trajectories were in tension with our family goals. We relocated to Boulder, CO, where I currently stay home with two young children and write about housing and higher education.

Boulder’s housing market is expensive, and the supply is limited. We could not afford everything we wanted in a house — short commute, walkable neighborhood, strong schools, reasonable size, open kitchen and pleasing aesthetics. We were forced to make tradeoffs. We ultimately bought a modest mid-century modern house. It has numerous design flaws but is in a neighborhood with good schools and is located near my husband’s work and the mountains. To this day, I second-guess our decision.

Houses reflect us: our values, identities, education, finances, professions and expectations. Compromise forces us to reconsider this web of relationships and the gaps between our aspirations and reality. I question our housing decision, because I continue to ask what life I wish to lead and how to raise my children.

I decided to write about housing rather than remodel in order to understand why I am here, where I am going and what possibilities exist for building houses, lives and communities that work for all us.

I have learned as I speak with others that houses are not simply houses. They are threads through which to explore the themes that animate our lives. As we have transitioned from the Great Recession to a new crisis of housing affordability, houses are also threads through which to explore the larger problems facing America and to discover new possibilities. To talk about our homes is to talk about us.