Dear House and Garden. I’m all in favor of the Small House trend. I really don’t

Dear House and Garden.

I’m all in favor of the Small House trend. I really don’t understand the whole purpose of half empty mc-mansions. I mean, living in a 3500 square foot house is actually kind of frustrating. You must clean and maintain it.

So advocating small homes is a reasonable good idea- and we can always make them bigger – like everyone before us did for the past ten thousand years. But small lots are not a good idea. All they do is drive up the price of everything, encourage fences, and increase the wear and tear on infrastructure. Close neighbors are more likely to be unpleasant neighbors.

So while I understand it, this is one of those things that if you encourage something bad, you’re complicit in it. Below a quarter acre is a bad idea, and below a half acre is probably the minimum.