Morgan Satterfield
Morgan Satterfield

This picture is of the salt flats in the amazing Mojave desert in California. If you didn’t know it, you’d think it was a sparkling sea: a perfect visual antidote to March (which is going on way too long)….

It was taken by Morgan Satterfield, during a road trip/break from her blog The Brick House, which is about renovating her mid-century cement house on-the-cheap. Morgan has a $100 Rule: “Do not spend over $100 on any ONE item.” That seems like a thrifty challenge that would make for some interesting improvisations (which you can check out by searching the categories  “before” or “after” on her site)…

The best thing about The Brick House is you get to see the slow process, and the way stuff stays UNDONE for a pretty long time until she and ‘The Boy’ can get it together, with limited resources and time, to tackle each project. We need to be reminded that renovating a house, creating a blog, bringing ANY idea to fruition takes time… step-by-step with lots of switchbacks and unexpected delays…and much needed breaks…until the sum of many small successes and steps completed = SOMETHING SWELL!

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3 replies on “vacation for a minute

  1. I had the great good fortune to work for the past four years with a company that works on healthcare improvement. The main thing I’ve learned from doing this work is that small tests of change work best. In healthcare, this could be something as small as talking to ONE doctor in an office and asking him to give a list of resources to ONE family that has a child with special needs. The whole idea is that as we test for small change, we see what really works and then we move on to the next.

  2. I really truly perused the entire Brick House blog over the course of the day today – in between work demands. I was immediately addicted to seeing/reading the process of the house’s ongoing transformation. AND, all that flea market/thrift store/tag sale coverage helped me rationalize my own addiction to the same activity. I often tell myself that this is time well spent because it forces me to look really hard at things and to be open-minded to change and forgiving of imperfection and receptive to inspiration. Thanks for turning me on to that blog… which it seems everyone else already knows about… I can’t wait to see how the front porch project ends up!

  3. Thanks Pamela, I love the addiction to “the find” done with restraint (patience) and constraints ($$), and the willingness to see the possibilities in beat things. And it is so nice to see the house evolving.

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