Small House is my version of Lagom

Lagom is a Swedish word with no direct English equivalent, meaning "just the right amount".

The archetypical Swedish proverb "Lagom är bäst", literally "Lagom is best", is translated as "Enough is as good as a feast" in the Lexin dictionary.

Definition from Wikipedia.

Nobel Prize for Literature 2009

It was announced today that the German writer Herta Mueller has been awarded the 2009 Nobel prize for literature. The Swedish Academy was quoted as recognising Muller's ability to depict "the landscape of the dispossessed."

For a while I've been looking for a literature tick list to work through, so perhaps I could set myself reading at least one work by of all Noble Literature prize winners. I might still be reading them in my small house, whilst living out my big dreams.

Nobel Prize for Literature: winners
2009 - Herta Müller
2008 - Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
2007 - Doris Lessing
2006 - Orhan Pamuk
2005 - Harold Pinter
2004 - Elfriede Jelinek
2003 - J. M. Coetzee
2002 - Imre Kertész
2001 - V. S. Naipaul
2000 - Gao Xingjian
1999 - Günter Grass
1998 - José Saramago
1997 - Dario Fo
1996 - Wislawa Szymborska
1995 - Seamus Heaney
1994 - Kenzaburo Oe
1993 - Toni Morrison
1992 - Derek Walcott
1991 - Nadine Gordimer
1990 - Octavio Paz
1989 - Camilo José Cela
1988 - Naguib Mahfouz
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1986 - Wole Soyinka
1985 - Claude Simon
1984 - Jaroslav Seifert
1983 - William Golding
1982 - Gabriel García Márquez
1981 - Elias Canetti
1980 - Czeslaw Milosz
1979 - Odysseus Elytis
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1977 - Vicente Aleixandre
1976 - Saul Bellow
1975 - Eugenio Montale
1974 - Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson
1973 - Patrick White
1972 - Heinrich Böll
1971 - Pablo Neruda
1970 - Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
1969 - Samuel Beckett
1968 - Yasunari Kawabata
1967 - Miguel Angel Asturias
1966 - Shmuel Agnon, Nelly Sachs
1965 - Mikhail Sholokhov
1964 - Jean-Paul Sartre
1963 - Giorgos Seferis
1962 - John Steinbeck
1961 - Ivo Andric
1960 - Saint-John Perse
1959 - Salvatore Quasimodo
1958 - Boris Pasternak
1957 - Albert Camus
1956 - Juan Ramón Jiménez
1955 - Halldór Laxness
1954 - Ernest Hemingway
1953 - Winston Churchill
1952 - François Mauriac
1951 - Pär Lagerkvist
1950 - Bertrand Russell
1949 - William Faulkner
1948 - T.S. Eliot
1947 - André Gide
1946 - Hermann Hesse
1945 - Gabriela Mistral
1944 - Johannes V. Jensen
1943 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1942 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1941 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1940 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1939 - Frans Eemil Sillanpää
1938 - Pearl Buck
1937 - Roger Martin du Gard
1936 - Eugene O'Neill
1935 - The prize money was with 1/3 allocated to the Main Fund and with 2/3 to the Special Fund of this prize section
1934 - Luigi Pirandello
1933 - Ivan Bunin
1932 - John Galsworthy
1931 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt
1930 - Sinclair Lewis
1929 - Thomas Mann
1928 - Sigrid Undset
1927 - Henri Bergson
1926 - Grazia Deledda
1925 - George Bernard Shaw
1924 - Wladyslaw Reymont
1923 - William Butler Yeats
1922 - Jacinto Benavente
1921 - Anatole France
1920 - Knut Hamsun
1919 - Carl Spitteler
1918 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1917 - Karl Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan
1916 - Verner von Heidenstam
1915 - Romain Rolland
1914 - The prize money was allocated to the Special Fund of this prize section
1913 - Rabindranath Tagore
1912 - Gerhart Hauptmann
1911 - Maurice Maeterlinck
1910 - Paul Heyse
1909 - Selma Lagerlöf
1908 - Rudolf Eucken
1907 - Rudyard Kipling
1906 - Giosuè Carducci
1905 - Henryk Sienkiewicz
1904 - Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray
1903 - Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
1902 - Theodor Mommsen
1901 - Sully Prudhomme

Small House Big Dreams: Inspiration from Busyboo.com and Dorset Shepherd's Huts

While surfing for more inspiration to store and share I found the Busyboo site
Who are Busyboo?
A design style blog about architecture interior design, prefab home and small houses, japanese architecture, kitchen gadgets, digital photography, webdesign and illustration.

The romantic in my likes the Plankbridge Shepherd Hut, which shows that living in a trailer isn't so trashy. Available from Plankbridge.com, Dorset, UK.

What I have in mind is probably more fixed and has the basic utilities plumbed in, but still I love this images of small space.

Prices range from £5925 + VAT to £8925 + VAT.

Small House Big Dreams - links to more inspiration

The Small House Society is an effective living outreach of Resources for Life Housing Resources Group, cooperatively managed and dedicated to the promotion of smaller housing alternatives which can be more affordable and ecological.

Visit them here Small House Society

Small House Enables More Sunsets

It's highly unlikely that my dream small home will have sea and sunset views but that's fine because I'll have given myself the freedom to travel to see twenty or so different ones each year! Can't wait.

Small House Enables Big Opportunities

One of the opportunities to volunteer that I hope will one day be available to me, when I have a small, affordable and beautiful home.

Details of this placement came from Idealist.org
Logo from Coral Cay Conservation Expeditions

Coral Cay Conservation needs volunteers to go to Tobago and/or the Philippines!

Coral Cay Conservation (CCC) is an award-winning international NGO at the cutting edge of tropical marine conservation. Founded in 1986, CCC has a wealth of experience in organising marine conservation expeditions. As part of an expedition volunteers receive PADI Scuba training (if they are not already qualified) and training in tropical marine ecology. Qualified volunteers will then survey these fragile environments to produce habitat maps and provide long-term management recommendations. Participating in a CCC expedition is not only a fantastic opportunity to meet new people and visit stunning locations; it will enhance your CV and make a genuine difference both to the field of marine conservation and to the local communities CCC supports.

Coral Cay Conservation Trust, Registered Charity No. 1025534.

Small House Big Dreams - links to more inspiration

This is one book that's going straight onto my Christmas list. Read more about it at Land + Living Network The Very Small Home Book

Small Houses Enable Big Dreams

I consider myself successful - a graduate, an employee for the last ten years of successful, well-known companies who has always had a job they've loved, and a year ago became a freelance writer, editor and consultant.

So when my therapist (yes, I've had one for three weeks) asked me to define who I want to be and I struggled to fix on one thing to aim for during the next (god willing) ten, twenty, thirty...years of my life, I made a decision. There would be no one goal, not one path or one version of myself. I love having opportunities and choice, so the thought of defining myself beyond the successes I already have under my belt actually made me anxious, claustrophobic.

But I've decided one thing and this is the blog where I will explore that goal and store the inspiration to keep me focused on it. See I crave security and control over my environment and financial well-being, I want to go home at night to a decor that I love and walk barefoot on floorboards I've laid. I want to invite friends around and share in this homely expression of myself and feel welcome there, connected to me.

But, I don't want to be tied to one location. Ummm.

Here's my plan: Save/borrow enough cash to buy/build the perfect small and beautiful home, but be under no binds to be there year round.

What I want: to be Location Independence with a base that I love.

Here's my first source of inspiration: Amazing Houses from Around The World from Web Urbanist

Here's to the future.

Images by Delana in Architecture & Design, Guerilla Action, Travel & Places, Urban Art,