Great question posted by "anonymous" (so, why anonymous??) about the "greeness" of adding onto our house. Concerned citizens constantly need to make decisions about how to live and what the impacts will be. Everyone's barometer of low-impact is different. Some people live without cars! children! toilet paper! (see 3/26 entry). But that's not for us.

While this is a little off the topic of parenting, the philosophy holds true - you can go about living your life, fulfilling your dreams, being comfortable, and doing mostly what you want to do -- just do it all more sustainably. So, if you want to drive a car, make sure it gets good gas mileage and take public transportation (or walk or bike!) whenever you are able. If you are raising children, reduce the impact with cloth diapers, organic food and used clothing, toys and furniture. If you want a large house, buy an older house within an urban center, then do remodeling and additions with sustainable materials and ensure it's energy and water efficient.

Instead of buying a "McMansion" on newly cleared forestland, our choice was to live within two miles of work, walking distance to grocery, buses, schools and entertainment, and to maintain and add on to the house as wanted with reused, recycled or certified-sustainable materials as much as possible. 

The dense-ist folks? I bow down on my hands and knees and give gratitude to people who have arguably the smallest footprint of all Americans: my friends in my former "hometown" New York City. Families of 3, 4, 5 people living in two-bedroom apartments. Many don't have cars and use only public transportation or walk everywhere. They use communal clotheswashers and dryers. Imagine 200 families living within one city block! Now, that's density.