Appraisals, Home Sales and Green Lies

McMansion under construction by merfam

Remember when people where trending on such topics as “downsizing” and “simple living?”  It seems like just yesterday.  With untold McMansions listing in their weed-infested suburbs across the U.S. it would seem that the time was indeed ripe for reason to reenter our housing market and smaller footprints and more practical usage of square footage to be valued and rewarded.  The only problem is that downsizing is easy to talk about and hard to do.

American’s love things big.  As my wife and I have listed our 4 bed 3 bath, 1990 sq. ft. home in SLC for sale we have discovered that it is too small to demand top dollar (in our current crappy homes market).  I thought such a home would be ideal for all the people who have been talking about downsizing from their 3,000 sq. ft. 3 bed and 3 bath houses.  But, apparently there aren’t any such people.  What there are, are people who are looking for their first home and finding that 2,000 sq. ft. just isn’t big enough.

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Fair wage? But Poverty Makes Some Nice Pants

Sweatshop in Chicago

Sweatshops.  Sounds kind’a nice as I watch the snow fall outside my window here in SLC, in April.  Oh, to feel the sweat trickle down the small of my back and then slowly spread along my waistband front and back until it looks like I have thoroughly wet myself.  Oh to feel a hard dirt floor with my blistered and cracked feet and to be able to gnaw on my swollen, spongy tongue longing for a cool drink of water.  Instead I just sit here at my fancy computer typing away with a hot mug of tea watching this freekin’ frozen crap cling to my grapevines and tulips.

Surely I jest.  But seriously, in my quest to discover the truth about global sweatshop numbers and stats I have discovered that this is an idiotic quest.  Much more important are the numbers and factors that make sweatshops not only flourish, but attractive.

Read moreFair wage? But Poverty Makes Some Nice Pants

Deeper Down the Hemp Textile Rabbit Hole

logobuttAs I metaphorically dug this last week, flipping participles and pretense skyward over my head and up to the sunny surface of my thoughts (and out of the maddening depths of confusion) the revelation suddenly dawned on me while seated and flying with Southwest somewhere over the eastern half of Utah.

I will call upon someone with a modicum of professional talent in Salt Lake City to make the prototype of “One True Pants.”  Yes, the pair of pants that all others will one day bend the knee towards and acknowledge as king.  How could I expect this pair of pants to be found wondering the savannas of retail America?  No, the one true pants has yet to be woven together in the womb of its father’s mind.  Too far?  Yeah, I don’t even understand myself anymore.

Recently though, I found more helpful insight from Eric VandenBerg, the founder of the Hemp Barn.  What will really blow your mind about a place called the Hemp Barn is not that it is primarily an earth-friendly upholstery store, or that it was founded by a young, non-hippy male, but that it is based in Salt Lake City.  I know.  Miracles never cease.

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