Dumbest thing we ever did...built a McMansion in 2006.... 7 bedrooms, 6 bath house, full completed basement
I was east of the hump one year... once we're done branding here, there's generally some left to do over there...
The guy I was working for was 3rd or fourth generation on that land... Their original homestead was still there, and he took me over to see it...
10 or 11 kids were raised out of that little cabin... little more than my living room and kitchen. It was a caution to me, and an amazement that 'necessity' was so very sparse in comparison to what I considered to be true.
House has 2 complete kitchens.
That ain't so dumb... I'm trying to get my back porch done, and it includes a fully functional wood-fired kitchen... part of that is preference, I reckon, as I prefer my food cooked over wood... but it's also for canning season, where all that food can be processed easily out on the porch instead of heating my house to insufferable levels...
What really got me going there is bread - I'm going old-school as much as I can, and part of that is making my own fully organic bread - best thing I ever did... But in summertime, baking bread in the morning puts a fair start to heating the house up. Doing that out on the porch solves that problem entirely, with a secondary benefit of the taste imparted by a wood-fired stone oven... And think pizza... Just sayin'