We're opening a new store outside of Boston at Natick Mall, and to celebrate, we wanted to talk to some local design talents. You may remember me mentioning Katie Hutchison's book The New Small House on our episode with Annette Joseph. We ended up connecting with Katie and were thrilled when she agreed to join us for a live podcast episode from the floor of our brand new store! Since we're live, you'll notice lots of background noise (we apologize in advance), but we loved picking Katie's brain about living in a small house, designing a small house, and takeaways even those of us not in small houses can utilize in our own spaces! IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL HEAR: The background story of Katie book and how it came to be We talk about Katie's own house which we briefly talks about in the book The 'keys' Katie discusses in the book which each of the small houses have in common and which we can all utilize, like 'pockets for privacy' Taryn and I both talk about our experiences seeing the 'pockets of privacy' at work The variety of styles illustrated in the book We talk about the glass, kit house featured in the book How long it took the write and shoot the book How she found all of the houses for the book Ways those of us who aren't planning a large renovation can maximize the space we have We talk about the tiny house movement and how a tiny house differs from the houses in her book We talk about built-ins and how important they are for making small spaces super functional We talk about Katie's outdoor spaces and the many outdoor rooms in the book Katie tells us about her gardening mishaps, like transplanting weeds We talk about the strange things we've all found in our yard from previous owners We ask Katie about her favorite style of architect Common mistakes people make when they're designing a new home Why the answer to your home woes may not necessarily mean adding more space but reworking the space you already have Why the location of private and public spaces are so important for the way you live in your home