I'm conversing with an architect this morning in advance of a consultation next month about expanding our house. No matter which way we imagine it, we're two rooms short, although we could probably get by with just one more.

It's just unfathomable that we are in this position, since we did a not-small renovation after we moved in just four years ago. Could we have resolved this problem then? Who knows; what I do know is that we didn't, and it's in the past. In the same coulda/shoulda category is that we didn't approach the job with nearly enough green consciousness; this is slightly more difficult to let go of, since "mistakes" made in such a (usually!) one-time event can last for decades.

I've written before that we didn't have the right architect, because I didn't ask the right questions. We should have been looking for someone who excelled in green practices, so that not only would she/he have done what we asked, he/she would have told us about stuff we hadn't even thought of. There was little of that with the architect we chose, green-related or not.

There are several tendrils to our inquiry, but it begins with, "is it more cost-effective to do more work here, or to buy elsewhere?" Some of that is not quantifiable: We like our street, our neighborhood, our neighbors, our park, our prospective school. Also, we have made the house the way we want in many ways — the whole-house wired and wireless networks, the installed speakers and media plugs, etc., plus all the work that Georgie has put into the garden. And my wall, of course.

But will we end up with something too large, for us, if we renovate? Can we do enough energy-efficiency stuff inside our already-built space? By the time we're done, will we find we should have moved after all?

I have to say, it would be a great long-term blogging project to document the further greening of our blue house, but I dunno if I want to purchase that opportunity for six figures (renovation included).

There is also, of course, the footprint issue. I know that we don't have enough space; that's is quantifiable. But I catch myself ogling some of the nicer houses I cycle past around here, and then I remember: Oh yeah, it's way too big for what I ought to value. That part of my brain is still in transition.