Make money as an entrepreneur by promoting the big backyard concept and all the aspects that big backyard.  Make money at home by creating outdoor rooms and spaces.  Make money getting people out of their houses into their backyards.  Make money by moving the indoors outdoors. 

Outside the fenced front yard would be an open field.  Off beyond that field would be a wooded area with birdhouses for the birds and a secret tree house for children.  Somewhere near the field would be a little pond stocked with goldfish.  Up in the grass, at the edge of the pond, a bright red canoe would wait for kids. Just below the pond there would be a creek with a little bridge.  Ducks and raccoons would call this place home.  That is how some picture it.

So, how does one with such dreams end up in a 4,000 square-foot brick veneer house, with a pool, in one of the largest of big cities in the U.S.?  With no pond, raccoons, or ducks.  Instead of ladybugs, there are mosquitoes.  This was not the plan.  Somewhere along the timeline, and more than once, smeone failed to stand his/her ground.  Somebody caved on several occasions, to a series of incessant little necessities

First there was college, then a spouse with a big city job, a home, a mortgage, kids.  Maybe a parent tried to get the rest of the family to buy into the dream, to walk away from it all, to head for the hills, to seek out the cottage, and the idyllic dream.  But it was too late.  The kids wouldn’t go along with it.  They were hooked on their precious fast food restaurants and movie theaters.  They weren’t about to give it all up for mom’s pipe dream.

Their perception of the country was sticker burrs and biting flies.  They went to big city public schools where they practiced being just like all their schoolmates.  They got brainwashed like all suburban kids do.  They stopped playing  outside; they even stopped going outside.

Life in suburbia is backwards and upside down.  Maybe folks are victims of the media and the big builders.  Developers enjoy excessive profits when they sell their big houses.  They mow down everything in sight:-- the trees, the orchards, the scrub, the prairie, and any and all bird habitats.   Wipe it all out; start with a clean slate.  They push this lifestyle on us.  We buy into it because we want to show off our success.  We believe that we have to have the big house and the pool that takes up whatever yard space there is.  Who needs trees?

We furnish our kitchens beautifully.  Kitchens stay beautiful because we do not have time to cook, because we spend so much time commuting to and from our jobs in the city.  We’ve learned to subsist on fast food.  We have lovely ornate dining rooms we use maybe three times a year.  We have a big open floor plan for the parties we are too tired to plan or give.

We wish for commerce and conversations with our kids, but they hole up in their rooms we have furnished for them with their own TV’s and computers.  As they get older their rooms become more like apartments, with microwaves, mini-kitchens, and the like.  They squirrel away food and drink so they never even have to come out for food.

Our living rooms gather dust.  We sit alone in the family room watching T.V. while the kids are in their rooms watching movies.  We do not eat together and do not watch T.V. together.  We go our separate ways in our great big house and try to convince ourselves that this is what success is like.

We do not even have time to swim in our pools or enjoy our backyards.  There is no time to sit around the patio table and watch the kids swim.

We are supposed to get 20 minutes of sun each day for healthy bones, but we go days with barely a moment in the sun.  We leave home at 5:30 a.m. to go into office buildings and school buildings without windows.  We struggle through, then head for home where we collapse in front of the T.V., in a dark room, too tired to move.

Well, maybe it’s not as dreary as all that, but almost, because we could go over the edge at any moment and be swallowed up by our big houses.  It seems like we can never escape, but we can.  We have to make a change.  We have to get out.

The solution is available for everyone. 

It will take time and effort to change the mindsets of builders, city planners, and homeowner associations.  We just have to get past this desire to impress everyone with our bigger-than-yours houses.  We can change our yard designs, we can move to smaller houses.  Builders can start offering smaller-is-better homes. 

Life is changing. Our families are downsizing.  We have couples without children, smaller families, empty-nesters, and single parent homes. America does not need such extravegances in the housing industry.  First time home buyers need cheaper, smaller choices. Just because one can afford to carry a huge mortgage, does not mean that the huge house must be purchased.  Put =money in other investments.  Problem is, real estate agents work on commissions and they want to sell that huge house with the huge mortgage.  Don't buy it.  Live below your means.  Give people the impression you are poor rather than rich.  Try not to impress anyone. It is more fun that way.  Less stress, too.

We can change our stressed-filled lives.  We do not have to have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart problems.  Neither should this be a reality for our children.  We cannot perpetuate this lifestyle. We must pass something better down to our children.  It is not too late to change.  If the kids are grown, we can create a less complicated lifestyle for our grandchildren.

To justify the big house, small yard argument, some say that the big yard is just too time consuming.  That can change.  With native grasses, natural landscaping, and low maintenance shrubs, we can stop mowing and edging. Homeowner associations have to change their perception of beauty.  The birds need a more natural habitat of carefree yards and wooded areas.

Some argue that kids can play together in a common area and do not need their own private backyard space.  Some kids like having both options.  Why does it have to be one or the other?  You can have the big yard and still go to common areas to play with friends.  But with everyone having great big yards with smaller houses everyone will have the common areas all kids love.

Others argue against a big backyard because it just costs too much.  Here is where lifestyles must change and developers must change.  If a smaller house is built on the same size lot used for a big house, all of a sudden you have a small house with a big yard.  The only difference is that it costs less to have the big backyard. The upkeep of a small house and big yard is much less than the upkeep for a big house, small yard. Compared to keeping up a big house, a big yard is nothing.

Some claim that only the rich can afford a big yard because one needs a car to get to various functions that are now miles away. What is so important about those functions, anyway?  Why believe that anything miles away can compete with the activities available in a big yard?  The activities are different, not better. 

With the money saved by buying a big lot and putting a tiny house on it, one can afford more and better cars, if that is of the necessity.  In some places,  one can get a car that will get you from point A to point B for less than $3,000.  If you only buy as much car as you actually need, you can easily make the car payments in conjunction with a small mortgage on a small house. Better yet, do not buy a car until you can pay cash for it and then save up for a better car.

Money will be saved on heating and cooling a smaller house, thereby helping the environment in the process.  It will take less money to decorate the place,thereby saving even more money.

Maybe those who argue against a big yard are those who want to have their cake and eat it too.  They want the big house and the big yard.  Yes, that definitely will cost more anywhere.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  A big yard does not cost more than a small yard, if the house in the big yard is small.

Some have both a big yard and a big house.  The kids don’t use the big yard because the T.V. is in the house.  The problem is not with the big yard, it is with the big house. Live in a small house.  Force those little couch potatoes out into the fresh air and sunshine. Set them to work.  Turn them into entrepreneurs. Backyard Entrepreneurs.

A big yard with a small house: now that is the answer.  That is the way the birds do it.  A house is necessary for a few things, but the outside is much better. Ask any bird.

 Design and Install Big Backyard Kitchens and Baths

The trend now is to move the kitchen outdoors.  It is just a matter of time until the rest of the rooms follow.  Design and install outdoor bathrooms with the shower outside. You just open a door to your house and you are in your outdoor bath room.  Of course there is privacy.  You have a cinder block wall all the way around the bath, up about seven feet, just open all the way above, with a tree branch for a roof. Plants and vines surround the entire area. See our site about construction or our site about woodworking for ideas for outdoor furniture.

Set Up a Non Profit Organization to Promote the Big Yard Small House Idea

Now, go out and promote the big backyard concept.  You are now a social entrepreneur.  Make speeches to convince people to trade a big house for a big yard.  Small house, big yard. Save money with a small house. Outdoor living.  Convice builders and architects.  Big houses pollute.  We need more space for nature and more space for people to interact with nature.

Create Big Backyard Kits

Create and sell beautifully designed and packaged big backyard kits. What is there to find or to explore in your backyard -- expand the backyard to mean your town or community?  Put all the tools needed in the kit.  Maps, workbooks, instructions on how to press flowers and leaves.  Show by illustration how the pressed leaves, flowers, and rocks can be mounted and preserved.  What history can be discovered in a local cemetary? What is special about your part of the country?  Instead of trying to make the kit generic for sell in all of the world, create kits for your neck of the woods so that children get a real sense of community in the big backyard in which they live.

Create a scavanager hunt kit.  Make certain that the hunt includes a stop at all the local hot spots, churches, businesses, and points of interest.  Sell these kits to retail stores and hotels for tourists. Kids can pick up a church bulletin, a coaster, a napkin, a leaf, a pebble, an advertisement, and other momentos from the community.  In doing this exercise, a history of one's life at that point in time is created -- "I lived here, in this town, on this date, and this is what was happening".  Host a scavanger hunt party to introduce the community to your kits.  Of course, the kits are for sale before the party gets started.  Or if you prefer, call them treasure hunt parties. The hunt ends at a special resturant which has agreed to discount dinner.  Before you receive the dinner discount, you will have to prove that you went to all locations and picked up the proof required.

© Backyard Entrepreneur^TM 2007

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