As We Adjust to Our New/Old House: A Story about a Hobbit's New/Old House

As I ran around trying to find what I've put away while admiring the nice things about our reconstructed house, I came across a story in today's New York Times about a house for Hobbits in Montana. You can rent ilt for $245 a night, if you feel like paying that much to be charmed. Here's the link to a slide show featuring it.

Which reminds me of one of Lee's old friends Gene Zelmer. An architect, he designed and built a number of projects which were wedded to the earth. Here's an example.

But there's a problem with all attempts to build replicas of things described in books. Every reader has his or her own idea of what they looked like, so the new thing is often only a shadow of the vivid image in the reader's head. Something similar is going on in our house: the verdict is that it's the same, but different. Anbd there are moments when I forget the months of disorder.