The Building Brows: DIY house construction & life of a large VT family living small

I've been meaning for two weeks to write a follow up post to the New York Times article on our family, but just haven't gotten here. The article's space limitations prevented full understanding on some things, so here's the scoop and some minor corrections.

The article stated:

"Five years ago, Jim and Brandy Brow sold their three bedroom house...bought five wooded acres nearby and moved in with Brandy's father.... Living with Dad got difficult, so the Brows purchased a 1978 trailer, had it hauled to their land and moved in."

Living with Dad was not difficult, but by the time this sentence was fact-checked, there was no room to correct it. "Difficult" was actually a replacement for the original word "rough." Neither is accurate.
We all got along very well, actually. What made it tricky and what the article couldn't tell was that we lived not only with my dad but also with my brother and his wife and young child. They weren't difficult either, but it was a challenge for all of us, three separate households managing different rules, to maintain household-distinct guidelines while sharing common space with the others.
While the house was bigger at 2,000 square feet and there were three bathrooms, we all had to share the washer and drier, kitchen, and chores. We learned to work together, be patient, take turns, be considerate, and realize that the way things appear at first glance may not be so. And we also learned not to let problems fester. We had to face and overcome them to retain peace. It worked!
Living at Dad's house was our training ground. If we weren't getting along there before we moved into the trailer, we would have torn one another apart once we moved into our mobile home here. The reason we left was to establish one set of family rules and give Jim his rightful place as head of the home. We're glad we did.

"...while Jim set about building a new seven-bedroom home."

It's actually a six-bedroom home.

"'I hated this trailer,' says Brandy."

This is true, but could be misinterpreted. More accurately, I hated this trailer the first year we lived here (just read former posts!) but I've grown to accept it and don't mind it nearly as much as I used to.

"The dresser next to the bunk beds used to be stacked on top of the dresser in my bedroom. Once it fell over and nearly killed [NT]. Jim caught it and saved him."

True, except there is more to it than that. The dresser was on top of my dresser in my room, but on top of that was also a TV. The two youngest boy's clothes were in that dresser, and I usually got out their clothes so such a disaster wouldn't happen, but on this occasion, both boys had just bathed. While I picked up the bathroom, they scooted out the door and around the corner into my room to get nightclothes themselves. Two heavy drawers extended with two 32-pound boys leaning on them simultaneously made it tip over.
It was actually the TV that almost killed NT. EJ landed in the pocket between the bed and the bottom dresser and got his head a little sandwiched by a drawer and the bed, but the TV headed straight for NT. Fortunately, Jim came around the corner just as the TV was falling and caught it midair. PHEW--thank You God!

"Last winter we put hay around the base, and it wasn't so cold. Until summer, when we had mites crawling around. They were living in the hay. The hay had to go."

Minor correction: As soon as things began to melt, we had mites. We got rid of the hay long before summer!

"The fridge in the kitchen is too small for us. Just bread for the week doesn't fit inside it."

Well, not if we want to put things like milk, juice, meat, and eggs in there too. I'm sure bread for the week would fit just fine by itself in the fridge. :)

(For brushing teeth) "We have the younger kids up on the sink, because everyone can't get to the sink at the same time without that. Why they don't take turns, I don't know."

This makes is sound like we tell the kids to get on the sink! Not exactly... We tell them to get off the sink and take turns, but inevitably, when we're not right there to monitor, they get back up.

It's always fun to find out what's behind the scenes, don't you think?

After our article publication with the Times, a few notable people contacted us and and we're now in talks about filming for TV. I'm not sure what will come of it, if anything, but it's interesting and I look forward to the experience.