Things Material

     In Butler's chapter, "Things Material," he talks about colonial houses and how they changed over time.  He mentions various houses, such as William Hancock's, who put his initials and the date the house was finished in the brickwork, or Samuel Harrison's mansion, whose exterior he painted himself and later had it depicted as an oil on wood painting.  These men were extremely proud of the work they put into creating this place for themselves and their families.  You could physically see their touches in the houses' materials.  These homes seem like much more permanent, personal dwelling places than a lot of the houses we have today.  You don't see unique houses that convey a history and a story very often anymore.  I'm used to the hundreds of developments that are built all over the Twin Cities and even smaller cities now.  More emphasis and value is put on building them quickly and slapping them up with the most inexpensive materials, and selling them to young families asap than careful building, choosing unique materials to put into a house, or special ordering exactly what a family wants to surround them in their home.  I don't think there is as strong of a relationship or connection between families and their homes as often as there seem to have been in colonial times.  If we want a house with more rooms and space, we simply move to a different one instead of changing the space like Harrison did.   Houses are not as permanent as they seemed to have been.  Maybe this is because Americans don't spend nearly as much time at home as they used to, since so many of us are constantly on a schedule and are oftentimes not home during the day or evenings.  This tendency also points to how on the move Americans are and don't always want to settle.  People also tend to move to larger homes as their families grow, whereas colonial families would not have that option.  There are a lot of different reasons why homes are not as closely linked to families as they used to be, but those are the couple I thought of right away while reading Butler.