Why Chez Viv?

I spent dozens of childhood Saturdays at my grandma Vivienne's house. She bought the house and its five acres in the 1950s. A creek bordered the property on one side; its tail end backed up to the fairgrounds, which used the space just over the property line as an all-purpose dump.

From her purchase of the property until her death forty years later, Grandma Viv gardened every square inch of those five acres. She left only a small patch of grass, which she called the "house yard." In fall, the house yard filled up with walnuts, which we'd toss in the driveway for visitors to drive over, separating the husks from the nuts inside.

Grandma Viv never owned a car. She bought few groceries, preserving to preserve her own produce. I never saw her buy a fruit or vegetable. Everything she ate came from her own garden. In the summer, she sold or gave away extra tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, corn, squash, and berries from her garage. She taught me how to husk walnuts, plant beans, pick blueberries and raspberries, grow rose bushes from cuttings, and shake an apple tree just right so it dropped the ripe fruit without bruising it.

Grandma Viv also taught me how to invest. She had two passions: gardening and beating the market.

Grandma Viv read the WSJ daily, cutting out articles on companies that interested her. She invested in real estate, buying other houses on the same street so she could choose her neighbors (including, for a few years, my family). By the time she died, my grandmother - a sweet little octegenarian in an 800 square foot time capsule house, who had never learned to drive - was worth millions.

More importantly, Grandma Viv was happy.

In March 2021, a serious motorcycle accident killed my husband and left me permanently injured. Lying in bed, unable to walk for months, I started rethinking my priorities. I'd spent years in the rat race, first as a lawyer, then running my own business, co-founding a small press, and cultivating a bona fide work addiction. I hospitalized myself with overwork three times before age 30 and once more when I was 33.

It took getting hit by an SUV - literally - to force me to rethink my priorities. The more I did, the more I found memories of those Saturdays with Grandma Viv flooding back to me. I realized my grandmother truly "had it all": a simple, sustainable, and satisfying life.

Grandma Viv was in charge of her own time. She worked on things that mattered to her. She surrounded herself with the people she loved. And though she spent twelve to fourteen hours a day in the garden each summer, her money worked harder than she did.

I wanted out of the rat race - and into a simpler, more satisfying, and more sustainable life. Chez Viv records my progress in that direction, and it invites others to join me.

Here, I explore ways of life that are:

• Simple. From my 2025 project to yeet Big Tech from my life, to preserving food, saving seeds, and making the library my best friend, Chez Viv explores ways to simplify life and focus on what matters.
• Sustainable. Sustainability is about the planet - but it's also about how well we can show up in our own lives day to day. In the last five years, I've explored sustainability in everything from how I run my kitchen to how I cut back on waste, organize my time, set goals, and invest for the future.
• Satisfying. In the past few years, I've realized "happiness" is fleeting. Satisfaction, however, is everywhere, and it's ours for the taking. From DIY projects to urban homesteading, I've zeroed in on what satisfies me and built my life around getting it.

In a human life, the only constant is change. My ideal life is constantly changing and growing as I do. I encourage you to join me on this journey.