Small houses.

Comments

2 responses to “Small houses.”

1. 

   Christy P

   March 10, 2009

   Well, I got a lost redirect when I tried to click over to Jen, so I will post my comment here –
   People who live in boats have small spaces mastered.
   Never have I lived in a small space with kids, but my husband and I lived for a short while (approximately 120 days) in a Chevy Astrovan. We took out the bench seats and installed a bed which could be lifted up to access gear storage underneath. The bed wasn’t actually low enough for us to sit on without ducking our heads (and we aren’t exceptionally tall people). The key to our success was this: minimal stuff and staying organized. You’d think that with such a small space you could be casual about item placement, after all how long would it take to search every nook and cranny of an Astrovan? BUT, every item search displaces something else that if it doesn’t go back to its place necessitates another search and so on. Small variety of meals since we had a small set of cookware and a camping stove. Although we also had a small hibachi which allowed for grilling, we only had one propane tank, so it was either grill or stove, not both. Since we were camping, I became very adept at meal planning for a few days in advance, better than when I am at home with the luxury of a freezer and store just down the hill. For example, buy a package of chicken. Grill it all that night even though you won’t eat it all (lower risk of leakage into the cooler and contaminating everything with campylobacter). Next day you can have chicken wraps for lunch and then another day pad thai (use a mix, I promise it is totally adequate) with chicken for dinner. Then forget having meat until at least next week when you go to the store again.

   LikeLike

   Reply
2. 

   Eric

   March 11, 2009

   Like Christy, I’ll post here as I couldn’t follow the link.
   We were at about 230ft2/person for a couple of years ending last summer. Each space ends up with multiple uses. With one infant, the living room was also where the infant slept at night. With two kids, the office (re)became a bedroom and our new office was stacked vertically on one wall of the kitchen/dining room, squeezing it a little more. Then the living room was available for air mattresses when hosting overnight guests. The trickiest part is finding the right furniture to accomplish what you want in the given space. A modest sectional couch that will fit a corner to keep a doorway clear but rearrange straight when needed. A narrow, taller TV stand to hold the whole home entertainment system in a few square feet. A tall, long, narrow counter with one corner missing to allow a walkway–I had to build that myself along with the shelves on top of it to hold the office. We’re now at 460ft2/person (no, we didn’t ditch the kids, we moved) and occasionally (not often) reminisce about how much more convenient it was in the smaller space. You never had to get up to get anything; it was always within reach of your chair.

   LikeLike

   Reply