Smaller house, bigger heart

So one of the best Christmas gifts I got this year was this book Little House on a Small Planet by Shay Saloman.

I have literally been carrying it around with me everywhere I go (to the mall to read in the lineup, while waiting for sushi to arrive to my table, at my in-laws place to read while others take their turn at Settlers of Catan). I identify strongly with the authors message, and I find the method of delivery very useful. Great color pictures, good stories, great real-life advice and fantastic floorplans. This ties into my post about building a hobbit hole somewhere, and has progressed past the point of just wistful thinking. I am committed to simplifying my way of life, and one of the ways to do that is to avoid building another large house that I will immediately begin filling with stuff. I realize we built the current house we live in to sell specifically to a bigger family (so it had to be bigger than we needed as a couple), but already I find myself wondering where we are going to put all of the furniture, plastic bins and tools in a new house. It’s my fault really, as I am the one with design ideas and furniture magazines and a need to fill every corner, but I am definitely conflicted about it.

I feel we were given a gift by our families, who helped us so much during the building process, and we better not blow it. The goal is to cash in on the sweat equity in a meaningful and valuable way, so that we can secure some financial solvency and ensure our wealth grows too. (Aside: I’m proud that for Jan 1st 2009, my husband and I have paid down all of our consumer debt, and now have only my student loan and the mortgage to contend with). My idea is to live below our means, which is particularly poignant given the recent housing crash and credit crunch. We took out a 40-year mortgage to finance the building of this house, and thinking of that makes me want to vomit. I am drawn to the idea of owning a house (even a small one) outright, because of the security of always having someplace to go, even if the shit hits the fan and we loose out jobs or get sick or can’t make payments anymore or whatever. My mom doesn’t own a house, and I am too independent to immediately fall back to living with my husband’s parents in their house. We can use a small cabin in the future as a getaway cottage, maybe build onto it as finances allow, or rent it to vacationers, but for right now I don’t see why we can’t live in it. It’s just us, and we get along fabulously. In fact, I am writing this blog post sitting at the table about ten feet from my husband because although the computer is usually kept on the desk in the office, it is too expensive to heat that room all the time (so it’s as cold as a witch’s tit in there) and being secluded in the office was too far away from where he is at the moment.

SOOOOO, the plan is to move back to Hometown (when I’m done my degree), either buy a piece of land or build on family-owned property about 20 km from town and build a one-room, super energy efficient/sustainable home for $10,000. And then live in it for a year. If we can build a three bedroom house, we can sure as f&ck build a 20 foot by 12 foot home (although I haven’t started pricing out the specifics so I might be 50% underbudget – especially if we are law-abiding citizens and follow zoning laws regarding septic tanks and minimum square footage -but I’m obviously excited enough about the plan I’m going to look into the budget feasibility further). Of course, even idealistic me realizes we will likely grow out of such a space, and since the plan was always to renovate or (less likely) built new in Hometown while prices are still reasonable, we would do that too. We need to rollover any profit from this first house into something that will appreciate over time, and although the current economic climate is not looking good, our Hometown has realty that has been consistently undervalued for years. So I think buying now is a good idea, even if we do owe the bank some money via a (horrible horrible) mortgage. But with a place to stay in the interim (that isn’t a rental nor our parents’ basement) then we can be picky about the house we take onto renovate (in particular, where it is in relation to elementary and middle schools). And then that will be the “forever” house, where we raise kids. And while some people would consider this entire plan as a waste of $10,000, I see it as a way to 1) get a cottage earlier than we had planned 2) have a back-up plan just in case 3) an awesome way to trial-run some interesting ideas on passive solar heating, berming, ICF construction, solar voltaic energy and other environmentally aware techniques for becoming a self-sustainable household.

So with all this swirling around in my head for the past week, we drove past this plywood shack on an old gas station platform on our way back home from the holiday stay in Hometown. And I asked my husband to pull over so we could go out and inspect, in 3D, the physical space enclosed by walls 12 feet x 24 feet. Others might think it’s nuts, but with just the two of us (and the occasional guest) I think it’s plenty of room (to wit: when I was in undergrad and living in a single room on campus, my husband-to-be spent three entire weeks living with me in that room. He had started a job at a bakery in my tiny town, in anticipation of my ending school year. Since his start date was three weeks before my term ending/our apartment becoming available, he discreetly moved in to my room. He had a sleep schedule of 7 pm- 4 am, while I was studying for my end-of-term exams and it was STILL one of the happiest times of my life.) In fact we decided while surveying the dimensions of the shack that we could comfortably shave off four feet from the longer side and still get a bathroom w/bathtub, a galley kitchen with tiny counter and a living room with a loveseat and a chair in there, plus a ladder going up to an exposed loft sleeping area. I took a few pictures of the mini-adventure at dusk, and the VIA passenger train that passed by just as we were finishing up our conversation:


Approximate size of a bath tub:

Via train:

So that has been keeping me busy lately. I was supposed to be working on the materials and methods section of a paper I’m writing, but it is obvious to me that my preference is house planning over molecular biology. And oddly, this fact is reassuring in an economy where “biochemist” may become a dispensable employment option. (...Or I'm justifying.)