Small Houses

I have been in a funk. I try not to go there but funks happen. Usually my less then congenial moods only last a day but this was a tenacious funk. Then, on Saturday morning we watched a show on PBS. It was called b. organic. It was a very interesting segment... well, interesting to me, on small house living. I am fascinated by small houses. It is an amazing little puzzle. How small can you get and still have what you need? How small can you get and still have what you want? Do you need everything you own? Do your possessions cause you happiness or angst? How small can you get and still retain a feeling of comfort and openness in your home? I love the puzzle!

I draw house plans. I LOVE drawing house plans! I remember when I was a senior in high school and my parents had gotten an old house and were getting ready to make some huge changes to it. Dad worked for the government and had access to a great deal of literature on standards of housing. He brought home everything he could find that was pertinent. Dimensions were a big thing. For instance, it takes a four foot circle to comfortably dress in. You need a three foot circle to turn around in. If you carry anything up a stair way the minimum width is three foot. These are still the things I think about when I draw up plans. A house is no good to you if you can't turn around in it..... and I have seen some pretty large houses that still managed to have areas you couldn't turn around in.

I didn't used to have faith in my abilities to come up with workable house plans. Even after I had planned this house and built it... well, pretty much built it. There is still finishing to do. Then after Katrina hit New Orleans and it took forever to find shelter and other necessities for the people of the area, the government asked architects to submit plans for small emergency housing that could be built quickly. I found the website somewhere of accepted plans. Many were absolute crap. I remember one small house had the toilet in front of the shower. So close to the shower you would have had to step over the toilet to get to the shower. That is just wrong.... there is no turn around room. Then I realized, that I was drawing better plans then architects were.

Now I want to build a cottage. Mac is okay with it as he wants it for his brother and sister-in-law to stay in when they visit. This time I can do it all as I would like. The house we are in is Mac's house. Built off of his wish list. The next one will be mine. I will go all out hippie on it. The toilet will be flushed with rain water. We will have gray water captured, be filtered in a bog and then, water a small garden. Reclaimed materials and solar lights.... it's going to be fun!

I will start drawing plans today. My reward for surviving the funk.

Louie

A Day of Rest

Yesterday was a big day. We got up early..... okay, moderately early and packed up and took off to see a friend, and we helped him put a couple of windows into his older home. I was feeling confident. We can do this!!! The guys didn't seem quite so confident. Realizing this, I did make sure I watched a window segment with Tommy Silva from a rerun on This Old House.

Yes, I told them... We're good... We can do this.... Trust me. (They don't really trust me. They may act like it, but they don't)

When we got there, our friend had printed off two different sets of instructions. To be honest this is where a little doubt in myself creeped in. But we were in for the long haul! Thought we would have a mutiny when there was a great deal of talk about lunch. But I just kept telling them, "We work while we've got weather!" Good thing too, We had a two and a half hour lunch during a thunderstorm around two in the afternoon.

The guys figured we would need two days. A day per window. I thought we could get it done in one. We just kept at it. One task at a time, one prep at a time. Work around the rain and pick up as you go. It was about 8:30 at night when the last screw went into the last flange hole. The trimming still needs to be done, but the windows are in and the weather is out.

The three of us ate supper late and Mac and I got home a little after one in the morning. Today is our day of rest. Much needed by all three of us. But our friend is worth it.... worth more. When Mac was going through the stem cell transplant, this was the friend that filled in the gaps.

Our friend has talked a little bit about having a "tiny house" cabin to live in down here. That would be great! The tiny houses are as small as 8x12 and,,,,, they don't have very many windows!!!

Louie