Micro homes - finally I'm trendy!

When we were first designing the house, my hubby kept assuring me that we didn't need a 3 by 4 metre laundry.  I was convinced that having the space to iron and hide the clothes airers in winter was essential.  My hubby tried to assure me that the kids could share a room until they left home.  I was sure that they would eventually need their own space so it was essential to have at least 4 bedrooms (one for guests too).  I also managed to convince him that, to make sure that we could cater for families that may come to visit 5 bedrooms would be required.  As we like to preserve our own produce and plan to be as close to self sufficient as possible on the block a large pantry would be required.  The final house design included a 4x4m walk in pantry behind the kitchen.  The pantry design included an outside door so we could cart firewood directly into the pantry rather than traipse it through the house.  It even had a designated library with walls that would be lined with bookshelves and space for a chesterfield sofa as that had always been my husband's dream.

At the time my husband had tried to tell me that a small home would be cheaper (and easier) to make and that we really didn't need all that indoor space.  I found it hard to see how, with 50 acres, we wouldn't just build what we thought we would need.  My hubby showed me a series of photos of micro homes and the insides of yachts and various other sea-faring vessels in an attempt to convince me that living in a smaller space would really be just fine.   I was sure that we would need each and every part of the above design and could not come to accept any other opinion.

I've already mentioned that the original plan was to build the shouse and live in it while we built the house then convert the shouse to a shed and garage. However, weather and illness delayed the project significantly (by about 3 years) and has meant that the money we had set aside to start building the house with is no longer.  As a result, the shouse will be our final resting place.  It may or may not have an extension built at some later stage (we're still negotiating on that point and the discussions have been put on hold until we are living on site).

The shouse is designed with a bedroom and ensuite, living area (a kitchen, dining and small lounge) and an 'attic' area for storage.  This all fits into a 9 by 6m rectangle (taking account of the 500mm thick strawbale walls).

Since coming to the conclusion that the shouse will be our home for at least a decade, I have realised that we probably don't need a 4x4 metre pantry (the design I have recently come up with will have a pantry that will fit in the 830x1000mm space under the stairs to the attic). I have also realised that we will not need a library.  We have plans to have high shelves between the beams that will store our books (I'll still get my library ladder).  We will made use of vertical space and have floor to roof cupboards in the bedroom and bathroom.  The attic will have a bank of cupboards around the circumference that will store all manner of infrequently used items.  The windows in the bedroom and the dining room have beautiful wide sills that we will be able to use in lieu of window seats.  We imagine that the large sills will come in particularly handy when we have parties.  

The thought of living in small home has had to make us think about the things that we own and start to prioritise what we really want and need.  We are currently in a standard 3 bedroom home and have stuff all over the place in each and every room.  We are planning an enormous cull of possessions when we move into the shouse as there are just so many things in this house that we just don't use.

For example, the 'back room' is chock full of stuff, 99% of which we just never use.  It has all my work clothes (which is the 1% that does get used), a spare bed (used about a dozen times in the last 4 years), an enormous pile of kids toys, some camping mattresses (which have not been used since we moved here as we have not had time for holidays but will hopefully get some use again once we have finished building), the clothes airers which are pulled out in winter, a stack of clothes kindly donated to us from friends and family that don't yet fit the kids and about 5 boxes of things that we brought from Melbourne but have never opened.

While the shouse is a small house it should suffice for the four of us and we like to consider ourselves ahead of the trend as in the last few months we have seen mainstream media reporting on micro-houses. Micro homes are increasingly being considered by individuals, couples and families alike.  Even Oprah has featured the small home movement. Soaring property prices and a realisation by many that more stuff does not necessarily mean more happiness has led to many bucking the McMansion trend and turning to smaller homes.  Tumbleweed seem to be the market leaders in small home designs.

The small house movement is reported more frequently as a viable option for people looking to downsize or for those looking for an ecologically friendly way to live.  Generally speaking, the smaller your home's footprint is the less impact it will have on the environment in terms of building products.  Obviously there are choices you could make that would mean a larger home could be incredibly environmentally sensitive (think composting toilet, sustainably harvested timber, recycled windows, cork flooring etc.).  Likewise, a small home built from steel and concrete could have quite a large environmental impact.

Now, I am all for saving the environment, reducing our ecological footprint, recycling whenever possible and living with less but even I have limits.  I could not personally, for instance, live in 8.3 square metres!