My childhood cabin, revisited

[flexagon]

Did a weird little project this week. I was reading A Little House of My Own: 47 Designs for 47 Tiny Houses, when one of the rough little wooden sheds reminded me wayyyyy too much of the tiny cabin I grew up in. I thought, for the millionth time and with the usual anger, about how one opened the door to see the garbage and the laundry; how there was no place to gracefully put down the things a person brings in from the car; how clutter spread out from every corner and almost everything was made of bare wood or bare concrete (uncleanable -- talk about a bad idea, when you own and work in a machine shop). And I looked at the other tiny houses and thought there were 375 square feet there! It must have been possible to live more gracefully in that.

Next thing I knew, I was researching different ways to model the old cabin, which I lived in with my parents until I was 12 (after that we added a 16' x 16' addition, half of which was considered part of the house). I knew it might upset me on some level, and sure enough, I did have a few nightmares about that place and my parents this week. But I settled on www.floorplan.com and created this based on memory and pictures:



Although that's an insanely plasticky, cleaned-up version of real life:

• That thing in the lower right is a woodpile for the stove. The black thing is a wood-burning stove.
• Around the stove we usually had some wood (and boots) standing up to dry.
• Everything was dirty. Everything was cluttered. The table was covered in crap aside from a crescent in center front that was big enough for my dad's plate and book.
• The beds were bunk beds, with the tops used for storage; floorplanner.com doesn't seem to know about bunk beds. Also, see how big they were? They were made from 4x8 sheets of plywood.
• There was a curtain over the bathroom door.

Then I took on the challenge: I would not change the cabin's footprint, or move the door or the window (well, not much) and I would keep the plumbing all at the left end of the cabin -- I would even keep the keyboard -- and I would STILL do better. Here's my first attempt:

• I added an entrance area, with a brick wall directly behind the stove that could be used for hanging up wet mittens and boots to dry.
• Alcoves for the beds, separated by closet space. (We had NO closeable storage space.)
• A shower instead of a bathtub -- showers worked much better given our tiny hot-water heater anyway.
• A long shallow counter (that can fold up or down against the wall), instead of a deep table that collected stuff.
• A door for the bathroom.
• Need I mention? In this cabin the walls are finished on the inside, and so is the ceiling. No insulation visible to the naked eye here.

It's not clear why I did this exercise. I thought it might be good for me to not demonize the place just for its square footage, to imagine a small-scale but dignified childhood life there. And maybe it was. I could do better yet by allowing myself to loft certain areas (there would have been vertical space to do so) or allowing more windows, etc. However, now I'm pretty into www.floorplan.com, and while I've never needed a ton of space, I'm not interested in moving to anyplace under 600 square feet, either. So I want to spend the time modeling my current place, instead.

Comments

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

The Bear and I used to live in a 950 square foot house that was built in 1938. Making good use of the space was challenging! I'm impressed with the project of reclaiming a space that was distressing for you.

[flexagon]

Making good use of the space was challenging!

Because it was small, or old, or oddly configured? I'm always curious about what makes a space not work (as well as what makes a space work).

We have 900 square feet now, but that's not counting either of the 2 porches, or the garage or the basement space.

[a-kosmos.livejournal.com]

One of the issues was closets. Because of when it was built, it had closets that were built in like small cabinets. The kitchen was very small... not much cabinet space and no pantry. There was no space for a washer or dryer, even one that stacks. The layout was ok. (This is also the land with no basements.)

The house we have now is 1450 square feet, and it has actual closets. I like this size, other than a few minor tweaks (a small entrance way before one gets into the living room and having the second bathroom be functional), I don't really want a bigger house than this one.

[flexagon]

Ah, storage. A few generations ago it seems like they didn't need any! Much as I've been enjoying paring my stuff down, I still don't understand how they did it. Maybe a lot was stored in chests and trunks.

Your current house size sounds great; on the high end of what I think I'd want, which means comfortably spacious. I wonder if you could add an entryway without disrupting anything vital? I'm always up for taking a look at other people's floorplans. :)

[nevers.livejournal.com]

wow. this is really intense. you wrote about your living situation growing up in your zine, but the floor plan is much more vivid to me. you did an amazing job reworking it.

[flexagon]

Thank you for understanding. It was pretty intense for me to do... I have a few pictures from that space, which are way more vivid than the floorplan, and maybe one day I'll share them. Part of me would like to.

[dancing-crow.livejournal.com]

I like your changes. I had not heard about your growing up before.

[flexagon]

Thank you! Yeah, I don't talk about it too often. At times though (like when I'm working on making my current place nicer), I remember how much it explains about my adulthood.

If anyone ever wondered why I want a nice place to live, and a comfortable amount of money, and want to be playful the way I wasn't when I was a child... look no further. :)

[islenskr.livejournal.com]

Wow! I like your changes a lot. And I had no idea about your living space growing up. Clutter is teh Ebil, but I feel fortunate to have lived in a house with more space.

[flexagon]

Thank you. You're right... the sad thing is, I really think that my dad could have evilled up any amount of space. And conversely, the floor space we had could have provided a more graceful living situation, if he'd cared about making one -- I just proved that to myself.

I guess more space would have allowed a little more privacy. Our house tended to be oppressively silent, since anything you did would be overheard by everyone else, and music wasn't allowed. So, in retrospect, that would have been one nice thing.

[soong.livejournal.com]

Good redesign. It's almost like you're an engineer who for a living frequently takes things apart and puts them back together better.

[flexagon]

Heh, thanks. If you are saying that my profession and training gave me an advantage in doing that... you're right.

But still, it only took me about three hours to make the new from the old, and my dad was a machinist and mechanical designer, so I can't let the family off the hook that easily.

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

It's a good thing I don't have your dad's address or I'd be sending him a copy of this.

It came out really well, and aside from being an interesting thought project, I think it must feel really freeing...I mean, if you can do all that with a 1/3 of your current space, the world truly is your oyster. :)

xo

[flexagon]

Awww. The world was already my oyster... well, at least Boston is, and there are enough places here to build nests. I will not run out. :)

[kaigex.livejournal.com]

Interesting redesign. Also, that looks like a very cool book. For some reason it brings to mind, Need a House, Call Ms Mouse (http://www.amazon.com/Need-House-Call-Ms-Mouse/dp/0448165759).