How much house does a person need?
Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at 08:58AM
Image source: https://lihi.org/tiny-houses/ His servant picked up the spade and dug a grave long enough for Pahom to lie in, and buried him in it. Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed. “How much land does a man need?” Tolstoy Back in the neolithic age when I taught high school literature, one of my favorite stories to have students read and discuss was the one from which the quote above is taken. Easy to read, short, with a slam-bang ending and an obvious moral, it seemed to resonate with even those students whose frontal cortexes were still developing. The plot of the story involved a Russian peasant who works and schemes to gain larger and larger plots of land to farm (and control). But no matter how big the acreage and how much profit he makes, he always seems to need more. His final attempt to increase his spread is a deal struck with a nomadic tribe on the Russian steppes - for a set price, he will be given title to as much land as he can walk around over the course of a day. Of course his greed kills him in the end. I look at homes today compared to the one in which I grew up and often wonder just “how much house does a person need?” The small farm house in which I, a younger sister, and younger brother were raised couldn’t have been more than 1000 square feet. The home had three main floor bedrooms, two very, very small, and one bedroom in a converted attic space. There was a single bathroom with a tub. The unfinished basement had a shower, space for canned goods, and a cream separator. We had an “eat-in”kitchen. As I remember, a hired man occupied one of the bedrooms now and then. By today’s standards, such a house would be considered at best a starter home, but more likely than not, a tear-down with the lot re-used to build bigger. Residents of today’s neighborhoods in the Twin Cities complain that huge homes are replacing the modest, classic homes from the early 20th century, thereby destroying the charm of the area. I get it. Last Sunday’s Star Tribune newspaper featured a house in its Homes and Gardening section on the Root River near Cannon Falls, a small town about 40 minutes south of the metro. (A modern farmhouse on the river, 3/20/22) At nearly 8700 square feet with 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, and swimming pool with pool house, the place epitomizes why I often ask the question about how much house does a family really need. I lived in what I would consider a fairly large house for many years. At about 2900 square feet, it had three bedrooms, an office, two and a half baths, two family rooms, and a great room with a combined living room/dining room. While my son was living at home and when my daughter and her family visited, every inch was used. But most of the time, I only went to the basement to change the litter box or put salt in the water softener. On retirement, I moved to a much more modest townhome, At 850 square feet, there are two bedrooms, and one bath. No family room. No basement. I use the second bedroom as an office. The one car garage is detached. It is easy to keep clean and warm. I’ve managed to stuff both my son and daughter’s families in it during holidays and my dining room can accommodate 8 place settings. It works for me and costs a fraction of what I was paying to live large. Yet even I sometimes still feel a bit guilty when driving past tent and shack encampments of people who do not have permanent homes. I am quite sure my home would feel as large to many of them as the “farmhouse on the river” would feel to me. The concept of “tiny houses” of less than 400 square feet intrigues me. I suspect it would be a bit like living in a travel trailer or efficiency apartment - both of which I have at one time done. Were we to equally divide all the square feet of living space now built by our total population, I wonder how close to 400 square feet we would come? Housing, however, is not a zero-sum game. Giving our less well-off folks habitable accommodations doesn’t mean the rich folks can’t have their mansions. But the inequity in this country is embarrassing. How much house do you need?
Reader Comments (1)
My rough math shows an average of 772 sq ft of current housing per person in the U.S. Open to other analyses. Doug