A friend of mine recently told me that in his town the building code
does not allow anyone to build a home that is
less than 900 square
feet. That got me to thinking about how I really hate it when the
government makes such stupid and oppressive laws—especially local
governments in areas that are mostly rural.
When
Marlene and I built our house—the one we live in now—back in 1985 it
measured 16 feet by 24 feet with two floors (no basement). That amounts
to 768 square feet. We have since added on to the house so it now
amounts to 1,650 square feet. The house is still relatively small,
especially with three boys (all in one bedroom). We would love a larger
house someday, but what we have is sufficient. Our house is a home. We
are content and thankful for what we have.
I can tell you that small houses have their advantages. For one thing, they are cheaper to build. As I explain in my book, Writings of a Deliberate Agrarian,
Marlene and I borrowed $10,000 from her father to build our house, and
we did the work ourselves. The house is not fancy but it is built very
well. There was never a bank loan and the house is now paid for. I’m
thankful for that too.
Another advantage to a small house is
that it costs comparatively less to heat in the winter, as I have
mentioned here a few times in the past. Maintenance costs are also
comparatively less. After 23 years, I’m going to need a new roof on the
original structure and it won’t break the bank to get that done. Of
course, it helps that I’ll be doing the actual roofing work myself.
In any event,
with my 40 acres in place, I would have lived in some sort of
“alternative” housing to start, while saving to build a more permanent
and conventional house. The best alternative housing would be low-cost
and not incur any additional property taxes.
One such form of
alternative housing would be some sort of camper/trailer. I’ve heard
old pull-behind campers can be had surprisingly cheap. And I know
people who have lived in them, on their land, for a long time.
I have long had a hankering to live in a yurt. In
fact, I have this idea that someday, when/if I can finally afford to
buy a section of woods and field, I will talk The Lovely Marlene into
living on our land in a yurt. I have not told her about this yet. She
is less adventurous than I when it comes to things like this. Such
ideas of mine must be presented with care and wisdom on my part.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to persuade her of the many advantages of yurt
living and she will agree to try it for
one year. And then
maybe she would want to live in our yurt for one more year.
My pastor once told me of a
nifty tax-free housing idea he had. If your land has a pond on it,
build a small floating house on top of empty 55-gallon drums. It would
be a house “boat.” The tax assessor around here doesn’t raise your
property taxes if you park a boat on your property.
I once knew
an old Italian fellow who told me of how, as a young man, he had plans
to build a small home for his family out of the lumber in used packing
crates. He got the crates free from the factory where he worked. Every
day, on his way home (to an apartment) he dropped the crates off at the
little section of land he had bought. On weekends, he would take the
crates apart and neatly stack the wood under cover. Then World War II
came and he went into the military. His plans were put on hold. When he
came home from the war, his life had changed course. He never built the
house. And he regretted it.
With the economy the way it is, and
people loosing their homes, they need places to live. Most are probably
moving into apartments. Marlene and I lived in a two-room apartment for
a couple of years when we were first married. I’ll take a wall tent, or
an old camper, or even the back of an old tractor trailer box, on a
little piece of rural land, over an apartment in town any day, thank
you. But a yurt would be preferable.
There are ways to live
cheaply, especially in rural areas, where you can get away with
“camping out” when you are just starting out, or even starting out all
over again. But to live so cheaply requires that you take a
socioeconomic step (or two) down from the typical modern lifestyle.
It’s a humbling situation that few people are willing to place
themselves in. But I think it is easier to do if you see it as a means
to an end, not necessarily an end in itself.
Whatever the
case, even a shack in the woods can be a beloved home, especially if it
is inhabited by a family that loves each other and is thankful to God
for the blessings they have. That is what I believe.