64 sq ft

64 SQ FT

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note:good cheap knife sharpener

I bought all of them out, but they sell similar:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/263056836275
The minions were telling me how they are buying from E-Bay rather than Amazon, but I had no idea the number of useful shipped from Chinese items such as this I could get.  And I can pay with PayPal, which makes this fun and easy.  I'll highlight other prepper items like this as they occur to me.  PS-the sharpener is for getting an edge back on a dull as dirt knife, then you use your Rada for a fine finish.

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( note: this is going to be included in my forthcoming Hermit Survivalist book, but I thought it could double as a stand alone article )

When you are poor, and/or old, the last thing you want to do is build a huge dwelling.  You can’t afford the construction material and since you are no longer a spring chicken you need to minimize the work you undertake.  As a deluxe bonus, smaller dwellings are much easier to hide ( and heat! ), from both the Zoning Nazi’s and the post-apocalypse looters.  When most people think of tiny houses, inevitably they consider travel trailers.  Those suck.

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There are two reasons for this.  Height and mobility ( there are other reasons, but those will do for now ).  Since you need enclosed latch-able cabinets and you can’t have a high ceiling, all that extra space past 64 square feet STILL feels cramped and vaguely akin to car camping.  But in an eight foot cube, you can place half the floor space up in a loft and things are simply just better organized because of it.  There are Murphy Beds ( the bed is in the wall and folds down to use ) or Hide-A-Bed couches which can be surprisingly comfortable, but I think lofts are just a better idea.

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Sixty-Four square feet are of course arbitrary.  It can be a bit less or a bit more.  The cube shape is just easier as you don’t do as much trimming with store bought lumber.  I screwed up on mine, as I made it 6x12, and when I stretch out at night sleeping I need more than six feet.  But I can fix that, too.  All I need is lumber to replace a floor plan where everything is flat on the ground on wheat buckets.  My biggest flaw was NOT placing a Laz-E-Boy chair down there prior to enclosing.  Sitting all day on the bed blows compared to a recliner chair.

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Hey, what can I tell you?  In one years time I took two and a half grand and paid off my land, paid off the last six months of child support for about the same, and bought all the lumber and insulation needed for the underground hovel, all on minimum wage.  I ran out of money and supplies.  Then I spent a year buying all the prep supplies I had denied myself the last twenty years.  Stuff like, you know, extra food and ammo.  This year I’m going back and finishing it all up, as it seems likely I’ll be forced to move back there soon as the economy implodes for good this time.

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 ( I won’t dwell on this, but suffice it to say 80% of our domestic oil is extremely low EROI fracking oil, deep water and other sludge, not to mention ethanol.  Not to mention the question of how long fracking lasts-a money loser from Day One ).

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My point here is that I was living in a poor design and it isn’t something you should willingly choose.  Both in RV’s and in a crappy cube.  When the sun is shining I can go upstairs from my hovel and move around and stretch my arms.  When it is cold and overcast, I’m stuck downstairs.  And when you get stuck down in a poorly designed dwelling, the days are long, frustrating and just plain suck.  The best design is to have other dwellings where you can store most of your belongings, and the one you live in as uncluttered as possible.  But you can still put a lot of stuff in the primary dwelling if needed.  Just keep that in mind, however.  Sheds serve a very good purpose.

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To the design.  It would be better to show a picture, but I am a wordsmith, not an illustrator, so I’ll do my best.  Take your cube, with the door to one side.  As you enter that door, you are in a five foot wide “hall”.  That wall separates your kitchen and your bathroom.  The bathroom is on the other side of the entrance, and three foot wide.  It is only the shower and the toilet, so there is no sink to clutter things up.  You do your business and then exit the bathroom and do a U-turn to the sink.  It is a couple of steps.  The kitchen is a counter with sink and stove.  A board covers the sink for food prep.  Everything else is below that counter and up above on shelves.  Shelves cover the opposite wall.  The door will need to slide or open outward.  That comprises half the room.

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The other half of the room is the loft with the mattress.  Underneath the loft is your reclining chair and a desk with its own chair.  When you want to use the recliner at night to watch TV, have the flat screen mounted on the wall swing out to its place in front of the recliner.  The bed can be as high as possible, resembling an old sleeper railroad car or a navy bunk.  I would have a dowel above the desk and recliner, and slide your hanging clothes to the side you aren’t using at the moment. 

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Now, yes, things get a might complicated with two people.  You want the privacy roomette for the toilet and shower even if you are alone.  Looking at the crapper all day is stupid and depressing and reminds you that you are a poor hobbit stuck underground.  You need all the other walls anyway, so at least have a curtain to close off the space.  If a second person is there, the privacy is required.  Seating is going to suck.  While a lawn chair is great for lounging outside sucking in fresh air and getting sun, they are NOT comfortable to use all day inside.  You will need a couch that starts underneath the loft and goes right up to the bathroom entrance.

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You could place another recliner in there, one between the end of the kitchen and in front of the desk, or you could do without the desk underneath the loft.  Instead, you have a folding down desk and a folding metal chair.  They offer them now with a cushion, or just place a pillow on it as needed.  I work a good many hours a day at my desk, but I also love my recliner chair, now that my bones are getting old and achy.  I think I’ll be going for side by side recliners.  Both my exterior and interior doorways can be, albeit messily, temporarily widened as they are not load bearing.  Thrift stores always have recliners.

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In my case, I have some storage space.  Trailer up top and down below the entrance way is four by ten.  The only thing I had done with it was tack up a crude shelf for canned food.  Once I enclose that we have a lot of storage.  Don’t discount the amount of crap you’ll accumulate.  Try to build that into your design.  But you don’t actually need all that much living space.  Most folks combine the two.  If you separate them, you’ll probably find you use less for living than storing.  We do love our piles of crap.

END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2FKEpt5 )

 

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