The Rustic "Temporary" Microhouse

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A skylight will let in trice as much light as a window of equal size, so consider cutting a dole in tie roof.

Against the middle walls was a small desk to keep writing supplies and a freestanding closet or chest of drawers to store clothing, tools, and equipment.

Thoreau said, "I had three chairs; one for solitude, two for friendship, and three for society." There is precious little space for more in a microhouse. Trying to accommodate more people, things, or activities than the essentials of daily living for any length of time will crowd you out.

It is a good idea to simulate life on graph paper to see if you can tolerate a microhouse. Build a model from dollhouse components or draw a scale representation of the floorplan (1/4 inch to the foot), then make scale models or cutouts of the smallest furnishings you can imagine plus every item of any size you plan to keep in the house. You'll find that the king-size bed is an extravagance of bloated modem room sizes and that standard bunk beds consume less scarce floor space than a double, but not all that much less once you factor in the space needed to get in and out. A little 14 by 24 inch rectangular table offers enough space for two or three at a stretch, to dine, knead bread, and play Monopoly by candle light. It hugs the wall, using less center floor space than a round or square table of equal usable area. Make it oval to eliminate thigh-poking square comers. Thoreau built his table with three legs, which saved foot space. Put your-bed on legs like a waist-high Colonial four-poster and use the space underneath for your foldable clothing, linens, and dry food. You can build or buy really capacious under-bed shelf systems. I keep nearly everything, from tools and truck parts to winter storage squash, in cardboard boxes under the bed or stacked in odd open spaces against the wall.

Then move things around as you play at living there for a week. Assume that it's pouring rain outside, the firewood is wet, and what passes for a dooryard is all mud. Thoreau writes loftily of his lack of a need for a proper lawn: "No yard! but unfenced nature ...no gate—no front yard—and no path to the civilized world." Lovely! But, till you lay flagstones or a boardwalk over the bare ground, the comings and goings of visitors and vehicles will turn your yard of forest loam or meadow sod to mud in April of every year.

Change your house design as the paper plan suggests. Try rectangular and square designs of different wall lengths in the 10 to 16 foot range. Leave plenty of working space for the cook, and be sure to leave a full 30 inches between your wood stove and any combustible material, including the walls. A brick fireplace and wall behind your wood stove will reduce clearance at the stove's rear and free up more than 10% of available interior floor space. But mortared brick is hardly feasible if you are planning a temporary structure. To minimize clearance and save floor space, you will need to install ceramic or sheet-metal heat shields on spacers to both the wood-frame wall and to the back of the stove.

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