The Small House Book Read Online Free PDF Page B

need to waste our much-needed energy on
    actively trying to change this spendthrift society. The tangible happiness of a
    life well lived is worth a thousand vehement protests.
    Magazines, television and billboards incessantly insist that the cure for what
    ails us will be revealed by earning and spending more and increasing square
    footage. But the security and connectedness we seek are unobtainable so
    long as we continue to surround ourselves with these symbols of security
    and connectedness. Our desire for that which pretends to be success and
    our fear of not having it bar us from feeling genuinely fulfilled. Happiness lies
    in understanding what is truly necessary to our happiness and getting the
    rest out of the way.
    Simplicity is the means to understanding our world and ourselves more clear-
    ly. We are reminded of this every time we pass by a modest little home. Oc-
    casionally, between the billboards, a tiny structure reveals a life that is unfet-
    tered by all of the excesses. Such uncomplicated dwellings serve to remind
    us of what we can be when our striving and fear are abandoned. Each person
    who chooses to live so simply inadvertently teaches the virtue of simplicity.
    In a society as deeply mired in over-consumption as our own, embracing sim-
    plicity is more than merely countercultural; it can, at times, be downright scary.
    We are in many ways a herd animal, and to take the path less traveled requires
    courage. We are living in a system that, if left to its own devices, would have us
    in debt up to our eyeballs and still clamoring to purchase more things than we
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    could use in a thousand lifetimes. Simplification requires that we consciously
    resist this system and replace it with a more viable one of our own making. For
    some of us, it requires that we either break laws or expend the time and mon-
    ey required to change those laws that currently prohibit an uncomplicated life.
    In any case, anyone who sets out to create such a life should know that he
    or she is not alone. Though our current system discourages (even prohib-
    its) such freedom, we are all, on some deeper level, familiar with our own
    need for simplicity. Order is a human concept that expresses an inherent
    human need. On at least the most intuitive level, we all see the beauty in
    a well-made, small dwelling because the necessity such a structure ex-
    presses resonates with the necessity within each of us. The fear that these
    little places sometimes inspire is not really so much one of lower proper-
    ty values; it is the fear that these simple dwellings may inadvertently tell
    us something important about ourselves that we are not ready to face.
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    Trinity Park, MA
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    Trinity Park, MA (top) & a San Francisco Bungalow Court (above)
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    You know you have perfection of
    design not when you have noth-
    ing more to add, but when you
    have nothing more to take away.
    -Antoine de Saint Exupery

PART THREE:
MAKING SPACE
    How to Build a House on Wheels
    The Foundation and Framing
    With little exception, my first portable house was built by using the most stan-
    dard methods of construction. Like any other mobile home, my structure sit
    on a steel chassis – in this case, a 7’ x 14’ flatbed, utility trailer. I took most of
    the wooden deck off to save weight and put aluminum flashing over the gaps
    to safeguard against mice. The floor framing was laid on top of that. I used
    two-by-fours spaced about 24 inches apart on center.
    Once that framing was assembled, I filled the cavities between the boards
    with foam board insulation and spray foam and capped the whole thing off
    with some ¾-inch plywood subflooring.
    The walls were framed right over the wheel wells using headers just as you
    would over any other opening. I used two-by-four studs and rafters spaced
    twenty-four inches on center rather than the more typical sixteen inches. This
    is a fairly standard practice used to save both money and natural resources.
    At this point, I