When I was in college, about one hundred fifty years ago, One of my buddies bought a burned out trailer house and rebuilt it with a pot belly woodstove and the cedar wood paneling. He sided the outside with rough cut cedar and it looked like a long skinny little house, but it was a cheap and efficient way for him, his wife, and little girl to have a home of their own. It was just a trailer house but I thought it was a pretty cool looking trailer house, better than the standard aluminum siding and plastic paneling kind. I have seen other people do this kind of custom trailer house project and some of the manufactured homes they make these days have a similar look with wooden siding and pitched roofs with trim and windows that avoid that RV industrial look.
Thirty-some years later I’m watching TV and watch a show
about “tiny Houses” that people are building on trailers. These are not quaint cottages these a little travel trailer sized places. The idea is that with efficient design a
person can build a compact portable house with wheels. These houses are cleverly designed so that tables fold
down from walls and stairs double as bookshelves. Many are designed with sleeping lofts. Gee, I though looks kinda familiar.
Why do people act like this is a new invention? Boat, cabin and trailer house builders have been designing small efficient spaces for centuries, and typical Americans, “tiny house” designers think they are inventing, tables that convert to beds and bathrooms that fit in a closet. Even a rustic shepherd’s wagon is a study in compact living.
“Who wants
a bedroom you can’t standup in?”
“Lots of
people!”
“Yeah,
until they don’t. Why not just buy a
Airstream. These guys made a business of compact living.”
“That’s a
trailer house!”
Yeah, so
are those tiny houses. There are just
custom and expensive.”
“No, they
are unique."
“OK, Unique
trailer houses. A house built on a
trailer is still a trailer house.”
“No, these
are smaller than your seventy–foot double wide.”
“You’re
right. More like a travel trailer with
cedar shingles. In fact, I saw an old travel trailer on Craigslist for just
begging for an upgrade like this.”
The reader has probably figured by now that I think this
whole “tiny house” fad is pretty silly, especially in Alaska. Don’t get me wrong, I believe it a noble
thing to downsize and live with less. We
did that on our second house. It is half
the size of the old one. And most people today build too much house if you ask me. But a structure too small for two people get undressed in at the same time is good only for camping and even that not for long. If you ask me to spend
fifty or sixty thousand dollars on a custom cottage on wheels is frivolous and
unnecessary. Many of sourdoughs who got
here before the oil boom and others who came after have experienced all the “tiny
houses” we can stand. My first winter in
Alaska, we had eight of us in 400 square feet plus a sleeping loft. Such conditions make cozy a four letter word. Drive the streets of any
old parts of the old towns of Alaska and see old houses smaller than the
average master suite. Notice they have
all been added on to with wings, and wannigans so people have room to breath. Such small, intimate spaces are incubators for cabin
fever. Then people only lived in little places because it was what they could afford to build and heat not
because it was hip.
Being hip is another big problem with the new “tiny house”
craze. It’s forcing places like
Anchorage to look at their building ordinances and codes. It seems people what to move these hipster
shacks into regular neighborhoods, where small homes without foundations are
not allowed.
“What! You
want to bring trailer houses into my cul-de-sac?”
“They
aren’t trailer houses, they are different.”
“How?”
“. . . . .
. (long empty pause). . . .”
According
to the ADN article, (Go read this piece from the Sunday paper and see if it
doesn’t smack of elitism; Want to Park a Tiny House in Anchorage? ) people with tiny houses might want better views, or to locate in the backyard
of a bigger house. In other words they
want to change to city codes around Alaska, so they can put their ‘tiny houses”
wherever they want because these casitas are cooler than trailer houses. That’s the bottom line and the really silly
part of this argument.
“No, you
can’t park your cute little Sheep wagon wannabe on a lot in my neighborhood
because you will lower my property value and in five years you will add a wannigan
then an extension. I’m seeing “tiny
house, big shed.”
If you want to live in a travel trailer, mobile home,
manufactured home, RV, fifth wheel, tow-behind, or even a “tiny house” that’s
fine with me, but don’t think a bay window and gambrel roof make it anything
more than a trailer house.
