800 Square Feet

My last apartment was 740 square feet. Unfortunately, I was married to a packrat, and she filled the place with a lot of crap. Once the crap was fully removed, a whole day before I moved away, it was surprisingly roomy. This was my misfortune, but I still learned that 740 square feet is big enough for my needs. The catch is I want my own garage, mainly because I can have a clean car that isn't getting spoiled by excessive heat and sunlight and pollen scratching the paint. This is important. A three car garage is probably ideal, since that leaves me room for a trailer, either for campground trips or with a small sailboat on it. There's some nice sailboats that weigh more than I can pick up by myself.

My best friend, That Guy(tm), recently measured the amount of living space he is using and its 800 square feet. His house is nearly twice that big, but his mortgage is less than renting a smaller space so life continues despite the irony. If he ever moves out of the area and has to buy a place he now knows how much space he really needs.

I know that the most common house type built and sold from 1970-1995 was the Ranch House, which is single story (in most cases) with a two-car garage hogging about half the front and a driveway leading from there to the street. It sort of dominates the house's looks.

After 1995, building lots got smaller and smaller, forcing homes to go vertical and narrower so the garage got even bigger from the street. These got the nickname "McMansions". Back yards became a spitting distance strip of dirt and a fence then another spitting distance and a neighbor. This was the approved high density housing method to cram as many square feet, which they charge for, into a house on the smallest legal lot they can get away with. Often, this is kind of miserable, though some places leave off the garage and cram them close and you get Balboa Island, which is slightly adorable for its close quarters craftsman bungalows.

Nevada City, the next town over and where I work as a volunteer, is crammed close like this, only its hot all summer because this is gold country, not the seaside. I think, in the future, most of the electric power will probably be going to seaside desalination projects rather than air conditioning in the valley, where few people want to live because it is farm country. I would not be shocked at all if more nuclear power plants get built to replace the ones being shut down due to old age. Billiard Ball designs are relatively hard to screw up and can't have a melt down. Smart engineering, after all.

The 800 square feet rule is largely true in Nevada City and Balboa Island, and works well for singles, but is a little tight for a couple. I suspect couples need 1000 square feet for obvious reasons. And every child after that, add another 400 square feet. Kids need lots of room, their own bathroom to share, separate from the folks. He's going to need a "study" and she will need a "sewing room" or hobby room. Somewhere to decompress. The space requirements get significant.

But a single person? 800 square feet is plenty.