Community spaces
Did
you know that the average American today has as much living area to
him- or herself as an entire family of 3.3 did in 1950? I've been
thinking about small houses lately, both because of working on my
Trailersteading
ebook and because
we've been the lucky recipients of a
variety of out of town guests. I suspect that many
Americans build large homes for the sole purpose of housing guests or
hosting gatherings two or three times a year. But isn't there an
easier way?
For us, there definitely
is. It turns out that the intentional
community a mile
down the road rents out their community house for a
small fee and is happy to put up our house guests (and to host our
Thanksgiving
dinner). To
me, this is a no-brainer since our
entire farm is my personal space and I can't handle having people other
than Mark nearby for more than three or four hours a day once or twice
a week.
But even for the less
antisocial, renting space for guests makes
financial sense. We're able to use the community house for an
entire week for $100 --- just think how many guests we'd need to
channel through here before it would make sense to move the guest
quarters to our own land. Plus, if one community house could take
the pressure off ten or twenty families, that would mean a slew of
trees that didn't need to be cut down to build guest rooms and tons of
coal that didn't need to be turned into elecricity to heat
usually-empty spaces.
I suspect that if the
Tiny House movement wants to reach beyond the
small, vocal choir, our communities need to have facilities like this
available to take the edge off. What do you think?
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Yep! I've always been a fan of community spaces (even though I am usually too antisocial to spend much time in them.) I went to an intentional community in southern Georgia that had a nice little community coffee shop setup with a bookshelf full of some of the most fascinating books.
The coffee was free and fair trade. To top it all off, there was a tin of community-made pecan bark on the table to take as you please (they were income-sharing, and confections were the community business. They had a huge pecan orchard to supply the pecans). It was a very nice experience. So while I tend to get anxious out in 'public,' it's still great to have the option to go to a communal area whenever you're ready to socialize. Like you say, it's much easier when you don't have to offer up your own private space to host people.
Here in Japan, every city is divided into neighborhoods, and each neighborhood has a "meeting house" which you can use. Our neighborhood meeting house has a toilet, kitchen, medium sized room, blackboard, tables and cushions. There is also a TV, but it is analog and has no antenna... I'm not really sure why it's there. And on a recent cleaning, we found a very old wooden box with flags from a festival 50 years ago, and an old Karaoke machine.
We use them for community gatherings:
We also keep emergency supplies in it- bottled water and a day or two of rations. If you want to rent it for a class or gathering, that is fine too. As long as you clean it up afterwards. They are truly wonderful things. Every community should have one.
The RV park where we live has a great community room at the center of the park, used not only for gatherings of the people who live here but also available other times when we have friends out to visit and play board games.
Beyond that, divesting as much of our rarely-used space and getting into a right-sized space was one of our top motivations when we moved out of our house and into our trailer. There have been times I've missed a little bit of extra elbow room (mainly my bookshelves!)--but certainly not the additional 1000+ square feet beyond that I see in so many homes.
I'm personally glad to have more space. I like a little breathing room and plenty of sunshine.
I think the miniature houses are cute and sweet. I've seen lots of creative miniature homes, but I don't think I'd want to raise a family in one. I've heard of community spaces or spaces you can rent for guests, and that is one idea I think is good. Having a place to rent for guests nearby is a great alternative to having to build a guest house yourself.
Anna,I finally had the pleasure of meeting you and Mark about a mouth ago. Shannon and I enjoyed the hospitality of Mark and yourself.and the wonderful hospitality of the intentional community which came with a great meal along with deserts, books and a game, thanks to Anna and Mark. A wonderful old farm house heated with a fire burning, when we arrived. fully furnished with a very comfortable bed, and host that treat you like old friends. Memories that we will cherish for years. Thank you for the hospitality and the cherished memories, looking forward to our next visit.