Saturday, March 19, 2016

Visioning Space in Small Footprints

Last night a number of us met at the Schwab Auditorium in the Coralville Library. We wanted to get a feel for how different sizes of houses and rooms felt. It's fine to say that you're moving into an 800 square foot home; you may feel great about the idea of downsizing: freedom from stuff, less to take care of, easier to heat and cool, being easier on the planet. But how does that space feel?

The Schwab Auditorium is a very large room, and we were lucky that the chairs were already pulled to the side.  After measuring and marking Prairie Hill's three "footprints", we crawled around on the floor with painters tape, lining out the outside perimeters of a 645 square foot apartment, an 800 square foot one, and our largest, 945 square feet.



Then we could walk around in the spaces, and while referring to printouts of the floor plans, we could go from the entrance of our future home to the kitchen, sit in the living room, hang out on the porch, and imagine what it will be like with windows, furniture, and people. It was enlightening.


What I learned is that my future space, 800 square feet, is plenty big for me. In fact, participating in this activity has made me even more eager to get this project done so that we can move in!

Stay tuned for information on our next field trip, which will be a hike from Prairie Hill to the University Hospital and other places close-by.

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