Dearest Rachel -
I don't know if I can blame the Sims for this, but the program does make building and furnishing a home ridiculously easy. You'd think I'd know better, after having been through the remodel of the kitchen and laundry room, but I guess I can't help but imagine what a house like this might be like.
Of course, there are two things that I need to get out in the open before proceeding. First of all, I hardly need to tell you that I'm not the outdoorsy, camping type. Scott's suggestion that I visit him while he's up north training the summer staff doesn't just make me hesitate because that's where your accident happened; I'm just not that into those sorts of places. I'm a suburban-bred kid who is used to having all the amenities within, if not walking distance, at least a short drive. Having to be out in the middle of the woods for an extended period of time has never been my idea of fun, let alone living out there.
Secondly, I'm not particularly handy. I can do certain household tasks, but the idea of DIY is pretty much anathema to me. Any sort of building project needs to be left to the experts. And It's not just that I don't have much faith in my abilities, but also that I, personally, I am not up-to-date on all the codes one needs to adhere to when building something. Not only that, but a building's many systems are much like the human body; just as we have circulatory, digestive, respiratory, and nervous systems, all running at the same time through pretty much the same structure, so too, are there a number of systems to assemble and account for when constructing a building. Knowing me, if I were to do this project on my own, I'd miss something very important.
That having been said, though, I know you may remember us discussing – especially when the deal fell through regarding the cottage on the island – the possibility of assembling a tiny house, built out of a shipping container… or two… or more. In fact, a design came to me, even as I was pondering, heading up to camp in the first place. Not that I'd necessarily put it there (although considering the fact that they're running out of housing for campers, it might be an interesting way to expand), but it would at least be reasonably close to both Milwaukee and Chicago (if not nearly as much as I'm used to), so it balances out access to amenities with a certain "out in the hinterlands" feel to it.
Anyway, the floor plan that came to me would utilize eight high cube shipping containers, with the possibility of a ninth being welded on as a sort of garage. Four of them could be arranged to describe a square on the concrete slab, while the other four would be purchased on the base four, in the opposite direction; if the bottom floor were arranged in a clockwise direction, the top floor would be in a counterclockwise direction and vice versa. This would create a 30 square-foot courtyard in the middle for a garden or maybe a pool or hot tub – one could bathe outdoors in complete privacy – while the surrounding containers would be kitted out for all the various purposes that a home serves; kitchen, dining room, family room, and all the bedrooms upstairs.
And of course, it's the 'kitting out' process where one can really go nuts. I was astonished to find out just how cheap shipping containers are – you can get one for less than fifteen hundred dollars here in the Chicago area (although I do admit to being mildly surprised that apparently there is a market for them, just like any other commodity, with prices going up and down at any given moment for any location around the world. In any event, the $1,500 figure, while technically higher than the real number, is a good place to start, just to get a handle on that market). With prices like these, you think that everybody would be trying to get in on this, if it weren't for the fact that there are so many other things to be done in order to make these things into an actual house or home. One has to assemble the containers in the first place, for starters –putting each in its place, one next to (and atop) another, and welding them together – but from there, it really must add up. There are also the doors and windows that need to be cut (and to be honest, I can almost imagine some of the lower floor entirely up of picture windows), not to mention at least one staircase to get to the rooms on the second floor. In addition, one also has to hook up the place for electricity, gas, water, and sewer, not to mention insulating it and adding HVAC. And I haven't even begun talking about cabinetry and furniture, not to mention décor, both internal and external.
Clearly, this would be a much bigger project than the Sims makes it look like. And yet, it all seems reasonably simple, and it makes me curious as to how feasible this would be to put together – especially since this would result in some twenty-five hundred square feet of living space (not including the courtyard), which is actually larger than our own house, as I understand it to be. It might be interesting to see what could be done if it were to turn out to be so, and whether it could be scaled up from here.
And if not? Well, there are a lot of bridges that would need to be crossed before even starting to make this a reality; not just the construction issues I mention, but even finding a place to build this on make this a distant pipe dream for now. But even as that, it's better than no dream at all. And who knows? Maybe someone else can be piqued by the idea and run with it, and see what can be done.
Still, for now, keep an eye on me, honey, and wish me luck. I'm sure that, whatever I do with this (or anything else), I'm going to need it.
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