Thoreau and Tiny Houses

How big a house does one need to have? 

Replica of Thoreau's cabin

Perhaps the standard was set in literature in 1845 by Henry David Thoreau when he went to Walden Pond with an axe to build himself a house, as described in his book Walden.

I have thus a tight shingled and plastered house, ten feet wide by fifteen long, and eight-feet posts, with a garret and a closet, a large window on each side, two trap doors, one door at the end, and a brick fireplace opposite. The exact cost of my house, paying the usual price for such materials as I used, but not counting the work, all of which was done by myself, was as follows; and I give the details because very few are able to tell exactly what their houses cost, and fewer still, if any, the separate cost of the various materials which compose them: —

  Boards, .............................. $8.03½, mostly shanty boards.
  Refuse shingles for roof and sides, ... 4.00
  Laths, ................................ 1.25
  Two second-hand windows with glass, ... 2.43
  One thousand old brick, ............... 4.00
  Two casks of lime, .................... 2.40   That was high.(4)
  Hair, ................................. 0.31   More than I needed.
  Mantle-tree iron, ..................... 0.15
  Nails, ................................ 3.90
  Hinges and screws, .................... 0.14
  Latch, ................................ 0.10
  Chalk, ................................ 0.01
  Transportation, ....................... 1.40   I carried good part on my back.
       In all, ........................ $28.12½

These are all the materials, excepting the timber, stones, and sand, which I claimed by squatter's right. I have also a small woodshed adjoining, made chiefly of the stuff which was left after building the house.

Inside of replication of Thoreau's cabin

 "Ten feet wide by fifteen long" . . . Is this the standard for one person?

How much does it cost to have a tiny house nowadays? There is a blog that has devoted itself to tiny houses: the Tiny House Blog.

A former student of mine, Christian Hoffmann, designed and built a tiny home that was recently featured at the Tiny House Blog. The article was entitled "Tiny Vastu Cabin."

Although his cabin cost considerably more than Thoreau's $28.12 and a half cents, I love the looks and the concept.

Browsing the Tiny House Blog and its gallery was fascinating. We live in a society that touts that "bigger is better," yet having a place to live and little or no debt is a goal not to be laughed at.

Thoreau explained in the conclusion of Walden that what we own can come to possess us and limit our time, that possessions require our time and that time is a precious commodity. "Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul."

I do not advocate poverty but rather Thoreau's "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!" I rather like the idea of having lots of time to do exactly as I please.

Remote mining cabin in central Colorado

Resources for information on Henry David Thoreau:

• The Thoreau Society
• The Walden Woods Project
• Walden Pond State Reservation
• Transcendental Meditation Blog--Henry David Thoreau

Copyright 2012 by Thomas L. Kepler, all rights reserved