Temporary Dwelling

A permanent house takes a long time to build, and a household with nowhere else to live meanwhile is under pressure to finish it. A temporary dwelling removes that pressure: a simpler building, put up quickly and lived in from the start, so the main house can proceed at whatever pace money and labour allow. When the household moves out it converts to a guest room or a rental.

A dwelling is habitable only once water reaches it and waste leaves it, so those two needs decide where it stands. The ground should drain well, never flood, and have room nearby for a water source and a toilet. The floor sits 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 in) above the ground around it, with a shallow drain cut outside so surface water cannot get in, and the long axis usually runs east to west so the walls shade themselves. Floor area is set per person rather than squeezed: about 3 square metres (32 sq ft) each, a bedroom of at least 9 square metres (97 sq ft), a living room of 12 to 15 square metres (130 to 160 sq ft). Framing and roofing ask more than hand tools but stop short of a licensed trade.

The other reason to build one is that a full round of seasons on the ground shows where water runs, where frost settles and where the wind comes from, which tells you where the permanent house belongs - the hardest thing on a holding to move once it stands. It needs water brought to it, a toilet that requires no permanent drains, power and a stove, and rain caught off its own roof supplies it cheaply. Wash water leaving it must be used within a day before it sours, and carries dissolved salts that harm soil if left to pool. The usual mistake is letting it become permanent, comfortable enough that the main build stalls; the next is siting it for convenience during construction rather than for what it becomes later. Whether it may be lived in while a permanent house goes up is a local legal question.