No Outside Space
Compact living shouldn’t require giving up outdoor space
Like many people in middle age, the settling period I guess, finding a space to live that feels a touch more permanent is a thing. Unlike my peers, I‘m not raising children — mine are grown. So I lean towards compact, scaled down, shared housing options. My ideal is a townhouse or multiplex housing, a snugged in place in a row house neighborhood where the buildings are unique and everyone has a backyard and a welcoming front stoop.
With near non-existent options, what is out there (including off-market for-sale and rentals) are all lavish interiors with zero exteriors. Not a backyard exists. A scaled down gravel yard isn’t even making an appearance as I browse through listings. There’s a two foot space from building to fence, and a cropped rectangle in the front where the car goes when not in the roomy garage. There might be a shrub tucked up close to the building, but that’s it. No space for existing outside.
Designs like this are sad. But as I look more into the reasons why an eliminated outside space has taken off, they’re more efficient to build, packing even more indoor livable space per lot that an investor can pull in rents or sales from. The low, or non-existent, outdoor maintenance is appealing for busy people. Or rather, the two+ income family that doesn’t have time to stop and sit outside, they’re propelled on to the next thing, the high cost of indoor luxury a big motivator.
Pricing the compact boxes and rectangles so high and yet the only way to use the space is to the exclusion of the outside world. Everyone’s personal fortress where the digital world rules. There’s no reason to be outside now, which kills the opportunities to engage in a natural passing with neighbors. Do people schedule meet n’ greets with the next door neighbor instead? Is it the norm to invite the neighbor to an external venue rather than a backyard grill? Where do the kids play outside, or is that a thing of the past?
Getting outside is important. I don’t need a lot of space, just enough to garden, have a patio set, and some space for my dog to roam and sun bathe. Looking at what’s out there in the compact living world, it’s all focused on luxurious interiors, eliminated exteriors. I balk at the idea of paying $450K+ for a home that only allows for living inside. Renting is probably the best route with these options, but it’s hard to imagine staying put for any length of time, always itching for the settled space, the place where outdoor hobbies are just as supported as the indoor counterparts.
I wonder if the NIMBYs don’t have just a smidgen of a point when it comes to their objection to multi-unit development in their single home neighborhoods. The difference between single and multi-dwelling units like these is so extreme that it’s off-putting upon first sight. The bulk of that difference is from some outdoor existence to a series of blocks with no place to meet the new neighbors, no way to see a personality from the way they use their outdoor space. Nothing at all inviting to come meet the new neighbors.
Perhaps this sounds ridiculous and quaint, a nostalgia for the “great neighborhoods” of old. Maybe knowing your neighbors is taboo now, at least knowing them in person and not the nitpicking, pearl-clutching, passive-aggressive mess that shows up on NextDoor. It’s entirely possible that people only want to exist in their internal, digitized lives and have cast aside what it means to participate in an in-person community. I lean towards the idea that it all comes down to a lack of choice. Everyone is so busy hustling to afford the few available options, we’re just going with the flow and not getting our hopes up for anything better.
I’m looking around at these few options and trying hard to find the positives. No yard work or maintenance, that could be nice for some. Fewer leaf blowers at least. But I run short on the perks. What I do find is that I won’t buy nor settle in anything without some outdoor space to tend. I’m not alone in that fact, and land use developers need to take this into consideration if we want to halt urban sprawl.
