A buyer’s guide
Could you live in 286 square feet?
Floor area numbers are hard to picture. This drawing puts four prefab homes from the directory at the same scale as things most people have stood in. Rooms are sketched from each builder’s published floor plan.
The four homes
| Home | Size | Footprint |
|---|---|---|
| Wind River Nova | 286 sq ft | 26 ft by 11 ft exterior, 12 ft tall |
| Zook Yukon | 296 sq ft interior | 12 ft by 29 ft, plus a 4 ft by 12 ft covered entry porch |
| Unfold Ori | 482 sq ft footprint; 428 sq ft usable | 25 ft by 19 ft 2 in; 13 ft 6 in tall |
| Samara Backyard XL 8 | 800 gross sq ft, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms | 25 ft by 32 ft excluding stairs and decks |
The everyday things
A 40 ft shipping container is 40 × 8 ft, or 320 sq ft. A full-size school bus is about 40 × 8 ft. A two-car garage is about 20 × 20 ft, or 400 sq ft. A typical bedroom is 12 × 12 ft, and a parking space is about 9 × 18 ft.
What the drawing shows
The Nova covers less ground than a 40 ft shipping container, 286 sq ft against 320. Two two-car garages add up to about the same floor area as the Backyard XL 8, 800 sq ft.
What’s the smallest you could actually live in?