Boxing On

Big enough for a family but small enough to put on the back of a truck, this box-shaped 90-square-metre home in Otago has given its creators the simple life they’d longed for

When kids come along couples usually start looking around for a bigger home to cope with all the toys, books and bikes, not to mention the need for more bedrooms. But Sophie and Callan Brash decided to go in the opposite direction.

Home for this Otago couple and their daughters India, 4, and Marley, 1, was formerly a four-bedroomed house in Oamaru. However, it never felt quite right for them.

“There was too much space and we just never had enough furniture to fill it. It was just too big for us,” says Sophie.

They decided that the obvious move was to downsize, a concept which held massive appeal for both of them. “It suits our ethos,” says Callan. “We like the sustainability aspect to it – the difference in heating costs alone is huge.” It also offered them the chance to declutter and live with less, which is something they’d both been longing to do.

The other major benefit to going smaller was that it would allow them to shrink their mortgage so they could live on one income while the children were little.

GETTING STARTED

In 2017, when Sophie was pregnant with Marley, the pair started researching the best way to put their plan into action. The first question was: how small should they go? Callan checked out books on tiny houses and green homes, while Sophie went to stay in an 84-square-metre house to gain a feel for what would make a practical layout. They concurred: their home needed to be around 90 square metres and feel light and open.

A transportable home – which can fit on a house-moving truck in one piece – seemed to be a good option too, just in case they ever wanted to move it (or keep their land and sell the house). They looked at kitset homes but in the end decided to design their own and build it on-site, on piles.