On Monday, I posted a sketch of a one-thousand square foot house I drew in Google Sketch-Up. I mentioned the challenge of drawing a two story version in the comments. Here is the solution I came up with while sitting in the doctor’s office for my annual check-up (all-good, slightly low potassium, but still okay for a forty-four year old dude).

My interest in home design, especially small homes, comes from the fact that there hasn’t been a concerted effort by government or developers to build low to middle income neighborhoods in quite some time. I know many cities have worked on poverty housing-projects, but none of these have encouraged home ownership. I personally believe one of the best ways to address poverty and community marginalization is home ownership by the people who live in, can’t afford to leave and often don’t want to leave those neighborhoods. Home ownership, education, gender and racial empowerment and family stability rebuilt and enriched on a community by community basis is something government might want to consider.