IKEA square metre challenge

[iris lilies]

What was the deal about the empty room on the oher side of the window, and somethng about a bench to sit on and put on sheoes? So, they had a room next to the bedroom?

I do love Ikea's tiny houses, but I didnt like this one all that much, there was nothing attractive about it, nothing dominated the decor for your eyes to rest on, there was no void to contrast with the stuff. A room with lots of stuff CAN be arranged attractively, but that wasnt it.

We have a small house (unoccupied, needs gut rehab) that has 4 rooms total, two up and two down. The staircase is on the exterior. Then, there is an exterior staircase up to a sizable 3rd floor attic.

If this property was in a better neighborhood I would finish it as a rental for young professionals, possibly for weekenders. The two rooms would be living space, the attic woild store their "stuff" that isnt needed every day, and the behind-fence parking pad would provide a good place for their car. It would rent fast.

[herbgeek]

What was the deal about the empty room on the oher side of the window, and somethng about a bench to sit on and put on sheoes? So, they had a room next to the bedroom?

My understanding was that the bench was next to the clothes rack against the perpendicular wall.

[Tybee]

IL I wish you would post a picture of your little house. It sounds so intriguing, a great project. Is neighborhood really too dangerous to rent it out?

[Williamsmith]

Are young people really moving to the cities and accepting challenging spaces like this? I find it hard to believe. IKEA furniture never impressed me much especially the dresser that they recalled because it was prone to tipping and killing toddlers.

It seems like more of a marketing strategy than a true response to a movement. I never considered minimalist ideas until my career was over and it made sense financially and philosophically and at that I called it downsizing. Some of these spaces seem absolutely preposterous. The Tiny House paradigm is in the same vein.

Im also not a big fan of self repentant Facist Nazis who just happen to be billionaire minimalists. But hey, if they can convince everybody to be happy living in a shoebox....they will probably be able to keep the Ponzi scheme going all that longer.

[Float On]

Disliked the overstuffed feeling and the clothes racks. I would not feel comfortable sleeping there at all. I don't mind the underbed drawers but disliked the shoes hanging there as well. If they'd made the bed a loft with hidden pull out clothes racks and drawers it would of been barely more comfortable to me.

[catherine]

Are young people really moving to the cities and accepting challenging spaces like this? I find it hard to believe.

Believe it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/r...l?mcubz=2&_r=0

The development, previously called My Micro NY, has tapped into a desire common among many singles to live alone. The building includes 14 units designated as affordable, for which some 60,000 people applied, or nearly 4,300 applicants per apartment. The lottery for these units was held earlier this month, and winners will be informed in January. The building is set to open on Feb. 1.

"Affordable" price for under 350 sq. ft="Most of the affordable apartments will rent for $950 a month to tenants who meet income restrictions, less than half of what will be charged for market-rate apartments."

[iris lilies]

IL I wish you would post a picture of your little house. It sounds so intriguing, a great project. Is neighborhood really too dangerous to rent it out?

I modified my post. The house needs a complete gut rehab. Fir instance, it has no floor. Well, it has no floor safe to walk on. It has no working plumbing, electric. It has never had working HVAC since it was built in the 1880's.

We put new roof, windows on, fixed the crumbing dormer, tuckpointed it from head to toe. Thats all we will do. The neighbors all around are welfare collecting, drug dealing bozos. There are, interspersed, professional young people but I am letting them pull that neighbothood up. I just want to garden there.

[Williamsmith]

Believe it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/r...l?mcubz=2&_r=0

The development, previously called My Micro NY, has tapped into a desire common among many singles to live alone. The building includes 14 units designated as affordable, for which some 60,000 people applied, or nearly 4,300 applicants per apartment. The lottery for these units was held earlier this month, and winners will be informed in January. The building is set to open on Feb. 1.

"Affordable" price for under 350 sq. ft="Most of the affordable apartments will rent for $950 a month to tenants who meet income restrictions, less than half of what will be charged for market-rate apartments."

I scanned the article Catherine......it has more of a "social experiment" theme than a movement. The design was a result of a city contest and it remains to be seen if humans can be happy in these crates without going stark raving mad. It is about affordability and not at all about a wish to have a small footprint. Call me crazy but I think people generally are inspired to dream "big."

[catherine]

I scanned the article Catherine......it has more of a "social experiment" theme than a movement. The design was a result of a city contest and it remains to be seen if humans can be happy in these crates without going stark raving mad. It is about affordability and not at all about a wish to have a small footprint. Call me crazy but I think people generally are inspired to dream "big."

As urban centers become more and more unaffordable, what are the options? Years ago, before the "tiny house movement" we had a good friend who left Wall Street to go into film, so she wasn't any crunchy granola counterculturist. Her apartment cost $1700 a month in NYC and you had to crawl over furniture to get in it it was so small. Part of this movement may be a rejection of materialism, like Baby Boomers had, and part of it may be, there are no alternatives.

From my vantage point, yes, people want to dream "big" but that depends on the dream. And it depends on the reach. I belong to a couple of growing movements that really believe in a different form of "big" and who don't believe that big always means better--especially when it comes to material possessions.

ETA: One of those movements happen to be The Simple Living Forum. Shoot, aren't I preaching to the choir here??

[Tybee]

My friends who moved to NYC after college in 1976 to go into theatre lived in one room apartments with views of airshafts--I remember my friend the soap opera actress paying 700 dollars back then for such a room. I can't imagine what it would cost now.

Dreaming big is moving to NYC in the first place.