View Full Version : more tiny houses
I liked this concept, it's like a mini-commune of people my own age; I think someone on here (Gregg?) actually talked about doing something similar.
http://www.boredpanda.com/four-couples-live-together-town-sustainable-homes-texas-llano-exit-strategy-matt-garcia/
Also some more mini-houses, some of these are the same old, but a few new designs and ideas, some of them actually look like real people live in them.
http://www.boredpanda.com/small-houses/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=Newsletter
(http://www.boredpanda.com/small-houses/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=Newsletter)
Okay--enough of this. It is a fantasy & you'd hate living there for any length of time. I have a storage shed in my backyard that is 8x16, that I keep mowers and ladders and chainsaws and hardware in. I had some car parts in there that I had to move out this week, just to reorganize it and make more room. No way would I consider that enough living space---that size of area is what they use to severely punish people at those "supermaxx" type of places. So, my advice: forget it; it is just a fad.
Radicchio
5-16-15, 11:05am
Although relaxing in a hammock on a houseboat sounds appealing, looking at the photo makes me afraid I'd fall asleep and roll off the hammock into the water! I never thought I'd say this, but I agree with Packy--- : ) It's a bit too small and not enough windows to compensate for the size.
I have noticed this year a lot of the tiny homes that have been in the press so much are up for sale. I've always said a person can do anything for a year and I think that's a category I'd put a tiny house in. I could do it a year. But I could live in a larger 5th wheel or rent a single wide trailer for a lot less money. I still want to live in a houseboat. I keep day dreaming about that when I look over the listings on craigslist every week.
We did talk for awhile about building a gathering of small cabins on my family home - so DH could have his music room, I could have my own space, and a common space for kitchen/living, and a bath/spa space. But it would be cheaper to build one larger cabin.
Tussiemussies
5-16-15, 2:45pm
Just saw a community of tiny houses that was put together by all very close friends so they could live near each other...what a great neighborhood.. I would imagine that they understand that some need more privacy than others.
I get regular e-mails about tiny houses. I'll have to find where I signed up for it and post the url...
ToomuchStuff
5-16-15, 3:02pm
Float on, it MAY cost more then one home, kind of depends on how you do it. A friend recently ended up with some acreage and has been turning the hunting cabin that was on it, into a home, as he gets free stuff off of CL. If you were to combine all the wet rooms (kitchen/bath) in one location, and build as you obtained stuff, you might be able to do it for less.
Heck, on another forum I used to visit, a member was given a home and had to move it down the road to his property. He had family with heavy equipment and moving experience (not something we all have), but it saved him ton's of cost and hassle.
Float on, it MAY cost more then one home, kind of depends on how you do it. A friend recently ended up with some acreage and has been turning the hunting cabin that was on it, into a home, as he gets free stuff off of CL. If you were to combine all the wet rooms (kitchen/bath) in one location, and build as you obtained stuff, you might be able to do it for less.
Oh i know it can be done for a lot less. My dad spent less than $25,000 building a 20x20 cabin with loft, logs he harvested off the farm. I really need to update that blog...I kind of dropped it. Its really nice, I'd live in it. I'm always amazed how some of the tiny built on trailer bed homes can cost $75,000 or more (very high end everything).
rosarugosa
5-16-15, 7:59pm
I think we should all move into Packy's shed, one big happy family!
I think we should all move into Packy's shed, one big happy family!
Very funny! LOL!
At one point, about 40 years ago, DH was waiting on a transfer so we sold our home (which we had built ourselves, with our very own hands -- and it was a cool house, too -- almost 1500 sqft, 6" walls, Pella windows, all wood heat :D ) ... anyway, those houses as shown would drive me and DH crazy. After we sold our home we bought a smallish 5th wheel RV and lived in it for a year and a half (a nice one, including washer and dryer). But we were both working, so weren't in each other's "space" all the time. Now, we're in about 1400 sqft, 3 br 2 bath, and with both of us retired we DO drive each other crazy. I can't imagine -- absolutely CAN NOT imagine -- living in those tiny homes. Egad, we'd kill each other. Or divorce, certainly. The garage is DH's "shop" -- he's quite the handy man, always fixing and doing and making something-- and one br is our "office" where we have our computers and what-not. The other br is our "quiet space", where we do centering prayer and the like. My sewing area is in the master bedroom. As we get older, we may need to downsize, and DH admits he may not always be able to safely use his power tools and do all the yard work (we're both in our early '70s). But even "old", when we won't "need" all the space we have now, we'd go crazy in that space. I can see it for one person, though ...
my husband and I took the plunge a year ago and moved into a one room efficiency apartment with 587 squ ft. We weren't sure if we could tolerate such closeness. But it's working. We both have jobs and work different hours sometimes. We're not home a lot. It's like a nice hotel room with a large kitchen and laundry.
I don't know if we could do it if we were retired and stayed home a lot ...
I think we should all move into Packy's shed, one big happy family!Look, if you kids think those 100s.f. "tiny homes" with granite countertops and stainless appliances are just wonderful @ $75,000, I will make you one heck of a deal on my storage shed, as-is where-is fixer-upper. Only $35,000 cash. You move. Then, you can finish it up the way you want, and set it on your tiny lot in See-I'm-addled or Port-La La -Land or Fran SanFrisco. Hope that helps you kids some. Thankk Mee.
my husband and I took the plunge a year ago and moved into a one room efficiency apartment with 587 squ ft. We weren't sure if we could tolerate such closeness. But it's working. We both have jobs and work different hours sometimes. We're not home a lot.
This is what I've been trying to talk my husband into doing. Personally, I could use a break from home ownership. I'd love to rent a small apartment or condo to cut expenses a few years. I almost get him to the point of calling a realtor and then he backs off.
I do like #5 the shipping container house. I have a friend in FL who built something similar for his metal working studio with a little more space between the containers for the actual metal working part. The containers made great paint booth, photography booth, wash room, office, storage. There is one, not too far from me that was made into a beautiful house. http://homeinabox.blogspot.com/2011/05/8747-house.html , but again I wonder if it would of been cheaper to build with normal methods.
Radicchio
5-17-15, 11:24am
Some of the small homes are quite ingenious and appealing. I would probably enjoy a long weekend alone in some of them, but then I would be ready to go back to my normal living quarters and, yes, my "stuff"! Maybe my thinking is influenced by the fact that there will always be three of us to cohabit a residence and I just don't see that happening in any of the small or tiny houses.
My "mouse house" in upstate ny was 10*14 because 160 sq was the limit to what you could build without calling it a House (and paying the appropriate tax on it). I paid slightly under $1200 for my waterless, powerless dream home. Packy, all you need are a couple of nice windows and I'm in. :~)
Seriously speaking, it was a get-away space and it would have been difficult to live there full time, but dreaming about these little self contained turtle shell homes is apparently very popular. Maybe we have to learn what we need before we can make peace with what we actually like?
I liked this concept, it's like a mini-commune of people my own age; I think someone on here (Gregg?) actually talked about doing something similar.
Could be kib, I get on a sustainable housing stump from time to time. There are actually a lot of communities of tiny and tiny-ish houses around the country. Portland (of course) and Seattle both have a few. Crestone, CO and Ashville, NC, a few in AR and VT and others scattered around. I tried following the trend through reports from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Its a trend that's on the radar there, but just barely. No significant resources are allocated to track tiny house numbers. My old cronies aren't worried about the competition, yet.
We've moved into the smallest house we've lived in since getting married, about 800 sq.ft. Its wonderful. About the best thing we've found as far as the community idea is getting to know other people who have also downsized to something that is considered by the consumer public to be tiny. Its a slow process, but the greatest journey...
Actually I found the old post, about the babayagas, it was SteveinMN who was contemplating an "old age commune", my mistake. But I'm glad you're finding 800 sq suitable! Our house is about 1100 and if it were better designed, I'm quite sure we could shave off 300. And I will agree with those people who say that there is a world of difference between one person living in 140 sq feet and two people living in 280. I sometimes think we should build a basement man cave and an attic woman atrium in addition to our shared main floor.
Questions please;
do manicipalities allow these tiny homes on private property? I have not heard of any in my state. Deer blinds sit on land but not as residency. Our counties we have lived in have minimum square footage. Camper living full time not allowed.
Ties downs for storm safety? Like mobile homes need.
Winter living, frozen pipes, insulation
septic Hook up
Loans?
Son on and his new wife are hipsters. I listened and said nothing when the talking of a tumbleweed started. Then they came downstate to Ann Arbor to view and talk to company, signing up for the course offered. I drive by one in a trailer park on side of express way weekly. It kinda sits there as an advertisement. These are so over the top expensive. But the young ones have fallen hook in and sinker to the trend.
I mentioned if if serious look at rv trailers. Oh no tumbleweed is all they want. Get all info first is all I said. Oh and when they were planning bathroom location, I joked and said in that sq ft it did not matter as what went on in bathroom could not be hidden!
The reason Tumbleweed style houses are built on trailers is to get around municipal codes. Its a gray area with loopholes that will probably be closed at some time, but for now they don't count as houses as long as they have wheels. The minimum sq.ft. requirements typically apply to structures with foundations. They can usually be parked anywhere that would allow a camper, including campground, private property, some state parks, etc.
The tiny houses are meant to be pretty well insulated so frozen pipes shouldn't be an issue any more than it is in a standard house. The septic aspect is a matter of taste and budget. Some are built with hookups just like a camper and some have composting toilets that are anything from a bucket of sawdust to incinerating toilets.
I understand the allure of these houses. A camper is made from plastic and aluminum, mass produced to be cheap and light weight. The Tumbleweed houses are personal statements as much as they are anything else. I think its awesome that people are able to personalize their space in ways that most of us don't have either the guts or the ability to do. Plus, the next generation needs mobility to follow their careers so this is a way to be able to take their houses with them. On top of all that you can't get addicted to stuff if you live in 150 sq.ft. Maybe that group figured out the best way to avoid some of the consumerism and the associated debt that plagues our society.
I went to a very interesting lecture on alternative housing a few months ago, interesting because the local woman who was featured was 1. not young and idealistic, and 2. very adamant about the idea that there is a lot more to alternative space than simply taking a European-style frame gingerbread house and making it tinier. On a large lot with an existing house that is usually rented to others, she has built her own tiny alternative dwelling space one moment at a time for nearly three decades, and it doesn't look anything remotely like a house. Some is dug down and some built up, she moves from area to area with the seasons (there are areas that stay cool in summer by being down in the ground and places that stay warmer due to sun exposure in winter. A lot of her living space is sheltered but more or less outdoors. It's frustrating that she's only allowed to do this because she also owns a "real" house, I doubt most people would want to be this involved in a dwelling experiment if they could own (had to own) a 2000 sq. home, but even so, I was fascinated to look at a home that actually evolved one square foot at a time as inspiration or need struck. - and it's beautiful in its own right, organic but with much decorative work, certainly not a shack or something cobbled together with tarps and cast off plywood.
Kib, she sounds like an interesting soul, someone we could learn a lot from. Any internet resources that follow her story?
Almost every indigenous culture has some form of housing that evolves with the residents. Single rooms for single people or couples. More spaces added on as kids are born. Other spaces added as parents become grandparents. Spaces knocked down if kids move out or grandparents die. Its a pretty elegant way to live when your house is made from the soil outside your door and can go right back into the garden when you're done with any part of it.
Gregg, sorry I was looking for a link when I came across that "tiniest house ever" business, I couldn't find anything about her and it's been too long for me to remember her name, she was part of a panel.
She was clearly a very different person, and I kind of doubt she's into internet blogging, but I may keep looking, I always thought it would be interesting to see if I could meet her in person.
I agree with the elegance. I love the idea of buildings that last for hundreds or even thousands of years, but I also find the model that allows shelter to come and go delightful, provided the "going" doesn't include leaving a pile of unusable garbage as big as ... well as big as a house! Let it work for a millennium or use it as compost. :)
In my search I also came across this, it's a pinterest by Fiona Allen that's a collection of hundreds of little handbuilt homes.
https://www.pinterest.com/ms_kat/alternative-small-and-handbuilt-homes/
I think for me, the allure is not so much that a house is little, but that since it's little, maybe I could build it myself. (Which has turned out to be a rather ambitious idea, I must admit, but it's still close to my heart.)
ToomuchStuff
5-19-15, 12:33pm
Questions please;
do manicipalities allow these tiny homes on private property?
When a relative built out in the country, you could build one building of any type, for any reason, without codes inspection, etc. as long as it was below a certain size. As this was his inlaws property (designed to be broken down for the kids into parcels), there was already one building out there, that was a garage, with a small house inside of it.
Several of the neighbors, had built small dwellings, then tore them down and would live in a camper or trailer, until their homes were built. (saved up for a few years doing that)
It is location dependent, is the answer.
I guess it is all personal experience we have to go on in the areas we are familiar with. I am sure there are areas where anything is allowed however.
We had 330 frontage with 22 acres. I hoped to put new home in back with driveway on side to split the property in 1/2. NOPE had to have 330 road frontage in the township of that area.
Next was rural Northern MI, where I suppose if not caught anything could be on a lot. The township had requirements of sq ft housing no full time camper living unless it was in the camper parks. This was it kept out the bringing in of old Mobiles or campers to be left on property as deer camps, to then be left to rot eventually as they all do. Drive around the rural areas up there and they are scattered all over looking junky. Though all started out with the best of intentions.
We had names such as Garatage, Shedottage or deer blinds with expresso machines.
The residence in TN the city does not allow RVs stored on property unless in a garage.
I can see off grid striving for little impact, a goal, a life style. I question how many are just into the thought of the trend?
iris lilies
5-19-15, 5:07pm
...I agree with the elegance. I love the idea of buildings that last for hundreds or even thousands of years, but I also find the model that allows shelter to come and go delightful, provided the "going" doesn't include leaving a pile of unusable garbage as big as ... well as big as a house! Let it work for a millennium or use it as compost... :)
Our Scottish aunt had a cottage on the isle of Arran in Scotland that overlooked the bay. It was a low ceiling-ed wee thing with "the 19th century addition" and "the 18th century addition." It was a funny little house without hallways except in the (?) original part.
This led to a situation where there was a rabbit warren of rooms. Modern real estate agents would shake their heads becuase it did not "flow." But I loved it.
JaneV2.0
10-28-15, 12:09pm
This is a sweet tiny house, built by a student in Texas:
http://distractify.com/fyi/2015/10/28/student-tiny-house
Not a bad looking place. And probably a good investment. Even if he sells it and recoups what he put into it. It would have never occurred to me to do something like that when I was in school, but my school was in a fancy pants suburb that even had rules regarding external paint colors for houses so I doubt that putting a tiny house on a trailer anywhere within city limits would have been allowed.
simplelife4me
11-3-15, 10:15pm
As always with the tiny houses on wheels...where is he going to put that thang?...lol
Found the answer on his facebook page. He said he is staying with a host family, on their property north of Austin.
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