Tiny House Movement

[Da Bear]

Wife and I are going from 1900 sq ft to 330 sq ft. We bought Wheel Estate.......

[rocker59]

Originally Posted by Dave

Damn. Mrs. Dave and I live in a 1600 s.f. house, and we don't really use 1/3 to 1/2 of it.

Originally Posted by mikesova

The Mrs. and I live in a 1330 sq. ft house. Two of the bedrooms are closed and the heat shut off to them to save money in the winter.

bedrooms: Master, Guest, "office"
kitchen: open to den
dining room
living room
full hall bath, 3/4 master bath
2 car garage

It ain't much. Especially for two adults who each have thier own furniture, etc.

And, it gets small real quick whenever there's a get-together of just a few people...

[rocker59]

Originally Posted by JamesG

Neither of you "get" tiny houses and have no business posting in this thread.

I've seen some great ideas for guest houses...

[Manuel Garcia O'Kely]

Originally Posted by JamesG

Neither of you "get" tiny houses and have no business posting in this thread.

It's a long thread, maybe ya aught to read up. My wife and I live in an 800 sf cabin, wood heated with our own water supply, etc.

I got one, iow.

Moved down from 2,400 sf.

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by Manuel Garcia O'Kely

It's a long thread, maybe ya aught to read up. My wife and I live in an 800 sf cabin, wood heated with our own water supply, etc.

800 sq ft?!?!! That's a mansion!!

[UngaWunga]

Originally Posted by Manuel Garcia O'Kely

It's a long thread, maybe ya aught to read up. My wife and I live in an 800 sf cabin, wood heated with our own water supply, etc.

I got one, iow.

Moved down from 2,400 sf.

Nice. We currently live in a 2400-ish sf house. Kind of silly, especially since we just filled it with "stuff". We're gutting the kitchen as the first step to selling or renting it out, and its amazing how much crap we've collected in just the kitchen alone. In emptying out all the cabinets, we've found things we haven't seen in years... 10 year old cake mix, appliances, etc...

Stupid. We're recycling and throwing a ton of stuff out. I have a ton of stuff I'm bringing to GoodWill, and am actively looking for a smaller house. We loaded up my station wagon completely last week bringing old books and magazines to the recycling station. The shocks are still squeaking.

I've been getting rid of all my old racebike parts and other moto parts. Amazing what I've squirreled away. EBay helped with that.

Need vs Want. If you haven't used a thing in 2-3 years, get rid of it.

[Manuel Garcia O'Kely]

Originally Posted by JamesG

800 sq ft?!?!! That's a mansion!!

Compared to some of the tiny, tiny homes to be sure.

[Xeraux]

Originally Posted by JamesG

Neither of you "get" tiny houses and have no business posting in this thread.

I know what you're saying, but I also think it's the "tiny house movement" that doesn't really "get" it, either.

If you want to do anything other than "exist" or own more than two pairs of shoes in something like that, you have to have more space. If you want to work on your car or bike or... You need storage for jacks, jackstands, oil pans, tools... All of this increases your square footage and rapidly your footprint isn't as "tiny" as you'd planned. Or... You don't have any of that and you have to pay someone to fix everything driving the effective cost of that "tiny" space upward.

I'm in about 1,000 sq ft 3-story, 1-bedroom townhome with a garage. It's small (downright cozy), but not "tiny". I love the layout and the use of space. I came down from a roughly 2,100 sq ft house with a garage. I'm still in the process of culling through all the stuff I pulled out of my old house that's stored in the office/room behind the garage, but I still have room for things like my motorcycle helmets and gear in my walk-in closet.

The "tiny house" thing is fascinating. I love looking at how creative they get with things like hidden Murphy-type beds or beds that fold into desks or bookcases that can move in order to reshape rooms and spaces, but when it comes down to it, they're not a long term option. No one is going to "grow up" in a "tiny house". They're little more than an exercise in efficiency and design.

Now, they do make a fantastic dwelling on a piece of vacation property.

[Grainbelt]

Well said, xeraux. My old townhouse could have been laid out better, but the amount of space was about right.

My brother and his wife are in a two bedroom condo and just had their second kid. That's simply not sustainable for a family; they'll be shopping within the year.

[SourKraut]

Originally Posted by Xeraux

Now, they do make a fantastic dwelling on a piece of vacation property.

Amen to that!

Our vacation cabin is 400 square feet and primary residence is 1,000 sf with a 1,000 sf drive-in basement/garage below. It feels huge after spending a week up at our cabin!

[Manuel Garcia O'Kely]

Originally Posted by Xeraux

I know what you're saying, but I also think it's the "tiny house movement" that doesn't really "get" it, either.

If you want to do anything other than "exist" or own more than two pairs of shoes in something like that, you have to have more space. If you want to work on your car or bike or... You need storage for jacks, jackstands, oil pans, tools... All of this increases your square footage and rapidly your footprint isn't as "tiny" as you'd planned. Or... You don't have any of that and you have to pay someone to fix everything driving the effective cost of that "tiny" space upward.

Well put.

I feel that the very extremes are more as a proof of concept - while I've seen a family of 3 living in a 280 SF TH, they had a 1,000 SF "Office" next door.

Given good design, a smaller house is not an impossible concept - ours at 800 has a pretty lousy layout, due to the building we got when we bought it - knocking out the interior demising wall could not happen due to structural issues.

The overall all idea though, that off doing more, with less, appeals to me in both concept and practice, and living in an area where "Ski Chalets" are pushing 10,000 SF, I have a unique apprecation for the difference.

The only thing we really miss is privacy when we have guests.

[JamesG]

Yeah I know, I was just twisting you guys' tails.

I day dream about minimalist living in a tiny house or a live aboard boat or RV, but being married with a 4 yr. and 8 mo. old, even our current 1,300 sq ft house seems too small sometimes.

[Xeraux]

Originally Posted by JamesG

I day dream about minimalist living in a tiny house or a live aboard boat or RV...

+1

[Manuel Garcia O'Kely]

Originally Posted by JamesG

Yeah I know, I was just twisting you guys' tails.

I day dream about minimalist living in a tiny house or a live aboard boat or RV, but being married with a 4 yr. and 8 mo. old, even our current 1,300 sq ft house seems too small sometimes.

I would say that with four people, 1,300 seems totally realistic as a small house and yep, I'll be sometimes it feels really tiny!

[freeflow]

Cool
http://www.zeutch.com/archi/portable...each-hut-36550