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Affordable Micro Homes for the Less Fortunate

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DistantShadow

Member
I have recently become an addict for the Microhome movement. It seems to be a much better way to live. I am not coming at this from a republican/democrat side, but when looking at how much space we utilize in our homes today, we can see many places go untouched. It is surely a better way to save money and travel like many of us want.

I look at the movement as the next best thing, but not for just people who have a steady income, but a chance for those who dont.

I recently found an article on Huffingtgon Post that found an organization that built 3 of these micro home for the homeless people. I think it is a fantastic idea, a roof over their head for almost no cost at all.

What would be some drawbacks of this?!
 
If I didn't have kids, I'd love a micro home. I went through a minimalist phase where I digitized all my crap (books, paperwork, movies, music, photos, etc.) and it was really nice to have the freedom of not having "stuff" everywhere. You could set it up really slick by having an AIO computer like a big-screen iMac & a large flat-screen TV or projector with like a Roku player so that all of your digital life stuff is accessible. Throw in a Casper bed in a Murphy wallbed frame for spacesaving & suddenly you have a lot of room available in a small footprint. I've seen combo washers/dryers that go next to your dishwasher too, so you can really have everything compact if you make wise decisions & invest up front:

http://tinyhousetalk.com/top-5-washer-dryer-combos-for-tiny-houses/

Part of the problem though is if you have hobbies. Like, my road bike is pretty minimal - it's a skinny frame with a small toolkit & a couple spare parts. But I also have food allergies & cook the bulk of my food at home, so I have a good 30 appliances, which takes up a lot of storage space. So if you like to do anything that requires tools & supplies, from cooking to woodworking to whatever, the smaller space can be really difficult. If you're say more outdoor-oriented & like to do things like hiking or running that don't really require a lot of gear, then you can get away with packing light.

I agree about untouched rooms. My concept for a home would be an open-concept kitchen/family room for the main living space, since I'm either doing food stuff or TV/computer stuff most of the time, and some living quarters & storage space and maybe a home theater room off to the side. I don't think there's anything wrong with having like a 4,000-square-foot home, but for my needs, 2,000 would probably be overkill.

I have a buddy who is really into the towable micro homes; I recently saw one parked at McDonalds, it was really cool - an entire mini wood home on a trailer. But if you think about it...why not just buy an RV? Tiny homes can cost anywhere from $15k to $80k - you could get a pretty nice used Winnebago for that (and help save the environment if you choose to go used by not letting it go into a dump), which already has all of the work done, hookups for campgrounds for water, power, and sewer, optionally a motor coach so you don't need a separate truck to pull it around, etc.

I have seen some people do tiny homes with kids, although that gets difficult number one for their equipment (toys, diapers, etc.) and number two if you live in a location like the northeast where it snows & they can only play outside in the cold for so long, then you have to bring them in & then they get cabin fever from being in such a small space. But I think for like a single person or a young married couple, it'd be awesome. There was an article awhile ago about the push for smaller apartments in places like NYC, where the rent would be cheaper & for people who liked the city life more than staying at home, it'd be more of a place to crash than anything - eat food out, do laundry at a shared facility, hobbies are all socially-oriented, etc.

It's a neat idea for sure.
 
I appreciate your words! For me, I want a Micro home because it allows me freedom! By taking away a mortgage, one is able to either save that money or use it for other thing, in my case, traveling! I want to be able save a lot of money before I have a family and I want to cut back on the things that weigh everyone down. I love the simplistic living, its easy and care free. I do see myself living/building one!
 
What constitutes a microhome to you? I'm a fan of urban living so being in a smaller house is expected. However when we looked for a house there was a definite floor on how small we'd go since we plan on having kids soon.

The 200-300 sqft apartments I hear about in San Francisco and NYC have to be cramped even for one person. It just sounds like scam pushed by developers to drive up per-sqft prices. You get half the square footage for three quarters the cost. What a bargain!
 
I think the minimum i could do would be like 500sq ft for my wife and I. But i like the idea of an RV to move around the country without needing another vehicle.
 
KnightBreed said:
What constitutes a microhome to you? I'm a fan of urban living so being in a smaller house is expected. However when we looked for a house there was a definite floor on how small we'd go since we plan on having kids soon.

The 200-300 sqft apartments I hear about in San Francisco and NYC have to be cramped even for one person. It just sounds like scam pushed by developers to drive up per-sqft prices. You get half the square footage for three quarters the cost. What a bargain!
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Micro homes are typically homes that are between 100-300sqft. They arent homes that get built from large companies, these are homes most people build themselves! It is a more sustainable movement, getting away from the one thing that most people have, a mortgage. They allow for easy and simplified living allowing for more money and time in other things!
 
DistantShadow said:
Micro homes are typically homes that are between 100-300sqft. They arent homes that get built from large companies, these are homes most people build themselves! It is a more sustainable movement, getting away from the one thing that most people have, a mortgage. They allow for easy and simplified living allowing for more money and time in other things!
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Interesting that people are looking to micro-housing as a means of sustainability. Every time I hear about micro-housing it's tied to developers in dense urban areas. Several municipalities talked about decreasing minimum occupancy size to allow packing more apartments/condos into less space. A scam to drive up per-sqft prices. Mostly places like San Fran, Seattle, NYC.
 
KnightBreed said:
Interesting that people are looking to micro-housing as a means of sustainability. Every time I hear about micro-housing it's tied to developers in dense urban areas. Several municipalities talked about decreasing minimum occupancy size to allow packing more apartments/condos into less space. A scam to drive up per-sqft prices. Mostly places like San Fran, Seattle, NYC.
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Absolutely! I understand where you are coming from living in the city. But this movement is just a smarter way to live! Many people who choose this lifestyle don't live in the city but put it in their favorite location. If this catches on to a grander scale, it could be one of the ways we get out of debt per capita!
 
DistantShadow said:
Absolutely! I understand where you are coming from living in the city. But this movement is just a smarter way to live! Many people who choose this lifestyle don't live in the city but put it in their favorite location. If this catches on to a grander scale, it could be one of the ways we get out of debt per capita!
Click to expand...

I think there's a lot of variability in the situation. Part of my hesitation with a towable tiny home is that there's a million RV trailers in the used market that are fully equipped & could be "recycled" to a new owner, so building one is really more of a neat hobby than something practical, since it costs more & offers less in terms of manufactured durability & road-worthiness. I'm browsing RVtrader.com right now & there are plenty of great trailers for under $15 to $20k that are loaded with all kinds of features, all the way up to 25-foot model.

Part of it to is that it's very situationally niche. It's hard to get mail on the road to an address, although there are services out now that will scan your mail & email it to you. You have to have a transient job, or the funds to pursue whatever you want, or else you have to hunker down in your tiny home in a location that has utilities, unless you want to be making constant stops to dump sewer, load water, etc. if you have a more stable job.

Plus it's difficult to do if you're not single. You'd need to find an SO who is onboard mentally with that lifestyle. Kids make it far more difficult, especially if you want to travel on the road...homeschooling, doctors, social interaction, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Tiniest-Mansio...dp/B006XLK2LW/

I see it working out in a few specific situations:

1. If you're financially independent or retired & want to pursue that path
2. If you're young with no debt & have some savings
4. If you want to live a mobile lifestyle, especially in something you build yourself
5. If you're a young couple & have an SO who is compatible with the idea

It's easy to get excited about it, but it's hard to realize that it's really an enthusiast's niche type of living, particularly if you plan on building the house yourself. But it's really really cool & I think it's awesome that people do it. I watched a documentary on building a tiny home from scratch recently called TINY that is worth checking out:

http://tiny-themovie.com/
 
I have or want too many things. I'd like to have a bunch of tiny homes for different things 😀
 
monkeydelmagico said:
It's called a single wide everywhere outside of urban hipster land.
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DistantShadow said:
Absolutely! I understand where you are coming from living in the city. But this movement is just a smarter way to live! Many people who choose this lifestyle don't live in the city but put it in their favorite location. If this catches on to a grander scale, it could be one of the ways we get out of debt per capita!
Click to expand...
Why is it smarter?

Sorry but you couldn't pay me to live in a micro home. I could barely handle a postage size lot in my last home. I need acreage and a 2500+ square foot home. Living in a cramped home is not my idea of living.
 
Each person could have their own home in your family. Your wife home can have just kitchen inside it. Your child home, a small XBOX setup. Your own, simply a jacuzzi with young women to come home to. The homes can be either separated by a strip of 1ft width grass or connected via doors that can be locked.
 
007ELmO said:
Each person could have their own home in your family. Your wife home can have just kitchen inside it. Your child home, a small XBOX setup. Your own, simply a jacuzzi with young women to come home to. The homes can be either separated by a strip of 1ft width grass or connected via doors that can be locked.
Click to expand...

Or you could put all those single purpose homes together and call them "rooms". And the structure could be called a "house".
 
It would be nice if zoning laws get changed to allow for micro homes that don't have to be on trailers. If mobility is desired, a used RV seems like a much better, and cheaper, choice.

As an answer to homelessness, I am not sure it would work.

The biggest problem I see with any inexpensive housing is that when it is done on a large scale, it seems to create communities where nobody wants to live. For the most part, it tends to attract large numbers of the part of society that has decided drugs and/or crime is a viable life choice.

While I understand it would seem counter intuitive, I think for micro homes to be appealing in large numbers you would need to create communities (gated?) with income requirements. You would want neighbors that like the minimalist lifestyle but have the means to afford a traditionally sized home if they desired.

-KeithP
 
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