The tiny house movement.... I like it. What say you?

[KDOG]

I am really a fan of the tiny home movement. (However talking the wife out of her 3300sq ft. monstrosity would be some doing). I'm a minimalist anyway. No kidding I could live in my camper just fine. My wife is just the opposite however. Every inch of her house is filled with crap, garage included. She is just one of those people. *sigh*... but anyway....

If you've seen the tumbleweed houses and the like, whats your opinion? Could you live it one?

 

[Malak]

Not sure what constitutes tiny, but my house is around 700sqft.

 

[OCGuy]

I'm not into pretending I'm poor.

 

[Greenman]

I'm not into pretending I'm poor.

I don't have to pretend.

 

[TraumaRN]

My house is 1350sq ft with an additional 500+ sq ft in the basement that doesn't count because it doesn't have an exit to the outside and it's honestly plenty big for the 3 people living here.

Could easier have 4 people living here given that we have 2 full baths. My In-laws have a 5000+ sq foot monster, that is just WAY to big for my tastes. Love my 1950s 1.5 story bungalow.

Actually my ideal house would be a 1930s Tudor style house with Pewabic pottery a fireplace and decorative brick work with a front porch. Most houses like that around here are 1500-2000ft plus a basement. Perfect in my mind.

 

[coldmeat]

My dream is to live on a ~40ft catamaran. Probably won't happen, but I like to think about it.

 

[nanette1985]

If you've seen the tumbleweed houses and the like, whats your opinion? Could you live it one?

Not the really teeny tiny ones, but I like the ones that are just "small". The more space I have, the more junk I seem to fill it with. But I get claustrophobia if there's not enough elbow room.

 

[Dirigible]

My house is 1200 sf. No garage. No basement. My family of four finds it a little small but ok over all.

 

[dullard]

I'm not into pretending I'm poor.

Small can be great. Small + well built + all the technology you could want (with the money you save) does not equal cheap or poor. As far as I'm conserned, the cardboard are what really McMansions scream poor. And it'll get even more obvious as they fall apart in the next 10-20 years.

I too am a fan of a properly sized home. Why pay to heat and cool 90% of the space that just sits there unused? Why furnish rooms you never use? Why have 10 extra rooms to clean when you get very little out of them? Why pay hundreds of thousands of dollars more just to have dozens of closets and storage space so you don't have to give up the junk you'll never use?

 

[sdifox]

My dream is to live on a ~40ft catamaran. Probably won't happen, but I like to think about it.

<cue Jaws theme>I would be scared.</end Jaws theme>

 

[Nintendesert]

Nothing exemplifies the age of opulence we live in more than people going back to cavemen diets and pretending they are poor.

 

[KDOG]

Exactly. There seems to be this obsession with having a "nice" house that is really just an excuse to have a house big enough to hold too much crap.

 

[Numenorean]

Why the fuck would I want a house that is tiny? I don't need a mansion, but I like having lots of room - especially extra bedroom/bathroom for guests.

 

[Chaotic42]

I live in a 1050ft² house, and it's a bit too small. I want room for a pool table.

 

[manimal]

I like my two offices and basement home theater to ever go down below six bedrooms. We have triplet kids so we need the space. When it was just the wife and I we lived in 700 sq feet upper west side manhattan for a decade and LOVED it.


I would only sacrifice on space now if we moved to ocean side where I could get year round outdoor space and water.

 

[lxskllr]

I think they're great. I could easily live in one, but I'd have o get rid of a bunch of crap I've accumulated over the years. I also like the idea of a yurt. If satellite internet got decent, I could totally live in a yurt in the mountains :^)

 

[etrigan420]

Wife and I just bought our first house last year. 3300 sq ft. Honestly, it's just about the perfect size for our family.

Once all 4 kids move up and out we may reconsider...if the housing market has recovered in 14 years.

 

[gevorg]

Just buy a ~850sqft mongolian yurt for less than $20K

http://www.mongolian-yurt.com/prices.html

 

[mmntech]

I'd prefer to live in a smaller house on a decent sized lot. They don't build them anymore though. Plenty of really beautiful small homes in the old part of town.

 

[KDOG]

http://www.coloradoyurt.com/

 

[Vic Vega]

Yup, I'm going to sell my 50 acres and my 3,000 s/f house on it to go live in a cramped city in a 400 s/f shack that resembles a brick shit house stacked in a row of a zillion other 400 s/f shacks. Yeah, that's gonna happen.

 

[Jumpem]

The smaller the better. 400sq.ft. is plenty for a single person or couple. I have two kids and 1200-1500sq.ft. is fine.

 

[ponyo]

Yes, I could live in one. I grew up in ~1,400 sq ft home. But I like my current ~4,000 sq ft house on 1/2 acre. It's a good size for us. Not too big where we feel lost but plenty room to escape for quiet time.

 

[GotIssues]

It's easy enough to get to where you need to go in a $1500 car, too. Doesn't mean I want to.

 

[Brainonska511]

Yup, I'm going to sell my 50 acres and my 3,000 s/f house on it to go live in a cramped city in a 400 s/f shack that resembles a brick shit house stacked in a row of a zillion other 400 s/f shacks. Yeah, that's gonna happen.

Yep... no middle ground what-so-ever
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I grew up in a 3 bedroom ranch with a finished basement. It was a little on the cramped side at times, but once people started leaving for college, it wasn't such a big deal. Now my parents are sort of happy they didn't expand the house dramatically or move into a larger home - it would mean more stairs (not so good for some as you get older), more cleaning, more wasted space 95&#37; of the year, more wasted electricity and oil cooling and heating the place...