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

[Svnla]

Since I spend most of my time in the bedroom (it has most of my toys and stuffs), I think a person can live comfortable in a place (studio with large bed and kitchen and bath) of around 400-500 sq ft if he/she is single. I rarely use the living room and diner rooms.

A typical family of mom and dad and 2 kids would be ok in a 2K sq ft or less home. I don't think I would ever live in a big house (3K sq ft or more) even if I have the mean to do so.

Huge house = more work, more maintenance, more clean, more heat/cool, more property tax..and on and on.

 

[Leros]

I could live in a small place if I had a large external workshop.

 

[JEDI]

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?

i would love a little house that maximizes space.
i'm like your wife.. the more space, the more stuff i dont throw away

but tumbleweed houses are WAAAAAAAY too expensive.

 

[AreaCode707]

Nope. I gave it a lot of thought because we wanted to put sometime usable and immediate on property we bought in NorCal and that would have been relatively easy (though they are backordered and you have to wait.) Ultimately though it would not have met our needs.

1. We entertain. We love having guests, having a place for people to sit, talk, eat, watch movies, enjoy.
2. We cook. We need a fair amount of kitchen storage, and we really do use all our equipment. We have stuff like dehydrators and vacuum sealers.
3. We stockpile ingredients. We keep stuff on hand like berbere pepper and teff flower, rice noodles and sizable amounts of olive oil. These are things not easy to get where we are and so when we get them we get large amounts.
4. We want to have a place for others to stay. Guest bedroom is needed.
5. We work from home. At least one, sometimes both of us are on the phone, on the computers at the same time.
6. We have pets. Great Danes, to be exact. The Tumblewood houses are about the right size for them to live in by themselves.

 

[HydroSqueegee]

my old house was a 22x28ft 1.5 story cape cod with a basement. all total was just around 1400 sq ft. thats only 466 sq ft per floor on average!

but the upstairs was one long room, the basement had a 28x11 ft area that wasnt liveable because of a workshop and laundry room...

great for a couple and one kid. #2 came along and it started to get cramped but doable. We moved for other reasons, and the new place isnt much bigger, but its 1 floor and a basement.

 

[sdifox]

my old house was a 22x28ft 1.5 story cape cod with a basement. all total was just around 1400 sq ft. thats only 466 sq ft per floor on average!

but the upstairs was one long room, the basement had a 28x11 ft area that wasnt liveable because of a workshop and laundry room...

great for a couple and one kid. #2 came along and it started to get cramped but doable. We moved for other reasons, and the new place isnt much bigger, but its 1 floor and a basement.

I have 1400 too. Except it's per floor :awe:

 

[brianmanahan]

i dont care about square footage, i just want acres and acres. like 100.

 

[RockinZ28]

The condo I'm in now is about the perfect size for me and my gf. 1350 sq ft. 2 master bedrooms with full bathrooms upstairs, decent size living room/kitchen/dining room with a half bath downstairs. 2 car garage. One bedroom is for all my pc's, 58" tv, etc. and even with all our shit it still feels spacious.

Before that my gf and I were living in a 1 bdrm/1ba apartment with no garage. About 750 sq ft I think. Just felt so cramped, my computer desk was in the living room/dining room/kitchen. Had 2 couches and a single seater couch thingie. 50" tv felt huge but there was no space for it. Bedroom, basically our bed took up the entire room. Was glad to get out of there.

So no I couldn't live in a tiny house, even if single I'd still want a 2 bdrm as long as I was making enough money to afford it.

 

[Squisher]

I lived in 1200 sqft. for 20 years I prefer the 2400 sqft. I have now, although I could give up the high ceilings.

 

[yh125d]

I've been meaning to take up 3d modeling home designs for myself in autocad, with a few design themes in mind, one being a very small minimalist home for 1

 

[Tristicus]

I'd rather kill myself.

 

[TheSlamma]

Me and my wife's house is 1100sq up and 800sq in the basement, we have a living room and a bedroom that don't have a single thing in them, also after a complete gut and rebuild of both bathrooms we don't even touch the one I finished in slate, the next owner should enjoy that. For us we are looking for something smaller.

We don't consider ourselves minimalists, we just don't feel the want for many possessions. We both HATE shopping with a passion, how people find that fun is beyond us and also why people want a bunch of crap they have to deal with is just as perplexing. Too us not having a bunch of shit makes life nice and simple and leaves us with time to do anything we want.

so yes OP, I think those are kinda cool.

 

[Humpy]

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

400 sq. ft per person, not including a garage, is a good baseline size for a house. Most people in the world do with less.

If one is working out of their house then some additional space could be added for that.

Smaller houses are obviously much more energy efficient. Unfortunately, many newer houses will not last as long as the mortgage without major repairs.

 

[ProfJohn]

I'd love to have a 1000sq ft place up in the mountains or on a country lake with woods all around it. Would be a great place to spend weekends and vacations.

Something like this:

 

[SamurAchzar]

Couple here, ~1200sqft apartment packed to the hilt. Some junk, yes, but: An office for both of us, a bedroom and a hobby room/guest room and it's pretty much done with. It's fine for us, although not with kids. And I'd sure as hell like a pool room.

 

[TheVrolok]

I think those tumbleweed homes are "cool" in a "it'd be kinda fun to have one of those in the backyard" ways.. but the only way you could live in those if you never plan on having a family.

 

[olds]

Eff that.
We thought we could downsize. Moved from a 2200 sq ft house to a 1650 sq ft house.
I need more room.

 

[poopaskoopa]

Live in a <900 sqft home now. I could use some space. Next house will be around 1800 sqft. I don't need a huge house but would be nice to have 3 bdrm/2.5 bath.

 

[mjrpes3]

We don't consider ourselves minimalists, we just don't feel the want for many possessions. We both HATE shopping with a passion, how people find that fun is beyond us and also why people want a bunch of crap they have to deal with is just as perplexing.

Where do you go about finding a wifey like that?

 

[ChrisIsBored]

Just bought my first house.... Me alone. Slightly over 1600 sqft. 3 bedroom, 2 bath. Maybe a bit much for 1 person, but I enjoy my space.

 

[ProfJohn]

Just bought my first house.... Me alone. Slightly over 1600 sqft. 3 bedroom, 2 bath. Maybe a bit much for 1 person, but I enjoy my space.

I have 2800 sq ft for one person.

Living room, dining room, eat in kitchen, master bedroom with sitting room, two other bedrooms, three full bathrooms a 22x18 game room and a three car garage!

It is crazy!

 

[TrueBlueLS]

I just wish my basement had a little bit more room.

 

[JMapleton]

Sorry, I would live in a 20,000 sqft house if I could afford it.

Most houses with less than 6,000 feel cramped to me.

 

[BoberFett]

Small houses and things like yurts look really cool, but ultimately I want more space. We have 2500 sqft for my wife and I, and my daughter that's with us part time, and one of these days I'm going to get around to finishing off another 1000+ sqft in the basement. At the moment we have 4 beds and 3 baths. That's the master bedroom, my daughters bedroom, my wife's art studio, and a shared office. We have our master bath, my daughters bathroom, and then the main floor bath. The rest of the main floor is family room, kitchen and dining, and a living room. The living room doesn't get much use except for when we have guests, so I suppose that's about 175 sqft I could do without.

I've lived in tight spaces and love having as much space as we do now. I could see having a yurt as a vacation home, that'd be pretty cool. But I won't go back to cramped living unless I absolutely have to. It's not that we have a ton of stuff, we actually aren't all that big into owning lots of junk, we just like having lots of open space.

 

[HAL9000]

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

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

LOL! That site has a "Photo Callery"