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

[JulesMaximus]

It's kids that change it for me. I lived in a 800sq/ft little cape cod style home with a 2 year old while my place was being built. That would had been fine for me and my wife. But after a really long winter it was almost a prison with a toddler. She had no room to run. Even a few toys turned the living space into a destruction area. There was barely enough room to put in a small bistro set to eat at for dinner. Forget trying to have a family over to eat at the same table.

The kitchen was disconnected from the rest of living space and about 60 sq/ft in size so having more than one person in there was a disaster. So you felt like you were ignoring your family if you went in and cooked after you got home from work.

There was no room to run, throw a ball, stretch out, do a cartwheel, ect.

In my new place I've got a full open basement that we can ride bikes or scooters in. Play basketball. Play soccer. In the bedrooms you can actually have room for a decent sized bed and a dresser plus room to play on the floor. The kitchen is nice and open and flows into the main floor living area so you can cook dinner and socialize with friends and family.

We just live in the midwest where half the year it's below freezing and snow on the ground and the other half it's possible to be 85+ degrees and oppressingly muggy. Being able to have fairly active play inside is a nice perk.

Sounds delightful...

 

[JulesMaximus]

I sure as hell didn't. I lived in apartments through college, and have been in a house in suburbia for the last 4 years. It all sucks a big one compared to having your own land without anyone telling you what you can and can't do on it.

Honestly, I haven't wanted to do anything that someone would come along and tell me I can't do that. I have a nice yard that I keep up, I have a bike and cars that I work on in my garage, one parked on the street in front of my house and one in the garage. I do repairs on my house from time to time, my son plays basketball out in front and he plays with the neighbor kids every day after school.

I love living in suburbia and the plus side is there is the big city just 1/2 hour down the coast.

 

[sdifox]

can you even legally rent out an "apartment" without a bathroom. In CT you can't even call a room a bedroom without a closet.

Rooming house. You rent a room and the kitchen, washroom and living room is shared space.

 

[vi edit]

Sounds delightful...

Half the year the weather blows. The other half, particularly the fall is f'n awesome. Makes you appreciate the nice days a bit more.

I've got a nice setup where I am. I'm technically a suburb, but it's a "rural" one. All the lots are 1+ acre in size. I'm 1.5 acres. It's a cul de sac lot that I share with one other house. We've got about 50 houses in the neighborhood. Mostly wooded lots.

I have a grocery store, library and post office 5 minutes away. Work is a very liesurely 15-20 minutes away. We've got huge yards to play in, non-existant crime, and a nice state park with some of the best mountain bike trails in the area 5 minutes away.

 

[Exterous]

Sounds delightful...

I am starting to wonder why I still live in the Midwest. I keep telling ymself it will all be worth it when there is a huge global water shortage :awe:

 

[Vic Vega]

Honestly, I haven't wanted to do anything that someone would come along and tell me I can't do that. I have a nice yard that I keep up, I have a bike and cars that I work on in my garage, one parked on the street in front of my house and one in the garage. I do repairs on my house from time to time, my son plays basketball out in front and he plays with the neighbor kids every day after school.

I love living in suburbia and the plus side is there is the big city just 1/2 hour down the coast.

I have a boat, a nice one. Can't park it in the street, can't park it in the driveway, can't park it along side the house, even on a nice paved slab, can't put it in the back yard because it's visible from the road, can't put up a taller fence because that's "ugly"...

Yeah, I enjoy my land. I live in a city with people and actually have a lot of neighbors.

 

[Tristicus]

As America we are so sure we need more! We need less! People are too rich and successful! They learned to do things for themselves! We need to all live in small ass houses and cramp ourselves up and live minimally!

 

[Vic Vega]

As America we are so sure we need more! We need less! People are too rich and successful! They learned to do things for themselves! We need to all live in small ass houses and cramp ourselves up and live minimally!

As silly as it sounds, I live minimally now. I pride myself on not being an "ultra consumer". I'm no environut but I like to have a clean, orderly place to live. That's my motivation. Living in a tiny box has zero appeal to me.

 

[skyking]

We are comfortable in the 1280 ft house we have, but for lack of a large room for a pool table/quilt layout. That needs to be about a 15 x 20. A properly designed 1500 ft house would be ideal IMO.
It is funny, I designed a few 'dream homes', all of them came in at 2400 ft. I look back and realize I took all the rooms we have now and pumped them up larger, and added that big room.

 

[dquan97]

Family of 5 here living in 800sqft 2bdrm apt Pretty small considering the lack of garage or yard, though I can vacuum the whole place without unplugging. I'm actually glad that we don't have much junk, but we could downsize the amount of toys that the kids have.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Half the year the weather blows. The other half, particularly the fall is f'n awesome. Makes you appreciate the nice days a bit more.

I've got a nice setup where I am. I'm technically a suburb, but it's a "rural" one. All the lots are 1+ acre in size. I'm 1.5 acres. It's a cul de sac lot that I share with one other house. We've got about 50 houses in the neighborhood. Mostly wooded lots.

I have a grocery store, library and post office 5 minutes away. Work is a very liesurely 15-20 minutes away. We've got huge yards to play in, non-existant crime, and a nice state park with some of the best mountain bike trails in the area 5 minutes away.

I'm from upstate NY originally so I hear you on the fall weather. That was always my favorite time of year. Summers were hot and muggy though, a couple summers I remember it raining or being gloomy and overcast almost every weekend. Winter it's just cold and gray there a lot of the time. I go back to visit my sister and it can be kind of depressing.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I have a boat, a nice one. Can't park it in the street, can't park it in the driveway, can't park it along side the house, even on a nice paved slab, can't put it in the back yard because it's visible from the road, can't put up a taller fence because that's "ugly"...

Yeah, I enjoy my land. I live in a city with people and actually have a lot of neighbors.

So, don't buy a house in an HOA community. There are plenty of areas around here that don't have those rules and restrictions.

I don't have a boat or an RV but there are homes nearby with RV parking on the side.

If I had a boat it would be a sailboat and I'd probably have to leave it in a marina somewhere.

 

[roguerower]

I like the house my parents built for my grandmother (mom's mom). Her husband died from Alzheimers a while ago so she lives alone, but she's right down the street from my other grandparents.

She lives in a house, probably 10th row on Emerald Isle, NC in the Outer Banks. It's really only two floors, the building is elevated on stilts and the 1st "floor" is a dual carport and storage (conditioned), and there's also a small slab off to the side for boat storage. First floor has the kitchen, her bedroom/bathroom, and the living/dining room. Giant porch on the front. Small staircase up to the 3rd floor. 1 bedroom, 1 nook w/ two single beds, 1 bathroom, large space for activities.

Small is good, but if I was going to go small I would make up for it in technology & quality. Fully automated DDC system, top quality HVAC system, instant water heaters, solar/geothermal system, water reclamation system, high R-value insulation, etc. It would be fully wired up electronically, all going back to a single closet.

I'd put everything that I've learned and will learn in commercial/federal construction to make a house that will last and will have a relatively high initial cost but a low annual cost.

 

[Golgatha]

I have around 2400 square feet and I don't imagine I would want anything bigger ever.

 

[Freejack2]

George Carlin said you get a bigger house to hold more stuff. If you can control how much stuff you have though, then there is nothing wrong with a smaller house.

We moved from a 2br apartment last year into a 1175sf house. We wanted our own place and of course more room to hold our stuff.
It's not huge by any means, the bedrooms aren't very large but it's not claustrophobically small or anything. What was important to us were things like a guest bedroom, central air, a garage to park the cars and room for a garden. Our house is an older house in a city but it's in a good neighborhood, and a fairly solid house all for about $100 more a month than our rent was.

Sure an ultra-modern 3000sf house would be nice, but the payment would be at least 2x what we pay a month now and probably a lot more for utilities. Also the extra space would just go to waste.

If we came into a lot of money, sure we might buy a bigger house, but we might just decide to make improvements on the place we own as we don't really need more.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Rooming house. You rent a room and the kitchen, washroom and living room is shared space.

yeah he called it an Apartment though. But its trident afterall he is filled to the brim with shit.

 

[sdifox]

yeah he called it an Apartment though. But its trident afterall he is filled to the brim with shit.

He has problem with ice cubes.

 

[Ns1]

the key to the tiny house movement is to have less shit

i've been ebaying stuff for months =X

 

[BeauJangles]

I'm definitely a fan of minimalism. I'm not sure I could ever live in a 400 sq ft house, but I could easily make do in one that was ~1,000.

 

[Schadenfreude]

The wife and I are big fans of this movement; her moreso than I. We've lived/visited overseas in Japan, Korea, etc. and many times it looks like that is the standard of life anyways. I personally wouldn't mind a smaller (2-story, ~600/700 sq. ft.?) house as long as I have a big yard, a grarge, and maybe a wraparound patio/porch . . ..

 

[TridenT]

yeah he called it an Apartment though. But its trident afterall he is filled to the brim with shit.

It is an apartment. It has a kitchen, closet, and the main room. The bathroom is adjacent and shared with three other apartments who have similar conditions.

Landlord calls it an apartment. Everyone else calls it an apartment. The agreement papers say it is an apartment. It is an apartment.

 

[mvbighead]

While I can see some level of a minimalist approach... the youtube video of the 320 sqft house is a fricking joke.

I can buy that a 2000 sqft house could be too much for their family of three, but like someone else said... taking a dump, piss or whatever and your lovely smells are there for all to enjoy. That family should have had at least a 700 sqft house (probably bigger), and just keep to their minimalist ways. Not to mention, the family business could then occupy a room instead of a whole new 320 sqft building.

 

[CPA]

The larger the better. I need somewhere I can hide when I want to get away from the wife and kids. Can't do that in 700 sq ft.

 

[TridenT]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZSdrtEqcHU

Cool space, but no kitchen really... Fine for vegans or people who eat out all the time. Not good for me...

 

[Vic Vega]

So, don't buy a house in an HOA community. There are plenty of areas around here that don't have those rules and restrictions.

I don't have a boat or an RV but there are homes nearby with RV parking on the side.

If I had a boat it would be a sailboat and I'd probably have to leave it in a marina somewhere.

I agree if you are looking at existing construction. It's hard to have new construction these days that isn't in an HOA, at least where I live. This is why the wife and I just decided to buy a plot and build what we wanted.