Author Topic: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?  (Read 80271 times)

OutBy40

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How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« on: December 12, 2014, 02:28:47 PM »
Just curious how many here would ever consider living in a tiny house.  And by "tiny house", I'm not talking about simply a small house.  I mean the "tiny house" concept where your home is built, usually between 100 and 500 square feet (some are larger, some are even smaller) and can be transported practically anywhere in the entire world and plopped down. 

I asked this question here (link to my personal web site).  You can find many, many pictures of tiny homes here (link to Google Image search).

Would anyone consider such a living arrangement?

Eric

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2014, 02:30:31 PM »
My wife and I already live in 550 sq ft, and I think we could easily chop off a hundred or more off that without even noticing.  So sure, it's definitely appealing and would be hardly any adjustment.

OutBy40

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2014, 02:31:28 PM »
My wife and I already live in 550 sq ft, and I think we could easily chop off a hundred or more off that without even noticing.  So sure, it's definitely appealing and would be hardly any adjustment.

Really?  Awesome - is it a true tiny home that can be transported fairly easily, or is it a traditional home but built smaller and only to your immediate needs?

YK-Phil

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2014, 02:39:00 PM »
We are indeed in the process of designing our little house, more or less along the lines of what these folks have done, with a few modifications to suit our own needs. We bought our land a few weeks ago and we should hopefully start building it ourselves, with the help of a carpenter friend, sometime this summer.

http://tinyhousebuild.com/

tmac

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2014, 02:40:38 PM »
DH and I totally could and I hope will someday. But not until the three kids move out.

Chranstronaut

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2014, 02:41:07 PM »
My SO and I always joke that we need a tiny house with a BIG garage! We're far more attached to the classic car and having a machine shop than we are about the size of the house.  A trailer based house wouldn't work, but a really teeny loft or 1 bedroom home would be perfect.

OutBy40

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #6 on: December 12, 2014, 02:44:21 PM »
We are indeed in the process of designing our little house, more or less along the lines of what these folks have done, with a few modifications to suit our own needs. We bought our land a few weeks ago and we should hopefully start building it ourselves, with the help of a carpenter friend, sometime this summer.

http://tinyhousebuild.com/

Awesome, would love to follow your journey to building that tiny home if you care to post about it.  If you don't mind me asking, what part of the country did you buy your land to build your new tiny house on?

damize

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #7 on: December 12, 2014, 02:45:31 PM »
Would rather a tiny apartment (with garage) as I can't stand yard work.  Allergies and asthma growing up gave me a distaste for the blooming, pollening, seeding outside spaces.

Wolf_Stache

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #8 on: December 12, 2014, 03:34:59 PM »
I currently live in less than 300 square feet with two cats and a dog. A little too small - hard to do any sewing (one of my hobbies) and the cats get restless with so little space. I think I need more space or at least a yard for the animals.

GuitarStv

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #9 on: December 12, 2014, 03:36:12 PM »
Theoretically it would be possible.  However, I'd be miserable.

I build guitar amps and effects pedals, so like to have room to solder and for electrical components.  I fix guitars, and typically have several kicking around the house along with tools for that.  I record music (mics/preamps/mic stands/gobos/guitars/drums/basses/harmonicas).  Of course, I wouldn't be able to play as much music anyway because I do a lot of it after my kid and wife have gone to sleep.  Need space for my bike and all the tools used to repair it.  The wife also has a bike.  Our son has a bike trailer and will soon have a bike.  Any house requires some general carpentry tools given enough time.  Then you've got your basic gardening tools ( a wheelbarrow, stakes, cages, trellis, spade, pots, etc. ).

Could I live without all this stuff?  Sure.  But my life would be much less rich and much more dependant upon others.  The tiny house idea is a nice romantic notion of simplicity, but I can't see it being a realistic long term solution for many.

ketchup

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2014, 03:39:47 PM »
I've lived in a 500 square foot house.  With three other people.  500 square feet by myself or with my girlfriend would be extremely doable.  Four was tight.

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2014, 03:40:48 PM »
I guess I am pushing your definition of tiny.  It probably was "small."  Wife and I spent 5 years in a 600sqft tool shed.  We have since built a house in front of it.  It was tight, but by no means uncomfortable.

MoneyCat

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #12 on: December 12, 2014, 03:42:01 PM »
If I wasn't already living in a 1500 sq ft house, then I would definitely get a tiny house.  There are rooms we never really use in this house.  I'd be perfectly fine with a tiny space.

Eric

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #13 on: December 12, 2014, 03:48:12 PM »
My wife and I already live in 550 sq ft, and I think we could easily chop off a hundred or more off that without even noticing.  So sure, it's definitely appealing and would be hardly any adjustment.

Really?  Awesome - is it a true tiny home that can be transported fairly easily, or is it a traditional home but built smaller and only to your immediate needs?

It's an apartment.  So a tiny house is even more appealing because our neighbors would be farther away.  :)

Al1961

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #14 on: December 12, 2014, 03:52:46 PM »
I've looked at quite a few videos on YT for both tiny homes and full time RV living, and have determined that I'm not interested. At all.

Would go for a smallish 1 bedroom condo while snow birding for the three darkest months each year, but have no interest in a house a fraction the size of either the greenhouse or shop I'll build at our retirement property.

Bartstache

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #15 on: December 12, 2014, 03:53:49 PM »
When the 2 kids move out and it is just the wife and I again then yes.  We are more planning on going full time in an RV though.

Villanelle

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #16 on: December 12, 2014, 03:57:00 PM »
Shorter term?  Sure.  DH and I considered living on a boat, before determining it wouldn't actually be cheap, for the ~8 months we will be living in the States next year. 

Longer term?  Nope.  I consider 2 toilets to be very good for marriage, so I wouldn't commit to less than 1.5 baths for long unless our hair was on fire. 

Zikoris

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #17 on: December 12, 2014, 04:24:30 PM »
Sounds great to me! Unfortunately, they're not really practical in a major urban center. We have a 400 square foot apartment now and are very happy. It feels spacious and comfortable.

Jon_Snow

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #18 on: December 12, 2014, 04:35:13 PM »
Just mentioned in another thread that I'm too tall and gangly of limb to comfortably live in a "tiny house".... but we are in the planning stages of designing a "small cabin" to stick on our island property... I've been in some of the suddenly trendy "tiny homes"... uh, my frame doesn't work in them whatsoever....

queenie

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #19 on: December 12, 2014, 04:58:44 PM »
Oh my gosh, I was going to post something about tiny houses yesterday!

DH and I have talked about doing this.  We'd like to someday buy the 50 acres that my dad owns and build a tiny house on it.  I think we'd both be happy in one and we've looked at lots of different floor plans.  But there is a lot to think about, so we'll see what happens.  For now it's not an option, because we have 4 kids. 
« Last Edit: December 12, 2014, 05:52:41 PM by queenie »

PerpetualWanderlust

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #20 on: December 12, 2014, 05:09:10 PM »
No, I don't think I could. I honestly need at least 550 square feet at the very minimum.

The only way I'd settle for less is if it was to live in a dream city for a year or two, like Paris or London.

Cookie78

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #21 on: December 12, 2014, 05:31:07 PM »
My SO and I always joke that we need a tiny house with a BIG garage! We're far more attached to the classic car and having a machine shop than we are about the size of the house.  A trailer based house wouldn't work, but a really teeny loft or 1 bedroom home would be perfect.

Exactly this!
I'd like a tiny relatively maintenance free house, with a large garage/shop for mechanic-ing for boyfriend and leatherworking and woodworking and other building stuff for me. I don't necessarily want a trailer based house, just something very small. And a big yard for a garden too.

The_path_less_taken

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #22 on: December 12, 2014, 06:20:31 PM »
I lived in a tiny RV once, with an 80lb Husky/wolf cross. Not fun on rainy days, as everything you own smells like wet dog. (and I love dogs...but still)

I don't think I could full time like that again, but I could summer in Alaska like that no problem.

FIRE Realtor

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #23 on: December 12, 2014, 07:35:59 PM »
I love the idea, but no desire to have a mobile house at this point, so am content with my 800 sq. ft. house.  (Me, husband, and 2 little kids).  This feels like plenty of space to us, unless we want to have multiple friends over w/their kids too.  We don't have a garage either, and live in MN.  We have a little shed which works fine for storing stuff. 

I could totally see living in one in a warmer climate just 2 people.

ChrisLansing

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #24 on: December 12, 2014, 07:47:06 PM »
I couldn't do it.   I could give up the old car in the garage that I'll probably never restore (thinking seriously of getting rid of it) and give up some other things, but I don't know about living in 100 or 200 sq ft.   My tool shed is 200 sq ft.    Humans should have more room than tools. 

Living in the rust belt I have some issues with cost.    Even if one does the building,  on a Tumbleweed supplied trailer, it's still more expensive than a lot of the local houses.   If you're from San Francisco maybe the cost of a tiny house relative to alternatives is very different.   Where I live the cost of building a tiny house yourself is the cost of buying a 2 BR bungalow with a basement and a garage.   Makes zero financial sense where I live.   The cost of buying a tiny house already built, by Tumbleweed,  is the cost of a 4 BR home around here.   

Second, you have to know someone, a friend or family member, who will let you park your tiny house on their back 40 or in their backyard.   If it's a backyard sooner or later the code enforcement officer will be around to tell you that you can't live there permanently so you have to move your "trailer".   Sorry to sound snarky but it kind of sounds like "Hey, I don't live in my parent's basement, I live in their backyard, in a shed I built myself". 

You could probably park in a trailer park or RV park, but then you are paying "rent" so what's the sense of owning a home?   

Third you'll need a truck or SUV to pull this thing, so that means using an inefficient vehicle for commuting, or at least renting a truck when moving time comes. 

This is the opposite end of the spectrum from the Mc Mansion, but it's still extreme.   I'd prefer a happy medium of something like 600 sq. ft.     

Finally, for those of us nearing retirement, climbing up a ladder to the loft bedroom is very unappealing.   
« Last Edit: December 12, 2014, 07:50:34 PM by ChrisLansing »

resy

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #25 on: December 12, 2014, 07:50:54 PM »
Oh my husband and I are totally on board with the tiny house movement! Except...we have to wait until our kid goes off to college (8 more years lol).

samburger

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #26 on: December 12, 2014, 08:17:27 PM »
Yes, absolutely. My wife and I (and dog and cat) live in 375 square feet now. I think eventually we'll have to upgrade to something with 50-100 more square feet, but no more than that.


Davids

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #27 on: December 12, 2014, 08:42:29 PM »
If it was just me and my wife then yes but with a kid I need more than 500 square feet, sorry if that is not mustachian.

arebelspy

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #28 on: December 13, 2014, 10:56:01 PM »
The wife and I live in 416 sqft now.  We used to live in a 200-250ish sqft tiny house (though we didn't think of it like that, this was back in 2006 before tumbleweed homes and the tiny house movement existed), but we could definitely go smaller than that.  We'd like to downsize to smaller once we FIRE and have a kid, actually.  Soon, hopefully.  :)
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rocketpj

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #29 on: December 14, 2014, 01:21:12 AM »
My wife and I could, but not with the kids.  Definitely not when they become teenagers.

We already live in a 'small' house (1200 sf), at least for our area and family size.  I could shave a couple hundred feet off without a sweat (we don't really use one of the bathrooms, never use the 'sauna' and could lose the hall to both of them).  But I'll give up my workshop when I'm dead and not before (it's a separate building and about 500 sf on its own).

homehandymum

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #30 on: December 14, 2014, 01:38:31 AM »
Nope

NumberJohnny5

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #31 on: December 14, 2014, 01:52:58 AM »
Family lived in an RV (converted bookmobile) for the better part of a year. I believe it was about 8 feet wide, with about 25 feet of living space (plus a washer/dryer where the passenger seat used to be). That's about 200 square feet. Family of four, and we started with four cats.

I don't think I could full time like that again, but I could summer in Alaska like that no problem.

We did camper hosting for the Anchorage school district! Pretty good location, almost walking distance to the hospital my wife worked at (until we had to move, darn school year started). Great views. Was a bit disconcerting when we woke up to a dog show going on outside.

Overseas Stache

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #32 on: December 14, 2014, 04:24:46 AM »
I don't get the appeal of having a tiny house just to have a tiny house. It seems like just another way to keep up with the Jones. Most of the examples that I have seen don't make sense financially, but oh they look so cool and have all these cool features packed into a tiny little space.

I live in a 900sqf home with two children and we plan on having more. I think it is a good size and with 2 bedrooms at least DW and I can have our out bedroom. Seriously how would you have sex in a 200sqf home if you had a kid??? Also I don't think downsizing would accomplish anything we already don't pay anything for heating or cooling so I can't see how having a smaller place would help us save any money.

arebelspy

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #33 on: December 14, 2014, 09:12:58 AM »
I don't get the appeal of having a tiny house just to have a tiny house.

I think you should give most Mustachians more credit than that.

We don't tend to do things for status or appearance.

The appeal of having a tiny house is for the utility and function.  I like having less space.  We have way too much right now at 416 sqft.  We'd love to have less, and be more efficient.
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horsepoor

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #34 on: December 14, 2014, 09:41:42 AM »
We lived on a sailboat until I was about 9 years old and my brother was 15.  It's doable, but I don't want to do it, even being on land where you're less constrained (we anchored out, so no stepping off the boat onto a dock and going).  We have a giant clown house now, and I often pine for a smaller, more efficient and cozy place, but I think for two of us, a perfectly designed 1,200 sf house is about as small as I'd like to go.  For one thing, I do a lot of cooking and preserving, which takes space for storage as well as the canning process.  My husband is one of those people who thinks the TV needs to be on all the time, so being stuck in a too-small place, well, the TV would probably end up with a knife through the screen or something.

YK-Phil

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #35 on: December 14, 2014, 10:12:00 AM »
I don't get the appeal of having a tiny house just to have a tiny house.

I could give you dozens of reasons why I prefer a tiny house over a regular-sized house (whatever it means in your necks of the woods), and none of them has anything to do with keeping up with the Jones or status, and everything to do with being mustachian and living a balanced and sustainable lifestyle where things don't matter as much -or not at all for a fact- as experiences. At this moment, my wife, 18-year old daughter and myself live in a 790 sq. ft. condo, and we have more space than we need in order to live a pleasant and convivial lifestyle and to store all our "stuff".

samburger

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #36 on: December 14, 2014, 10:16:10 AM »
I don't get the appeal of having a tiny house just to have a tiny house.

I think you should give most Mustachians more credit than that.

We don't tend to do things for status or appearance.

The appeal of having a tiny house is for the utility and function.  I like having less space.  We have way too much right now at 416 sqft.  We'd love to have less, and be more efficient.

You just say you're not keeping up with the Jones' because my house is smaller than yours. (...kidding!)

I have a tiny place for the same reason. The idea of furnishing/decorating/cleaning/maintaining a larger space gives me hives. It takes us about 2 hours to deep clean our place. Two hours. It's dreamy.

iris lily

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #37 on: December 14, 2014, 10:18:23 AM »
In my alternate life, where I'm not married and have only 1 pet, a nice tidy cat, I live in a tiny 500 sq ft house with a huge garden. IF it has a basement, all the better.

But that's just fantasy. DH comes with hundreds of sq ft of stuff, so we have to  live where we can accommodate that. He's got tools and tool and tools, plus he never gets rid of things so he's got items from his high school days.

YK-Phil

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #38 on: December 14, 2014, 10:29:05 AM »
We are indeed in the process of designing our little house, more or less along the lines of what these folks have done, with a few modifications to suit our own needs. We bought our land a few weeks ago and we should hopefully start building it ourselves, with the help of a carpenter friend, sometime this summer.

http://tinyhousebuild.com/

Awesome, would love to follow your journey to building that tiny home if you care to post about it.  If you don't mind me asking, what part of the country did you buy your land to build your new tiny house on?

We bought land on Gabriola Island off the coast of Nanaimo on the larger Vancouver Island in British Columbia. After researching weather and climate stats, I came to the conclusion that overall, the Gulf Islands have the right mix of what we were looking for, in no particular order: the ocean, good year-round weather perfect for outdoors activities and gardening, quiet rural setting but not far from the city, a great community of like-minded folks who share many of our environmental and social values, including self-sufficiency. I will certainly document our little adventure, including some of the construction faux-pas this unskilled guy will likely do in the process.

magickelly

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #39 on: December 14, 2014, 12:37:40 PM »
Don't discount the importance of floor plan and optimized space...

I live in a pretty tiny house (not by the OP definition) but I'm going mad, not due to the sq. footage (650sq ft) but the layout. I live in a type of original tiny house, a Philadelphia trinity. Also called a "Father, Son, Holy Ghost" house or a "bandbox" house. They are all over central Philadelphia (and its old Manyunk neighborhoods in the west), mostly mass produced in the very late 1700s through the 1800s as servant homes.

They are literal vertical houses, one room to a floor connected by a small winding pie-wedge staircase and have a square footprint - ranging usually from 10x10 to 16x16 at their largest, most 3 or 4 stories, some 5 if you count a roofdeck. Most of the ones still standing are in the central part of the city and back on small alleyways or courtyards. I live on a 5 foot wide Belgian Block alley and the street, paving and my house are all on protected on the historic register.

Fortunately my house was expanded circa 1967 from 12x12 to 12x20 and the spiral stair was replaced with one that is mostly straight turning only at the bottom and tops. I always wanted to live in one of these houses and when I finally had the means to purchase one I did - they aren't too expensive and they are in the central part of the city making the need for a car obsolete - I walk to work - and utility bills are miniscule. They are by many standards very Mustachian.

But after 7 years, I'm going nuts with the stairs (I can't imagine if I did have the scary winding pie-wedges), my main bedroom and only bathroom not being located on the same floor and just the sheer claustrophobia from the tiny rooms. I absolutely could and would love to live in even less, but I want it open concept and on one floor. After living in this house, a Tumbleweed house is basically my first floor (total claustrophobia) with a loft (bed/bath not on same floor again!) and that would drive me STIR CRAZY.

What's a Philadelphia trinity?

Here's one on AirBNB
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1287949

Here's one on Zillow in need of updating
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/317-S-Iseminger-St-Philadelphia-PA-19107/10197517_zpid/

Here's a spacious one on Zillow with the pie-wedge column smartly replaced by an open floating staircase
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1220-Panama-St-Philadelphia-PA-19107/10196772_zpid/

My dream these days is much more along these lines -
http://smallhousebliss.com/2014/01/23/sarah-house-an-affordable-green-container-home/
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/garden/freedom-in-704-square-feet.html

One floor, big windows, open space, some land around it... I'd be way happier in even in 400 sq. ft home that is optimized, has minimal walls, floor-to-ceiling windows with some kind of view rather than the bandbox in an alley with tiny rooms and a view that is predominately of other brick walls. So no Tumbleweeds for me, but yes, my post-FIRE plans are all about getting out of the city when I no longer need a big, fat corporate salary, moving west and making this a reality!



iris lily

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #40 on: December 14, 2014, 01:15:26 PM »


What's a Philadelphia trinity?



Those are adorable1 I love tiny old houses, just like I love tiny old cars!

iris lily

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #41 on: December 14, 2014, 01:20:52 PM »
This is a tiny house I own but it's not habitable. It's about 550 sq feet, it is about 150 years old.





Zikoris

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #42 on: December 14, 2014, 02:12:07 PM »
This is a tiny house I own but it's not habitable. It's about 550 sq feet, it is about 150 years old.

It's adorable! What's wrong with it?

iris lily

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #43 on: December 14, 2014, 02:30:16 PM »
This is a tiny house I own but it's not habitable. It's about 550 sq feet, it is about 150 years old.

It's adorable! What's wrong with it?

It lacks modern electrical, plumbing, and HVAC systems. It was marginally habitable before we got it but it was unlikely to pass any occupancy permit, necessary when new owners take over. I bought it because

1) it is super  cute and I had always wanted one of these 1.5 story Victorians, sort of the quintessential working man's cottage in the Western hemisphere

 2) it has a large back yard that we can use to grow stuff -- it's in a neighborhood contiguous to mine

We've put in a new sewer system and completely tuckpointed and finished the front facade with historically correct window and door. DH also did tons of work to stabilize it.  We will let the next owner finish out the interior.

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #44 on: December 14, 2014, 02:39:38 PM »
I don't get the appeal of having a tiny house just to have a tiny house.

I think you should give most Mustachians more credit than that.

We don't tend to do things for status or appearance.

The appeal of having a tiny house is for the utility and function.  I like having less space.  We have way too much right now at 416 sqft.  We'd love to have less, and be more efficient.

I do give mustachians credit but like all humans we like to show off our Badassity, after all most of us have posted here about how much money we are saving and how little gas we are consuming and what our monthly passive cash flow is. Yes we do it to help others and learn from others, but we also do it to see how we stack up to the other Mustachians.

You like having less space now but that might change when you have 1 or 2 screaming babies in your house. That extra bedroom will look a lot more appealing. Also I would think that there are just some things you don't want your children to hear and that would be really hard in a 200sqf house.

When you say more efficient, do you mean you as a person are taking up less space to live, that it takes less resources to build the house, or that you will save more money?

 

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #45 on: December 14, 2014, 02:41:01 PM »
All of those, yes, but I meant a more streamlined life.
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Overseas Stache

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #46 on: December 14, 2014, 02:46:36 PM »
I don't get the appeal of having a tiny house just to have a tiny house.

I could give you dozens of reasons why I prefer a tiny house over a regular-sized house (whatever it means in your necks of the woods), and none of them has anything to do with keeping up with the Jones or status, and everything to do with being mustachian and living a balanced and sustainable lifestyle where things don't matter as much -or not at all for a fact- as experiences. At this moment, my wife, 18-year old daughter and myself live in a 790 sq. ft. condo, and we have more space than we need in order to live a pleasant and convivial lifestyle and to store all our "stuff".

Well I wouldn't call 790sqf condo a tiny home that is just a little bit smaller than my home. So I guess it's all in definitions because I don't consider my house tiny at all.

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #47 on: December 14, 2014, 03:41:54 PM »
when I read the title of this thread I completely misinterpreted it.  I thought it meant "how many people can you fit into a tiny house" which instantly brought to mind an image of clowns streaming out of a super-tiny house.

ah........ anyway.  Lived on a sailboat with 450sqft of below-deck space with 7 people for 68 days and we didn't kill each other.  SO and I lived in a 520sqft house for two years but it felt HUGE to us because we had an outdoor eating area, an enormous garden and a covered shop area (like a carport on steroids) where I could do carpentry projects.  Our current house is much larger (~900ft) but lacks outdoor space.  If/when we move we'll likely go for something smaller (~500sqft)

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #48 on: December 14, 2014, 04:10:58 PM »
I guess I am pushing your definition of tiny.  It probably was "small."  Wife and I spent 5 years in a 600sqft tool shed.  We have since built a house in front of it.  It was tight, but by no means uncomfortable.

There are "tiny homes" that are 600 soft, so I think living in that shed is perfectly within the bounds of this question. 

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Re: How many here could live in a "tiny house"?
« Reply #49 on: December 14, 2014, 04:12:24 PM »
When the 2 kids move out and it is just the wife and I again then yes.  We are more planning on going full time in an RV though.

My parents did that for 13 years - lived completely out of an RV and drove from campground to campground, usually spending several weeks at each place.  It was an interesting lifestyle.  They loved it.

 

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