small houses

Off-topic
1

We all like minimal forms of transportation, but is anyone else fascinated by small houses?

I recently stumbled across Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. I think I could live in a 160 sf model (as long as I had a storage shed for my n-cycles), except that my wife isn’t nearly as enthusiastic as me. :wink:

So I’ve been looking for small (<1000 sf) house plans, and there don’t seem to be very many. Even this book, 200 Small House Plans only has 11 plans under 1500 sf according to one of the customer reviews! Isn’t 1500 sf only small if you have a small herd of children? My last residence was a little more than 1500 sf and didn’t feel small even with the other two bedrooms rented out.

2

Have you seen the spherical houses that are suspended in trees? I think there was a link in the wierd or interesting sites thread, they seem to have a very similar ethos of using every single last inch of space, and are genreally around 10 foot diametre, just thought that might interest you.

3

Tiny houses are for wussies. Real men live in yurts.

4

My wife and I lived in about 400sq ft loft apartment for over 3 years. It was fine until we just started to want too much ‘stuff’ we had nowhere to put anything. I often wish we could have stuck with the simplicity.

5

A yurt would be cool if only because you could easily state your square footage in terms of pi. :sunglasses:

Other than the size, I’m not necessarily looking for anything too unconvetional, although the sphere houses are intriguing.

6

Those Tumbleweed houses are so cool!
I’m tempted to buy one and put it in the back garden so I can use it when The missus and I argue! :slight_smile:

7

25 years ago I wanted to start a company with another architect (I was an architect but changed my mind: I like when I pay taxes ;)!)
we draw plans for a small wooden house.
the trick was the design of the wood frame (easy to set up) and the fact that the house could grow with the family.
Nobody wanted to build that in France: I still have somewhere a design deposited in a dark vault guarded by lawyers :wink:

8

I just measured my house, it came to 250.6 square feet! So according to that small houses book a house is still small if it is 10 times the size of mine!

I think I could live somewhere smaller if it was just me, but as my fiancee lives with me this is about as small as we could go.

Good things about living in a small house include not being able to buy much unnecessary stuff (because we would have nowhere to put it), we only need a small electric heater in each room, and the fact that no matter how big our next house is, it will be seem huge compared to where we live now!

9

so your house is 15.83 feet x 15.83 feet. which is about 5m x 5m. :S. that seems unusually small, like really, really small. my room is about 4m x 5m, which is about 180sqare feet. so how many rooms
do you have in your house???

10

We have a bedroom (about 2.9m x 2.9m), a living room/kitchen (about 2.9m x 3.4m), and a bathroom (about 3.2m x 1.6m). Does that work out?

Edit- that’s interior dimension by the way, exterior dimensions would be a bit bigger because the walls are fairly thick.

11

thats sounds about right.

WHOLEY CRAP, is that a whole freestanding house? or is it like an apartment place.

sounds cosy

12

I love small houses!

My room is pretty small, well, not really, its mediums sized, but its cramped, I have a nice big guitar amp, Peavey stack, then a bass amp, thats only about 75 watts, so that isnt too big, but those two take up my closet, which also hold a lot of board games and some old collectibles. Then I have a shelve, that hold all my books and comics, about 5 guitar pedals, and tons of binders of guitar tablature. On top of that shelf is a nice stereo, 150 watts, but it can get freaking loud! then I have a cd holder to the side of the stereo hold about 50 cds.

I then have my bed, which is a pretty decent sized bed, just a few days ago, I had my girlfriend over, and 3 other friend, then including me, we were all on my bed, comfy, watching universe 2 =p

I also have a dress rack that hold my tuxes and clothes I wear on special occasions, weddings, homecomings, just for fun dressing up in my tux and running outside. I also have a little cubby that I put a big storage system that hold all my clothes, it was originally a giant shelf thing for a kitchen, but it fits perfectly in the cubby.

I also have three shelves I installed above my bed, they hold my fog machines, lighting affects and whatnot.

Then I got my comp desk that has my PS2, tv, paintings, more books, some games, comp (duh) printer, and some other things I place on it.

Lastly, I have 2 snowboards, 2 unis, 6 guitars, 1 bass, processor for recording, two turntables and a mixer, 3 guitar\bass cases, a trash can, and I am planning on buying a mini fridge to fit between my bed and my shelve that hold my stereo. =p

13

I told you it was small:D

It’s converted from half of a shed/outbuilding, so it’s freestanding but attached at one end to the other half, which is still a shed.

14

my recipe for small houses: get a small living space and huge organized storage space outside. if building regulations are ok you’ll end up paying less taxes and still have all the space you need.
if you’ve got a garden then intermediate space (which is both “inside” and “outside’”) will help when you’ve got friends coming for a long summer evening. (and will help for the heating bill)

15

Wow! Thanks for the links to Tumbleweeds Tiny Houses and Free Spirit Spheres. Intriguing! I’m dumbfounded and disturbed by the rash of gigantic houses springing up these days. It seems like an unconscionable waste of resources. In my younger days I lived quite happily for several years in an 8X8’ (64 sq ft) “pocket palace” in the Texas Hill Country. These days, after inheriting my grandparents house 15 years ago, it seems that my collection of junk has expanded to full every cubic foot of available space. Wobbling Bear has the right idea with a small living space and a seperate organized storage space. Simplify, Simplify!

16

Oh how those Tumbleweed homes do inspire me. Currently I live in a studio apartment that is about 350 square feet and already think of it as efficiency living. I could go for one of their larger tiny homes, maybe the B52 Bungalow. On a nice piice of land with some usable outdoor space and possible an additional storage building it coule be quite nice. The down-sides of living ain a small sapce though are having guests over, and when you’re stuck inside all day a smaller space does make you feel a bit more restless.

I think it woudl be great though as a backyard mother-in-law apartment or guest house.

17

wow. I like big houses. While our house was being renovated (after hurricane Jeanne last year) we had to move into a different house for 11 months. It seemed so small, but it was really just because we’re used to this big house of ours (it’s around 3500sq ft under air, and the garage is another 1000 or so sq ft)

When I was in NZ two years ago, though, I stayed with a family whose house was smaller than my garage (which isn’t saying that much, because it’s a 3.5 car garage), but the tiny house was 2 stories! the “bathroom” was called the “toilet”, which I completely understood when I walked in for the first time and it was just a small closet with a toilet. the shower was a standalone unit in the laundry room, and they had a potbelly woodburning stove for heat and cooking.

we used hot water bags and a hot-air-blower (like an oversized hair-dryer) for warmth at night. It was -4*C in the mornings, something a Floridian doesn’t get used to.

18

I dont think I would be able to live in a Tiny House… I need my space!

19

I’ve become obsessed. I just keep going back to that Tumbleweed Website I’ve been thinking about this all day. If only I could find a cheap piece of land. I could build a B-52 Bungalow or a 16’ X 16’ Cross Gable. Stick it on top of a basement for storage and laundry, put a little carport on the side and I’d be set. If I could get the land cheaply I could own my own home for only a little more than I pay in rent, and the size would be comprable. Ah the dreams of a young bachelor.

20

I guess the virus is contagious. I’ll have to be more careful. :wink: