I am in love with the tiny home movement!!!! My DW however is not and therefore we shall not have tinyhome anytime soon. The one who must be obeyed has spoken. **very sad with tears**

 

I am in love with the tiny home movement!!!!

With 8-12 people under our roof at any given time, 3000 sq. feet sure SEEMS like we already live in a tiny home. :

+N

 

I've seen this before and thought it was ingenous. I wish my storage would fit in there. The older I get the smaller the house I like. Thx for sharing.

 

That was an impressive downsize! But how are you going to store a couple years worth of supplies?

 

Well, a tiny storage shed of course! :

 

I love it!

We are a family of 5 and used to spend our summers in a 38 ft camper and I loved every minute of it. It's amazing to see just what you can do in a small space. I personally gained a lot of satisfaction from that.

 

we are currently living with a large mortgage...we make it work by not having car payments and other luxuries. but if I get hit with long term unemployment/disability...etc then we will likely not be able to continue making these big payments.
If all goes well for the next 7 to 10 years we'll be set for retirement, but I've learned that the best laid plans...

anyway, we have a 2 tier fall back -

tier 1 is a much smaller house 1200sq ft on a 1/4 acre fenced lot..it's paid for and rental income from it helps with the primary home mortgage, but if need be, I could fall back to that house and take a low paying job and we'll get by.

Tier 2 - 25ft travel trailer -also paid for - thinking on that is that I could go to areas where work is if my fixed home location doesn't have any.

ultimately we want to get our primary mortgage balance low enough that we can sell the small house when/if the market returns, and pay our mortgage off, enjoying the big house/property into our old age...we'll see how things go.

 

I'm workin' the exact same plan myself.

 

I've been intrigued by these for awhile. My concern would be food storage, and yes, you could store it in a shed, but wouldn't the temperature extremes degrade the food quicker.

Aside from that, I'm pretty sure that dh and I could be happy in something like that, but until we're empty-nesters, it's off the table.

 

I took some measurements - and looked at my larger storage shed which is 12ft x 30ft... given that our travel trailer is 9x 25? and well laid out, I suppose we could make it in a micro house like that, but wow!

 

I have seen some really awesome small houses. I have been researching this in prep to build a container cabin. I came across the house in the link above called the "lego" house. 24sq meters, not good with metrics but I think that is about 260sq ft? Holy cow! This place is amazing! Applying his techniques, dropping a couple of shipping containers on top of a basement/root cellar imagine the possibilities!

 

Id love to have a 500 square foot home. Its on the goal list. You can always add on as well!

 

We want a smaller house but not THAT small!!!! We are thinking more along 1,000sq/ft.

 

sorry...typing in between calls..threads probably get a bit off track...
to the point of the OP - yes, have to admire folks that live responsibly...my comment on the big house/mortgage meant to say that I think we are living "responsibly" for where we are right now..the mortgage is big, but the paycheck is covering it...if we were going out to eat/date, retail shopping, fancy furniture, new cars, etc..then no...the math wouldn't work...but for now, as long as the paycheck is flowing and given that I have another option so that we won't go homeless, I call this responsible. not so much the house, albet we are providing bedroom space for other family to help them, and we have land for garden, etc...so our resources against disaster are a consideration in the equation.
Still I recognize that if it's an economic/personal shtf for me and I loose my ability to earn, that much of this resource goes back to the bank...keeps me awake some nights fer sure.

and I'd sure love one of those new comaro convertibles but my old truck will continue to meet my needs.

 

I've been living in a 360 sq. ft. apartment for about a year now. It started as an experiment to see if I could do it and to be honest it was tough for the first few months. Once you get rid of all the clutter and make things like coat hooks and shelving along the ceiling your friend it gets a lot easier. I was amazed how much wasted space I never noticed in my previous home. When you live small everything is pretty much on display so, you learn real quick to keep it tidy. I would like to try a smaller dwelling yet, maybe a camper trailer or studio but I'm addicted to full size plumbing. I have noticed a sharp down spike in utility costs. You're not going to believe me but I typically pay around $30.00 a month for all utilities. Small can be extremely efficient even when compared to todays ultra efficient homes. Less space to heat and cool. I'm quiet happy with small now.

 

If I had the cash I'd put one of those in my woods, but to live in full time? nope 1200 sqft on a full basement is as small as I'll go.

 

192 sq. ft.
$3K +/- and build it yourself.

This took 2 construction newbies 12 Saturdays.
We had to haul water for concrete and use 18v power tools.
That was 10 years ago. Since we have added a woodstove, a window, cabinets, paneling, insulation, a raised hunting platform and all the comforts of home.
This summer we're adding a solar backed 12v battery system for LED lighting, fans and an AM/FM/Weather/CD marine radio.

 

In South Louisiana it is safer to buy the neighborhood instead of the house size you really want. In our society down south the trailer trash red necks, gangsta rappers, 39 year old juvenile power drinkers, slobs parking old p/u trucks on the front lawns, playing basketball on the corners till 3 am, whistling at the neighbors wife whenever they see a pretty one, is prevalent in the more affordable neighborhoods. Though the more affluent neighborhoods do have their share of ignorance weasling their way in through law suits, inheritance or just dumb luck, the majority are educated sophisticates trying to raise their families in a safe neighborhood without the urban/rural hassles of life terrorizing their castles. These cozy little houses look affordable, livable and obtainable but down here they wouldnt be put in a 100'X100' lot. On the contrary, they would be piled up next to each other in rows like slave quarters. Plopping one of these down on a affordable piece of land would only insure you were living next to a methe lab in a trailer home. Louisiana has its problems. I think trailer homes should be outlawed.

 

I live in north-east Mississippi and we have groups of these all withing 1 - 2 feet of each other in what looks like trailer parks. It's a college town so there are some students but they are mostly low income housing. I had a friend that used to live in one of these "parks" and when he wanted to get something nice like a new tv we had to do it early in the morning so none of the neighbors could see. I also wonder how well that house would stand up to tornado weather, the ones here do not seem to fair much better than trailers.

 

Awesome HQ Skully

 

Yep, clutter is your enemy:
We are a family of 4 and I would love to drop down to a TH, but we are still working getting our clutter down to something manageable. I have thought about building a TH in my backyard with bales and mud, but have done it yet.

 

when the kids were small we lived in 790 sq ft and were happy, planning to stay there forever. Spouse Job transferred and now we are in 1200 sq ft... with both kids gone at this stage, it seems like a rambling mansion and I wish we could downsize again. but like ComancheSniper, I too have been voted down. : (

 

my place is a large enough to hold me and my supplies and keep thing's decuttered with each item haveing own space inside the place along with it beenig paided for and the only thing i own on it are the yearly taxs that i pay the county

it about 750.sq ft total of liveing and stowage area the storage space is bigger than the liveing space set up

 

There is a whole movement on this stuff.

Google "Tiny Houses"

 

Its a really good idea for a vacation house. When you have a family though, you need space. That poor kid in the first video probably has to listen to his parents bumping uglies. Also that kid is never going to be able to bring a girl back to his house. It really kills his social life I imagine.

Ill stick with my mortage payment personally.

 

I lived in Venice, California for years. Lots of the houses there are "beach shacks" - in the 350-400 foot range. My first wife and I lived in one of those "tiny" houses and we couldn't have been happier. We had a bedroom, a kitchen, and an additional room that was the living room-office-dining room all in one.

You don't need much space to be happy.

My second wife and I live in a 3 bedroom house. We never use and barely go into the two extra bedrooms. We barely use the dining room. And we don't need half as much kitchen as we have. I'd happily shuck this for a small cabin in the woods.

But... if I wanted to build/buy the perfect survival retreat... I'd definitely need some space in order to design a home that had it all.

 

past 3 yrs wife and I along with 2 kids been living in a 600 sq/ft apartment, but we do have a storage shed we store a lot of crap in

 

So claustrophobic. My wife and I would probably kill each other long time ago in tiny space liked that.

I love my wife and it seems to be mutual but cabin fever can get to anybody

 

We built ours for about $20k. 640 sqft. We didn't skimp on materials. We used 2x10 for floor joists @16" on center and 2x6 for the walls with 2x8 roof joists, all 16" oc. 1" T&G plywood floor. We also used 1/2" OSB on inner and outer walls and roof. We insulated it R30 roof and floor, R19 walls. We used metal roofing instead of shingles. We could have built it for less, but not as well. What i'm getting to here is, she said that place of hers was $20k and it's half the size and nowhere near as well built. Do it yourself. It is a feeling like no other. You have the advantage of knowing it is done well and correctly. You know where every wire is and every nail. I was so afraid when i started mine. Now, i know i can do anything needed.

 

I lived in a 500 sq. ft. house for 27 years. When I moved to NEPA I bought a 984 sq. ft. home, BIG for me!
I do have a lot of extra space for my preps. The small house taught me how to use space to the best advantage.