Who on here lives in a "tiny house"

[Nik]

Who on here has experiance building, and or living in a tiny house? What were the good and bad points of living in one? What do you think the minimum square footage needs to be for two adults? Any special concerns when building one? Thanks.

[Patt]

We are currently living in 376 sq ft. We have 2 adults and our son who graduates this May. We aren't here by choice but it is working out for us.

[where I want to]

I lived in an 800 sq ft home. I actually liked it a lot. It was very efficiently laid out to the extent that the bathroom was large even if there was only one. It was cheap to heat. Every room was sunny due to windows allowing light into all spaces. (Little hall way to cut off light.) I kept it clean because there was no room to let messes be ignored. No wasted space for unused rooms to just collect dust. It had a surpisingly large amount of storage built in, even though it was in small mounts all over the house.
The only issue that caused congestion was the one bath in the morning but that's always true from people on the same schedule.
The kitchen needed to be designed better as there two doors- one to the laundry room and one to the dining room - that left space for the fridge only between them. That could be an irritation at times.

[Joshie]

The term tiny house is relative. We live in a house that's very tiny to us. It's about 1200 sq ft. We came from a house that 5300 sq ft (including unfinished basement... current house is on crawl space). We have a ton of stuff in storage and really need more room before anyone does harm to anyone else.

[ChristieAcres]

I don't, but I have an RE Client who does live in a Micro-Cabin. It is a 2-story, roughly 400 sq feet total. From the outside, it looks like a tall shed type building (slanted shed roof). Inside, it is finished off beautifully, and set up very efficiently. You enter & straight ahead is the little kitchen & you can see the stairwell leading up (the side of it, from this angle view). To your right, is the living room. There is a bathroom and bedroom upstairs (with vaulted ceiling). "J" has lived in this cabin for six years, keeping it meticulously clean. He told me he enjoys living in that size space and has no desire to live in anything larger. This "Contractor" should be designing & building Micro-Cabins for others!

Last year, DH built us a 200 sq foot 1.5 story garden cabin with a high peaked roof and a covered porch. This type of construction could easily be turned into a Micro-Cabin. There is a room for the garden tools/equipment that is 10 X 8. The other side, 10 X 12, is my potting shed side. I have a vaulted ceiling overhead with a loft over DH's side. We will be setting that up to sleep in during the summer, occasionally.

Someday, we will get another piece of property, for vacationing to, and for DH to build a log cabin on. That will be probably no more than 800 to 1,000 sq feet.

[tomstractormag]

How about a >House Truck<? I just got a book (Some Turtles Have Nice Shells) about house trucks.
It is very interesting. Some people have built and live full time in a house built on a truck chassis or convert a school bus. I think it would be like living on a boat.
These are not like a camper as the construction is really like a house.
If you think about where you actually live in your home you use a very small area anyway.
Something to think about.

Tom

[Mrs.Swirtz]

My DH and I are currently building a house that is just under 700 sq ft. It is twice the size of the cabin we are currently living in. I have no trouble living in this small cabin but it is very cluttered because we have all of his tools in here and all of our stuff. Our stuff is all very usefull and necisary. When you have your preps in the house ond all of your prepping stuff plus regular living stuff like clothes and what not in a 350 sq ft living space it will be cluttered. looks messy to outsiders but what can you do. Our new house is going to be fantastic , lots of storage and a way bigger kitchen. it is two stories. kitchen , bathroom and living area on the first. The upstairs has 4 ft pony walls. Going to be mostly bedroom. Huge bedroom. Also since no room on the first floor we are going to be putting our washer, dryer and freezer along one wall on the second floor. the rest of that wall will be built in storage. Plus the house is set up 4 ft off the ground so we will have plenty of storage under there. I can't figue out how to post pictures on here or I would post some of the house in progress. it looks huge but it is not. I think that smaller houses are the way to go if you live in a cold climate or if you are building out of pocket as we are. Lay out is the most important thing. A friend of ours just built a cabin for a neighbor. it is the same size as ours but only has a half loft and he built the stairs in the middle of the room .So there is no storage , a tiny kitchen and the living space is almost half of ours. The view is better but then again it was only built to be a care takers cabin so it doesn't have to be for long term living. if you have any questions feel free to pm me. I think little houses are really the way to go. Also have lots of books on small homes if you want some.

[Mrs.Swirtz]

Used to live in a 38ft cabin cruiser boat with 3 other people and my last BF lived in a 8 x 10 cabin for a while.

[cowboy joe]

Lived in a 450 sq ft apartment for a bit with my two DDs. As everyone has mentioned, really have to keep after the clutter which was a challenge with two kids. Downside to an apartment was not being able to do any renovations like built ins or better use of space.

The current house is 1450 sq which is more house than I need. Thinking 600-800 would be ideal as long as there was a work shop in the barn.

[LonelyNorthwind]

Small homes and cabins are common in Alaska. It takes too much to heat a bigger place and building materials are dear to come by. We have the greatest, biggest backyard on the planet and most don't worry much about the indoors as long as its cosy, warm, and filled with those you love. I live in a 24x24 cabin now but for 15 years my home was a 12x22 floathouse. Fresh water came from the roof, my firewood and a lot of my food from the beach & woods. As long as there was firewood on deck, lamp oil and a good book I was rich. I still have the floathouse. She's tied on the beach in front of my cabin waiting for friends or family to keep her company.
As you can see, there's the master bedroom, guest bunk along the wall, formal dining room with incredible view. I had a small bathtub by the wood stove and a big stainless pot full of water on top of it all the time. My potty was in a small wood/tool shed on the deck.



Turn around and you can see the kitchen has plenty of storage space and a full size propane cookstove. I cooked mostly on top of the woodstove tho, still do. Somehow it just makes the food taste better and why waste the propane?




Here's where she sits in that greatest biggest back yard. I can't believe I don't spend more time down there than I do.

[foxtrapper]

Biggest special concern imo is manueverability. With a big house, it's not an issue, with a tiny one, it very much is. So consider where appliances are, and how they open. Same cabinets , doorways, etc.

Going to an RV show can really open your eyes to this problem, and to ways to deal with it. All RVs and campers have this problem, but not many deal with it very well.

[highlands]

We, family of five, live in a tiny cottage - 252 sq-ft - which we built ourselves. It is wonderful. Easy to build, low taxes, easy to maintain, easy to heat (3/4 cord of wood/yr), easy to clean... We love it. See:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/labels/Tiny%20Cottage.html



Eventually we'll add a little bit more space on to it as our family grows and bury the north side and roof to earth shelter the house. Realize that this is just living space. We keep all of our farm work outside. This is much more pleasant than with our old farmhouse where we kept piglets, chicks and lambs in the kitchen, tools in the pantry, etc.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

[blooba]

Check out Survivalpro's videos on youtube How to start a homestead with nothing ?
He has a nice little setup.

I used to live in about 400sq ft and it was nice and cozy,easy to clean, ect. although if you are building a house check on the building requirements. Some places have a minimum of like 800 sqft for a house.

[DAVID In Wisconsin]

I spent a few years in a 240 square foot house. Once you get things ready, it's easy. You'll become very creative in storage and you can't hold on to junk that you'll never use. My current home is 800 feet and I'd have no problems going back to a tiny house. Sure was a cheap way to live. A previous poster mention that you look at RV's for ideas. Good idea, you'll get a few great ideas there. Good luck!

[Rick]

two adults and a 5 YO GS for a week at a time in a 12 x 20 cabin 10 x 12 shed 12 x 6 trailer.

30 gallon stock tank next to the wood stove as needed for baths.

it is tight but 70 acres to play on helps.

I tip my hat to Walter : HIGHLANDS

[Linkovich]

My house is probably a bit less that 600 sq feet, but it is plenty big! I saw a neat idea of having separate houses for different tasks, like renovating a small shed as a work shop or office, instead of having to build that extra sq footage onto your house. Here another suggestion I found for small houses, cheap and easy to make...
http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm

[ldc]

I live in a 324 sq ft house, and have been here for 15 years. It's great! Used to have an 8X12 enclosed screen porch which helped for tool storage. Used to sleep out there too, before the 2 BR serial killers! The yard is good for the dog, etc. ldc

[Jolly]

My wife and I lived for awhile in a 600 sq ft house. Something that helped considerably was the fact it had front and back porches that ran the length of the building.

The biggest thing I learned was that everything has a place, and it must go back into that place as soon as you are through with it. A small house does not like clutter.

[Heritagefarm]

Ours is about 800 sq. ft. I don't really mind it, but the other member of the house does. Also, the house is not laid out well. It was originally a chicken house, that the people before us converted to a house. It's also eaten 2 feet up by what the exterminator called "The biggest fricking colony of termites" he'd ever seen. And he wasn't new to the job, either.

[Heritagefarm]

Originally Posted by Jolly

The biggest thing I learned was that everything has a place, and it must go back into that place as soon as you are through with it. A small house does not like clutter.

That is for sure.