75 Square Foot Homes?

[Chuck]

I heard this guy interviewed on NPR this morning. He builds, and lives in, a 75-square foot home. That's smaller than my bathroom. He says it makes life simpler. It would certainly cut down on housework, that's for sure!

So how about it? Could you live in a house this size?

[seedspreader]

Originally Posted by Chuck

I heard this guy interviewed on NPR this morning. He builds, and lives in, a 75-square foot home. That's smaller than my bathroom. He says it makes life simpler. It would certainly cut down on housework, that's for sure!

So how about it? Could you live in a house this size?

I doubt I could fit into a house that size... sigh, I swear sometimes I think life would be better being a midget.

[AngieM2]

He has some houses on his site that are up to 500 sq feet and then an adapter to "tie" two together.

I love the way he uses every little space.

here's a link to his site:

http://tumbleweedhouses.com/houses.htm#roof

I don't think I could live long in one, but it sure would beat a tent for a vacation spot.

Angie

[caberjim]

I heard that interview. He did stress it was for a single person only as his girlfriend seems to have broken up with him before he could build another. Still, I liked his ideas.

I spent the weekend in a hotel suite that was probabaly less than 400 sq ft. Had a full kitchen, desk, double bed, full bath, dressers, couch and TV. I kept thinking how it seemed very spacious despite all that stuff in it. I could have lived more than comfortably there. Of course, our house is 980 sq ft and has 5 people in it, so 400 with just me is huge.

He had some interesting points about use of space, lofts, storage. His website is pretty good to. I may have to rethink that addition.

[Torch]

I've got a wife and 6 kids. I'd need at least 80sf.

[GeorgiaRain]

You're kiddin right? 75 sq feet? Looks like a playhouse, no, I couldn't live in one!

[Torch]

http://tumbleweedhouses.com/information.htm#prices

Yikes!

[lacyj]

We did that for about 9 years. We have a 100 sq. ft. cabin (bedroom) a 20ft long travel trailer for cooking and bathing and an outhouse,(well actually 2 outhouses,summer and winter) The winter outhouse has a coldwater washer, clothes line and gas generator, the heat from the generator helped dry the clothes. The total footage that we were using was about 300 square feet and included 2 dogs and DH.
We've been building for about 2 years and the new place is 1000 sq ft. It's a mansion. It's sooooooo nice to have indoor plumbing, a kitchen under the same roof and the refrigerator isn't on the porch anymore...
Don't get me wrong, the smaller living space worked well for us. We spent much more time outside than we probably do now. We only had company on nice days, i.e. summer months, cause there was no room for anymore inside...ha

[uncle Will in In.]

That's about the size of a old VW bus.
10 hippies could live in one of those, and carry on extraordinary activities at the same time.

[CraftyDiva]

I could see this as a James Bond secret entrance to 2000 sq ft below ground. The good thing about this little house would be the cleaning, just tie rags to my hips and turn around to dust..............

[Chuck]

There is a family that we know who has nine children and lives in a 2-bedroom singlewide trailer. I don't know how they do it.

[Alice In TX/MO]

The prices are obviously based on the California economy.

I wonder what it would cost to build one of these in south Texas?

[Melissa]

I am not sure my bed would fit in a 75 square foot area and leave room to get out of it.

[frazzlehead]

While our house is being built, my son and I are in a 10x16 shed (from Home Depot, the HandyHome packages). It's got room for my double & his single bed, shelves, a portapotty behind a bookcase, and a patio sink setup from Canadian Tire. Water is in a blue jug on the shelf above the sink, we have stuff under the beds and nails on the walls to hang clothes. It's NOT spacious by any stretch but we think we can manage for a little while.

The kersoene heater is on a plant stand with wheels so I can scoot it under the sink 'counter' or pull it out when it's time to warm things up, we have a small skinny Ikea table that is our dining table/worktable/countertop and is light enough that you can easily move it from one spot to another.

The whole setup would be much better if we had a bunk (one of those with the double below and single above) but I can't justify purchasing one for the couple months we'll be there. Plus, the ceiling height is only 6' at the edges (about 7.5 to the cross beams in the center) so there's not a lot of vertical space.

If I was doing it again I wouldn't buy the package, but would build from scratch and make a loft. Still, we have the whole setup - paint, toilet, sink, gravel, all the stuff I had to buy that I didn't already own - for just over 4K CDN.

And, once the house is up, it'll make a really nice garden shed - with paneling on the interior walls no less!

[Blu3duk]

First i thought i had mis read that 75sqft tag.... then i got to reading, and looked at the tumbleweed page and can wholly understand... he is from sebastapol California.

A friend and i lived in a 8 foot overhead camper on his pickup for 4 months while working in Colorado, not exactly what i would call living, more like a place to crash at night... had to go outside to change my mind a few times.... but it was a nice change and for 4 months we had no rent [camped in a rock quarry].

as far as being able to live in a samll structure with a family, I believe that the space requirements by government nitwits puts each family member to have 250 sqft of living space in the house..... 11 folks in a single wide is chancing CPS taking control over theri lives in a heartbeat if some do gooder nieghbor believes it isnt fit for those kids to live that way..... which by the way i feel is the wrong thing to do [turn someone in to CPS or any other agency for that matter]

I have thought of building a small cabin with a cook shack and washroom built away from it, however i meet resistance and i guess my wife already knows im not a Borg [resistance is futile... you will be assimilated] so i already know we aint gonna live in a small quaint cabin.... more than likely.

William

[moopups]

His prices are way overboard, I don't see $1,500.00 worth of material in any of the designs. As far as living in a small space goes I lived in a 10 by 11 room for 3 years, and an 8 by 18 truck box in the past with pleanty of room for the basics, camp stove, sink, trundle bed, ect.

The small space is for someone whom does not have much in the way of posessions, my iron working tools would not fit within the structure, must less the garden equipment, ag tools, ect.

[MaineFarmMom]

Originally Posted by Chuck

I heard [URL=http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/information.htm]

That would be an adorable potting shed.

[Simpler1773]

Those look very nice! If I was a single person with no children, I could see myself very happily living in any one of those structures. His finishing work looks beautiful. As for the price, I've seen people pay more than that for a vehicle that just depreciates, the guy has to make a living!

My grandma and grandpa started out building a two room house that was 12 X 24 (288s.f.) and started having kids immediatly. Later on they added another room about 12 X 12 and all together they raised 11 kids and two grandkids in that 3 room house. That would have been a total of 15 people under one 432 s.f. home.(if they were all home at the same time) That comes out to 28.8 s.f. per person.

[buspete]

We could fit a bunch of his little houses in our bedroom alone!