Why the obsession with "tiny houses"?

Couldn't do it, lol. Kudos to anyone who could. I've got my soap room here, which is the equivalent of an office for most. That's the messy room here, and it's locked and upstairs. Other than that, the kids just have to clean up their toys in the living room and anyone who visits has to just accept the fact that with children, we're simply going to have toys round if they stop in unexpectedly.

I also have to say this...we did NOT live tiny when we had two children. so that does make a huge difference in your choice. we had the two story suburb house back then, and that was really nice. lots of room, and I think kids need some sort of 'conventional' lifestyle. (don't bite my head off. I just think that. you may not. it's OK) my thoughts about tiny are for two people. like us that need a couple chairs..a bathroom..bed...and we call it GOOD. lol can childen adjust? sure. for us we did like the traditional for them. now, tho, we're all about frugal and green. and whimsy fun.

Wind In Her Hair~ I LOVE your home!! DH and I are planning to build a 16x 28 cabin but probably will put it on a basement just for the storage space. We are currently living in an RV and frankly it does have some drawbacks but the small space is NOT one of them except for the tiny and I mean TINY kitchen area. But we are managing.

Our reasons for building small are financial (we don't want to be tied to a mortgage at our age) and also to simplify. We don't want to have to deal with upkeep on a huge house and we really like each other so don't need our own "space". We plan to spend most of our time outdoors when we can and want to focus on that, not on having an expensive home. We are cutting down on things to unclutter our lives. We want to get to a place where we only have the things we NEED and LOVE. I can't wait to have our small house done, it will be a couple of years yet.

What you gonna do on the days that the love wears a little thin and one or both need a little private time out of earshot of each other but don't feel like leaving the house?

I had it happen three times with my ex and recently with my gf. I left them to entertain their relatives and irritating children in the living room and I locked myself in my greenhouse 45 feet away and dropped the blind on the door for a couple hours to relax by myself .
One of the times when I locked myself in the greenhouse while with my ex the rug rats were so loud I slipped out the back door , walked next door and borrowed my friends truck to make a beer run but was back before anyone noticed and only had to bid farewell to the plundering horde. Later that evening she noticed my beer fridge restocked with two cases after she had moved all my beer to kitchen fridge for her relatives and I just told her that it was a "magical fridge".

Tiny houses and RVs are not always the best choice for couples for extended periods. They are better geared to single folks in most cases.

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

I don't know if it's been mentioned. But RV's are not meant to be lived in for long periods of time. They require a lot of chemicals to treat the understructures to keep them from rotting, because they are meant to travel.

Extended stay/ four season package RVs are built to mobile home standards only more easily transported.

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

I'm so sorry for you, as for a lot of us the love doesn't 'wear thin'. sorry for you, too, that children seem to be 'rugrats'. yes.....I guess you should have space. all. to. yourself.

I think I could easily live in one of the small houses. Not much to heat and cool very economical. But, I would have to have a big work shop to work in and store stuff. Right now all I do is eat, sleep and watch a little tv inside the house. So I would not need a big house. Once the days get a little longer I won't even be watching tv before bed.

well, I make a big mess and I get burned out doing my projects so I do not have time time or the enegry to clean up when I am done, haha. I clean up eventually.

I actually thought about this problem with living in small homes alot and I think that when I build my little cottage that I am going to need to build some other buildings on the property, like a storage shed and a wood working shop. I can go to the wood working shop, make a mess, and then just close the door and walk back to my cottage and relax in a clean living space.

angie, another good thing about side buildings is that you do not have to heat them all the time and that save fuel, and saved fuel saves time and money.

People want a tub. I like a tub also, but I do not take a bath everyday. I shower each day and then once in a while I like a soak in the bath for health reasons. The tube could be in an insulated shed and you can tile it and call it the bath house. what about those old fashioned tubes people use to hang on the wall and then take down and fill with water in the kitchen, they might be a good choice. Maybe buying an blow-up kid's pool and setting it up as a bathtube might be a good idea.

Living with someone and wanting space is not that hard if you both respect that the space is needed. I had two gf with tiny apartment and it is amazing how you can get space without actually getting away. You just kind of learn when the other person needs space and you give it to them. It is more psychological then physical, but it works. You have to be respectful also. If someone is reading you lower the tv or the radio or you put on head phones. If someone had a bad day and does not want to talk then you leave them alone until they start to snap out of it and want to talk.

citybound. I like your bath house idea. I'm thinking galvanized watering trough for a tub. I HATE fiberglass tubs that will not warm up and hold water warm not worth running the water in.

I am liking the idea of a room, where the whole place is the shower - or a shower that drains as a hospital bath, with no threshold to go over. I'm seeing what Mom and Dad go through and adjusting my thinking.
Also sorta neat thought to just hose down the bathroom area after soaping it up for cleaning.

And even in smaller houses, or my current mobile home, I'd love to incorporate many more of the space saving, storage ideas, so some stuff could be around, but not as noticeable.

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"Live your life, and forget your age." Norman Vincent Peale

Most people have way too many possessions to be comfortable living in a tiny house.

I lived for years in a 500 sq foot home and I currently live in about 400sq feet. I spend maybe an hour on a Saturday morning cleaning, mopping, organizing. It stays clean and looking good because it is not all cluttered up. I feel calm in my space, not claustrophobic.

You have to have a mindset of being content with a minimal amount of stuff before you can ever be happy in a tiny house.

angie, i saw a really cool bath house on the net once that used solar hot water. They just coiled a black garden hose in a glass box and the sun heated the bath water.

Angie, I live in a small apartment that is about 300 sq feet. What I did to save space is build built-ins to save space.

Can you stick stuff under your mobile home?

they use those bathrooms with the drain in the floor in scandanavia and in asia. Some bathrooms are just a tile room with a sink and a toilet with a drain int he floor and people stand in the bathroom and shower. Everything must get wet though I would think.


riley, I use to live in a one car garage and it was the happiest time of my life. The place was easy to clean. Each sat morning I would clean my apartment, do my laundry, and do my grocery shopping and all that took me was three hours. I loved it.

I like the *idea* of tiny houses, but when I look around my home I realize that *functionally*, it would not work for us.

Kitchen area and kitchen storage is the main issue. My kitchen/dining area is not large, but I have made just about every sq. ft. of wall space into storage area. I *cannot* go smaller. Yes, I use the gadgets I have. I need that cream separator, as I use it at least a couple of times a week.

It would not make sense for me to have an outdoor kitchen, as I would have to be traipsing through all weather just to use it all of the time.

Could I make an area smaller than what I now have and be happy, in the overall sense?

Oh yes. I could cut our living room completely off and not miss it. Ditto with foyer, and the closet-sized "master bath". We only use the hall bathroom. Yes, I could streamline and make a smaller house that is MUCH more efficient than this one.

And I plan to do so.

But I promise you that it will be larger than 200-300 sq. ft. I am thinking that 900 sq. ft, efficiently planned, is about as small as I can go with the 3 adults that currently live here. (Self, hubby, bounce-back kid)

Hmmm, but yanno, I could build one of those "tiny houses" for the kid! Yes, that would work out WONDERFULLY!

As for space, hubby and I have lived very close. We have shared a studio, and we don't mind being elbow to elbow. We know when to leave one another alone and when to talk...and we only have a real "fight" (where we might actually raise our *voices*) maybe once a year. So space is not an issue for that.

Space for HIS clothes might be though. Jeez! I gave him the ENTIRE walk-in closet! Plus an ENTIRE chest of drawers to HIMSELF! Why are HIS clothes sneaking into MY little, itty-bitty armoire?

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Peace,
Caliann

"First, Show me in the Bible where it says you can save someone's soul by annoying the hell out of them." -- Chuck

we live in a small house, but hub has a HUGE garage with woodstove and bathroom. it's finished with plaster, and quite nice! so we do have 'our own' space if we want it. we also have a little garden house that is a 8X10 shed, completely finished with plaster, etc., that is our guest room. we have a mobile home we store all extra 'stuff' in. so...to be fair.....that's why it works so well here.

Tiny houses interest people because they can be a cost efficient way to start out as a homeowner.

My first home was 900 square feet and I and my parents did all the building. Building small and building equity was a great way to start for me. I would do it again.

I had the choice of a 400 square foot condo or my own small home and land.

Small homes discourage over night guests as well!

or...kids coming home when they really don't need to! yes, I said that out loud.