Why not a tiny house?

Originally Posted by oneraddad

I did 2 1/2 years in 27' while building my house and learned so much about myself.

The trailer was instant housing when I didn't have time for much else.

Originally Posted by jwal10

The OP was talking a small house as temp living space while waiting to build a house. A small house (space) is what you make it. A 1 level building with floor? 5th wheels have different levels, each slide out has a different level. Motor home has steps, floor is usually above chassis frame. Very small door(s), very limited area to move through. Baths are usually small unless the larger, newer (expensive) models.

Yes, I can agree with this. While I find this motorhome comfortable and have no problems with the space? DH finds it more challenging. The key word here is "temporary," while also vacationing means "short term" for me. I don't see us taking this motorhome entire Winters like my in-laws do...

We have 5 different small spaces. This off grid cabin is the size of a single garage 12'x22' with a 10'x18' leanto. The living area is 11'x13', the rest (9') is kitchen/dining with the woodstove on side wall between kitchen/living area. Bedroom/sitting is 10'x12', bathroom is 5'x10'. All doors are 3' wide, 1 door into the bedroom, 1 into the bath area. Good flow, wide pass through areas. It also has a 7'x8' air lock entry, passive solar (large south facing window), closet, acts as a mudroom. Everything on a concrete pad, all ground level.

Sounds great! Many can't even build an outbuilding more than 200sq ft. Here, you cannot live in your outbuilding, but we can build a 400sq ft cabin without a permit.

Bigger than the 8'x12' chicken coop I lived in for 5 years while going to school and farming full time and smaller than the 1212 sq ft family home where the 2 kids grew up. This is the biggest of the 5 properties we have now. A 10'x16' upstairs barn apartment at the farm, the 16'x24' barn below is garage/storage/shop. The town cottage is 18'x24' with a 8'x12' storage shed/shop. Rented out at this time. The beach cottage is 16'x24' with a 10'x16' sleeping space/bath, 4'x6' storage shed. The lake cabin is 14'x20' with an 8'x8' storage shed. We wouldn't trade any one for an RV. It is all in what works in each situation, codes (if any), length of stay and budget. And most of all what you can live with.

Sounds just wonderful! Yes, one sometimes has to settle, due to code considerations, financial limitations, and sometimes also skillset differences. While we settling by living temporarily in a motorhome, it beats a tent by a long shot!

The 5 years I lived in the chicken coop I also had a 6'x9'' 3 sided leanto (old goat shed) for a summer kitchen/outdoor area under the shade of a tree. The chicken coop had shiplap siding, knot holes covered with tin can lids. It had a plastic/chicken wire mesh "window" across the front, 3' high and 6' long with a homemade door with a screen door spring, no latch. Old tin barn roofing, no sheathing, just nailing strips. Even the floor was shiplap, no insulation except a layer of cardboard between the wall studs, plastic under the exposed rafters to catch the drips. Temporary turned into 5 years, I was 12 when I moved in. Took 3 years to finish the 16'x24' cabin, a flurry at the end because Sweetie and I got married soon after I turned 17....James

Originally Posted by AmericanStand

Two great ways to go with a tiny house while building,
1 Build your tiny house as a part of the bigger house , a room or wing or garage with the kitchen and a bath would seem to work best.
2 Build your tiny house with things you will use in the bigger house, appliances and fixtures ,etc.

Originally Posted by Bellyman

It sounds like you made a good choice as well! $5k is a pretty tight budget to try to find something of decent quality in the rv world but you did pretty well.

I sold our travel trailer for $2,200, which actually was a profit of $1,200 (had to do with a barter with cash trade for our 32' travel trailer, a few years ago). So, we only had to add $2,005 to get the motor home. The reason it was sold for $4,250, had to do with the "little stuff." Everything that was wrong, DH could easily fix. Most folks don't want to buy anything that needs any repairs, even small ones. The same type and age is being sold for over $6,000, so we were very pleased

Our first one was in that same price range and we ended up with a 1993 32' Jayco TT, no slides. It was parked along a lot of brand new FEMA trailers (this was in 2005) and looked like a palace compared to those. And it served us quite well. It was a bit cramped for us but we did just fine. It was intended to be temporary and we lived in it for pretty close to 1 year.

Back in 2005, we also bought a 32' TT, was a very nice one despite not having slides. Our goal was to live in it while we built. Then, the plan changed when we bought a property with a manufactured home on it. That is the last one we had. After a few years, we sold it. DH didn't like the floor plan and it was bigger than we wanted for camping. That led to the barter w/cash (paid to us) for a 19' travel trailer (the one we sold for $2,250). Funny thing? I wish we had bought about (10) of that size, wow was it amazing how many people wanted it! People were trying to outbid each other, but I sold it a nice couple who drove almost 2 hours. There was no way I was selling it out from under them.

Since we didn't want to move back into our fixed up home (hurricane Katrina) and we didn't quite know where we were going to end up, we decided to upgrade to something more livable longer term and that's when we got our 37 footer.

Sorry to hear you had to deal with that! 37' is a very comfortable rig!

The difference between the purchase price and the price we sold the Jayco for a year later was less than a month's rent in an apartment. I did do some work, resealing roof seams, fixed the circuit board on the refrigerator, some little stuff like that, but for the most part, it really did work out pretty well.