Tiny home with a porch and a tiny business next door...

[Wildwood]

This is so inspirational...I love it but then I've always liked small spaces with great utilization of space. Anybody old enough to remember the top cat cartoon where he had a completely outfitted home in a garbage can? As a child I was so intrigued with that little set up. DH and I could easily live in a camper.

http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/...shotgun-shack/

[texican]

Semi remember top cat...

I'd prefer one of Dr. Who's 'tardis's .... larger on the inside than the outside... poor tax collector wouldn't get much income off of a tardis... (unless he/she knew what it was)

[Leister Square]

I loved Top Cat! Me too about the trash can. I always wanted to set up "forts" in the strangest places when I was a kid...

[Ernie]

I like a small house. It's my stuff that keeps demanding more space.

[TNHermit]

If iwas to go small and altenative it would be this

http://www.google.com/search?q=hobbi...w=1130&bih=510

[AngieM2]

TNHermit - Hobbit houses?

Do you think that look could be achieved with the ferrocement that my cousin is thinking of for building down here? I think the F-cement and some earth covering would yield something like that (and be more tornado resistant than conventional).

I like hobbit houses.

[ladycat]

Originally Posted by texican

Semi remember top cat...

I'd prefer one of Dr. Who's 'tardis's .... larger on the inside than the outside... poor tax collector wouldn't get much income off of a tardis... (unless he/she knew what it was)

I don't know what a tardis is, but I know how you could have a house that was bigger on the inside than on the outside.

Build a teeny tiny house, but have a humongous basement underneath for your actual living quarters. Nobody would ever suspect the truth unless you showed them.

That's such a cool idea (your post made me think of it), that I wish I could do it.

[AngieM2]

Originally Posted by ladycat

I don't know what a tardis is, but I know how you could have a house that was bigger on the inside than on the outside.

Build a teeny tiny house, but have a humongous basement underneath for your actual living quarters. Nobody would ever suspect the truth unless you showed them.

That's such a cool idea (your post made me think of it), that I wish I could do it.

that is a very neat idea, Ladycat.

And the tardis is the spaceship of British "Dr. Who" who was a time wizard sorta fellow with 12 or 13 incarnations. It's has a following, I liked the #12 I think it was - with the long knitted scarf.

It looked like an old fashioned British telephone booth, and traveled through time and face and diminsion. Tiny outside and opened hugely inside.

[Cyngbaeld]

http://www.flyingconcrete.com/
Angie, have you looked at this lately?

[TNHermit]

Originally Posted by AngieM2

TNHermit - Hobbit houses?

Do you think that look could be achieved with the ferrocement that my cousin is thinking of for building down here? I think the F-cement and some earth covering would yield something like that (and be more tornado resistant than conventional).

I like hobbit houses.

I did ferro cement in the 80's for a university study Not good results. You can actually make the cement look like wood. gotta remember what we did . I know we stained the concrete. Use to do plaster wall like that too

[AngieM2]

Originally Posted by Cyngbaeld

http://www.flyingconcrete.com/
Angie, have you looked at this lately?

Oh my. What a piece of Art!

TNHermit - any more information about the "not good" portion of that cement?

[TNHermit]

Originally Posted by AngieM2

Oh my. What a piece of Art!

TNHermit - any more information about the "not good" portion of that cement?

The trouble with concrete is the same it has always been. Moisture. They suffered bad from cracks,sweating and moisture problems. MOLD! WE did two domes. No flat walls to hang anything on. Sealers and stuff may have improved but have you ever lived in a 20-30 year old basement. with out a lot of additional things concrete is not friendly to live in. A total pain to remodel or add on to. smaller is worse than larger to me.
I think the draw is there are some nice looking buildings but generally you will see them in desert climates. Its dry there

But I guess I go along with TIOGA. If you want small you can go to any agriculture area and buy an already framed building and do what you want with it. You really don't need a foundation for it. you do with concrete And they are only a couple grand or less. I don't know what the cost of concrete would be but I can't believe its that cheap or cheaper.
I guess I may be jaded. I have Mother Earth since issue 1. I've seen this stuff pushed for 50 years and I have been a builder that long. Its fun to try different things if you got money and time. I like cordwood (easy and cheap ) construction but would never build it to live in. It requires LOTS of maintenance

[soulsurvivor]

I don't have any pictures of it and wouldn't begin to know how to post those even if I did, .... but my brother built a concrete house back in the late 70s. It's still a beautiful home, although he doesn't live there now. He used round silo frames my dad built to pour a concrete silo on our farm and that was back in the 60s. The house has steel reinforcing the concrete and it's basically a joined set of two big silo shapes that face each other over a very large living room square. The outside has a stucco look and it's painted white with long narrow windows, a cute front porch and back patio. It's sitting on a hill overlooking a big lake and has lots of trees around it. My niece and her family live there now. Except for the living room and garage, all walls are rounded. He put native cherry wood paneling halfway up every wall and painted stucco above that. I don't expect to ever see another house like it.

I love creative housing. I think it brings out the best of what we humans call surviving in comfort.

[Wags]

I like the idea of small houses, right up until I'm reminded that I'm already out of space to store preps.

[AngieM2]

Originally Posted by soulsurvivor

I don't have any pictures of it and wouldn't begin to know how to post those even if I did, .... but my brother built a concrete house back in the late 70s. It's still a beautiful home, although he doesn't live there now. He used round silo frames my dad built to pour a concrete silo on our farm and that was back in the 60s. The house has steel reinforcing the concrete and it's basically a joined set of two big silo shapes that face each other over a very large living room square. The outside has a stucco look and it's painted white with long narrow windows, a cute front porch and back patio. It's sitting on a hill overlooking a big lake and has lots of trees around it. My niece and her family live there now. Except for the living room and garage, all walls are rounded. He put native cherry wood paneling halfway up every wall and painted stucco above that. I don't expect to ever see another house like it.

I love creative housing. I think it brings out the best of what we humans call surviving in comfort.

Sounds really neat and unusual. I've been teased by family about turning those storage silos into a house. I wish you could post a photo of it.
Oh well, we will just have to exercise our imaginations.

[Ode]

I love that hobbit house. It looks comfortable and snug, and almost a natural part of the landscape. We wants it preciousssss!

[taterwayne]

I love these Hobbit houses,they're cute and whimsical......but I ain't got that kinda money laying around to even think about trying to build one.

[Elffriend]

I've always wanted to live in a Hobbit hole, but I'd settle for a TARDIS.

Angie, I strongly object to anyone referring to The Doctor in the past tense! There have been 11, so far. The one you are thinking of, with the long scarf, was number 4, played by Tom Baker.

[TNHermit]

Might as well go all the way

[MaryE]

Oooooh! It's like Swiss Family Robinson