Tiny House Envy

Longtime readers of this blog may remember that I've written before about the tiny house movement -- a proposition for radically downsizing and building houses with a very small footprint - no larger than, say, 300 square feet. A lot of them are much smaller than that - less than 100 square feet - usually with a loft for sleeping and clever solutions for bathrooms, kitchens, and power.

Most of these houses are owner-built; some are constructed from prefab components; some from recycled or free materials; some are even built on trailers so that, like a turtle, you can take your house with you when you decide to live someplace else! All are just waiting for handmade innovations and off-the-grid, and low- or no-tax living.

As for many people, these buildings appeal to me not so much as a primary dwelling but for their hobbit-house-like coziness, their energy efficiency and environmental sanity, and the privacy of having one's own minimal but comfortable shelter in the woods. They seem like the epitome of less-is-more.

Lately I've been looking at what people have done recently, and I've found there's a lot more on the web about this than when I first got interested. The guru of the tiny house movement is arguably Jay Shafer, who has been building and extolling the virtues of these little houses since the late 1990s. His company, Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, sells plans and already-built houses of less than 140 sq ft.

Michael Jantzen's blog Tiny House Design and associated newsletter, Tiny House Living, is the best place I've found to keep up with what's happening in this movement. For instance, here's a post on his design for a free house made from recycled pallets.

 The New York Times even got into the act recently, with this feature on small houses including a gingerbread cottage makeover of a hunting cabin (left) which is way too twee for me.

I was most pleased, though, (and amused) to see the video embedded at the top of this post, about Vermont tiny house builder Peter King. Peter is soooo Vermont, and it makes me happy to see and hear him extol the best of what makes/made my former home state unique.

Comments

[mary]

I got a huge kick out of this. I just wonder how he's able to afford the land?

[Julie]

I love this! And I sitting here saying Yes, Yes, Yes and then I realised that in the grounds of my French home I already have a tiny house....

Is this what they refer to as A Wake-Up Call???

[Kim]

Really adorable little houses. But what would I do with all my lovely furniture?!?

[ej]

Why wouldn't he be able to afford land? Living in a tiny house doesn't mean he doesn't/couldn't work.

Lovely furniture can be seen as an asset or a liability...

[Julie]

KIm, I was thinking that about ornaments and pictures and then it occured to me that they could be outside, a lovely standing stone, a wood totem pole, wind chimes...
and yes, I liked this views on working hard to buy four walls with a mortgage, rather a Thoreau, isn't it?

[Marja-Leena]

These are so charming. I've looked at some of these sites for the past few years too, including a place on Bowen Island near here but couldn't find it this time. For me, they'd make a lovely little summer or ski cabin but I'm too settled in a big house to downsize 'that' much, especially with my claustrophobic tendencies. These would be perfect for a young couple starting out but land costs in this part of Canada are prohibitive.

[john]

The whole thing,noble as it may seem,falls apart when you consider this question.Where would you put the books?

[Julie]

John, you'd have an iPad instead of books
or you'd visit the lending library
less dusting and cheaper on the wallet...

[Hattie]

Not an I-Pad. A Kindle. I have had one since they first came out and hardly ever read books or newspapers any more. I still like reading magazines, though.

[Z]

I've started to want one, and it's the books that stop me. Mine aren't on Kindle or in any library within a few hundred miles, and they were hard to get hold of, and I want to be able to read in the old fashioned way.

But the way I started wanting one was, I rented a studio apartment for a month on vacation in a large city, showing up with only a suitcase. I felt so liberated without all my stuff and not having a car, it was very revealing.

I think I shall divide my stuff. If I trade in my small to medium, but normal house for two tiny houses, I will have enough stuff for each house, and I will have two homes. The car will go with the one here, because this area needs a car, and when it wears out some of the stuff in the house here will have worn out, too. I will then rent out this tiny house to someone else and go live on that money in my other one.

I just came up with that plan right now, in response to this post, but it's not half bad! I think I'll do it!

[john]

I have been away so i haven't had a chance to respond to Julie.There are people who suffer from bibliomania and i a bibliophile am one.Its been called 'A Gentle Madness'.I wish to be one with Jorge luis Borges who said'I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.' and Thomas Jefferson who said in a letter to John Adams 'I cannot live without books'

[Terresa Wellborn]

I lived in a tiny house cabin on the shores of the Atlantic, on the coast of Uruguay. It was big enough for 2 people, but just barely, with loft space on the tiny second floor, and a galley kitchen downstairs, room enough for 1 small table & 2 chairs, and a bathroom. The landlord built it himself. I wish I had taken more picts of it while I lived in it. It was as functional as it was beautiful.