The Tiny House Movement

Robin,

Thanks for the insight into these tiny houses. I'm a single guy who does not need much room. Simply put, a kitchen, living room/bedroom, and a bathroom will do. maybe a second unit for some storage and exercise equipment and I'm set. something for me to consider for the future.

Sandy

Robin,

What a great find, says I, looking at considerable horizontal and vertical filing in my computer/photography space!

"Keep it simple" is one of my mantras. "Tiny," as these houses are, they are an inspiring perspective. As I get older I am slowly thinking about consolidating, and even doing some, but not so radically as to fit these tiny houses at this time.

Not having a house foundation in our neck of the woods, in Syracuse, NY, near Oswego, Parish, and Mexico, NY isn't advised as we need plumbing, heat, no frozen pipes, and not to be blown away. We also need tools to deal with the weather. To show you what I mean, here is my backyard early Friday morning after five days of shoveling.

We need some space inside since we can't always play, store, and cook outside. "Cabin fever" would take on new meaning in these tiny houses this winter, if it were our sole residence. It is an inspiring idea. I am not ready yet.

Sally

PS There is still opportunity to help shoveling!

Robin,

Yes, these intentionally small houses are a breath of fresh air and are appealing partly because they demand real intelligence and creativity of the architects. And naturally, we can't sustain the trend toward ever grosser homes.

My wife and I lived for 4 years in a 360 square foot apartment in Japan and I never felt it was too small. When I try to imagine it now, though, it does feel claustrophobic. Clearly, there are some serious attitude and cultural things at work in our minds here.

Living in SF, we've had our fair share of tiny houses (in our last house our "master bedroom" was only as wide as our double bed). I have to say there's something nice about having a tiny home, where you know you can't accumulate more stuff. Also, the cleaning is a snap ;)

So in recent years we've joked about how we'd love to retire to a yurt in the woods. They actually aren't too expensive -- between $4 - 10K depending how big -- you just need to find the perfect spot in the wilderness.

A man in Santa Rose was building small shelters like that one, then found the military wanted them for war zones.

A woman architect in Tiburon designed modern, modular (very small) homes that could be transported to a spot and finished relatively inexpensively. I especially like the version that had a short, covered walking space between the two sides of this tiny home. Sunset magazine had one model on display and crowds of people came to see it.

Yet my favorit may be the Katrina cottages, designed for people after that disaster. They've proven to be so popular that Lowes is selling htem in several Southern states.

I just ran across this. A discussion of a small house kit in Japan, with discussion of small houses and apartments in Japan, and interesting links.

http://daddytypes.com/2005/10/03/the_9tsubo_house_with_kids_thats_320_sf_btw.php

Then there are the Pods...stackable, built in a day homes.

http://www.perrinepod.com/