Tiny Houses (Tiny Homesteads)

[Soloist]

Wife.
First time I stumbled on this thread. I love tiny houses/bus houses, especially if they are made by someone handy. Hubby's sister and her boyfriend converted a bus and it's looking pretty nice (they may have poured $10,000 into it over time, including buying a junky rv for parts), and they often find things cheap/free on craigslist/facebook that they use and are quite artsy, having some stuff with driftwood and a bunch of other things. I get the feeling that it attracts people who can't afford buying a house/rent and want to be able to travel, although at 5 mpg, she's sounding iffy about that nowadays. I've been tempted to do the rv route compared to expensive rent, but I have noticed that most, if not all, of my friends who did rvs/buses with a family now live in regular houses, and it might drive me batty with children. Also, there are certain states I would not want to live full time in one of those unless I had a friend with a basement. I'd consider something like that in my later years though. I like the idea of renting one first to see how I manage it.

As for the houseboat method, you have to not get seasick, and it sounds incredibly expensive. Hubby's uncle has one that looked almost as big as one of our apartments, and he's also got a brick and morter house in the Keys. Those things are incredibly costly, and the docks as well, not to mention the crowd they cater to (although we've only been to the ones in the keys/New Orleans). What do they actually do during storms, anyway? some of those storms, I would guess, might give you short notice to move the thing, and it seems like an rv would be much more portable and cater more to the lower income people, as well as give you more opportunity to mingle with the common folk.

[Ken]

Wife.
First time I stumbled on this thread. I love tiny houses/bus houses, especially if they are made by someone handy. Hubby's sister and her boyfriend converted a bus and it's looking pretty nice (they may have poured $10,000 into it over time, including buying a junky rv for parts), and they often find things cheap/free on craigslist/facebook that they use and are quite artsy, having some stuff with driftwood and a bunch of other things. I get the feeling that it attracts people who can't afford buying a house/rent and want to be able to travel, although at 5 mpg, she's sounding iffy about that nowadays. I've been tempted to do the rv route compared to expensive rent, but I have noticed that most, if not all, of my friends who did rvs/buses with a family now live in regular houses, and it might drive me batty with children. Also, there are certain states I would not want to live full time in one of those unless I had a friend with a basement. I'd consider something like that in my later years though. I like the idea of renting one first to see how I manage it.

As for the houseboat method, you have to not get seasick, and it sounds incredibly expensive. Hubby's uncle has one that looked almost as big as one of our apartments, and he's also got a brick and morter house in the Keys. Those things are incredibly costly, and the docks as well, not to mention the crowd they cater to (although we've only been to the ones in the keys/New Orleans). What do they actually do during storms, anyway? some of those storms, I would guess, might give you short notice to move the thing, and it seems like an rv would be much more portable and cater more to the lower income people, as well as give you more opportunity to mingle with the common folk.

The whole tiny house controversy is really more of an issue of land than anything else. There are vast stretches of this country where you can basically buy land and live in whatever sort of home you want to with very little hassle: Yurt, adobe, teepee, RV, school bus, tiny house, van, or McMansion. When I taught in Texas I had students living out in the rural fringes of the district in various beat-up RVs, mobile homes, cabins, etc. There are lots of places where you can basically go live off the grid in anything that you want.

The problem mostly comes when people want to do so in densely populated or highly popular areas where for a big variety of reasons laws and regulations are going to be much more restrictive. So big cities like Denver or Seattle. Or wealthy destination places like Santa Fe or Bend. People just aren't interested in hundreds of tiny homes, school buses, and RVs parked about. And harbors are especially difficult because they are so scarce and environmentally sensitive.

Personally I think we need a lot more European-style high density inexpensive flats for people to live in than lots of tiny houses scattered about on their individual lots. You can house 100x more people per acre that way.

[barnhart]

Does tiny homestead include living in small regular houses that are situated in a urban area. If so, maybe we qualify. Our family of 8 lives comfortably in a 750 sq.ft. apartment.

[mike]

Does tiny homestead include living in small regular houses that are situated in a urban area. If so, maybe we qualify. Our family of 8 lives comfortably in a 750 sq.ft. apartment.

I think a lot of the tiny house idea is economy, and any home in an urban area is probably not really economical. Still, I would give you an honorable mention.

[RZehr]

Does tiny homestead include living in small regular houses that are situated in a urban area. If so, maybe we qualify. Our family of 8 lives comfortably in a 750 sq.ft. apartment.

I think a lot of the tiny house idea is economy, and any home in an urban area is probably not really economical. Still, I would give you an honorable mention.

Definitely gets an honorable mention. However, we are going to have to have your wife’s concurring testimony with regard to the “comfortably” claim before moving your application forward.

[temporal1]

Does tiny homestead include living in small regular houses that are situated in a urban area. If so, maybe we qualify. Our family of 8 lives comfortably in a 750 sq.ft. apartment.

I think a lot of the tiny house idea is economy, and any home in an urban area is probably not really economical. Still, I would give you an honorable mention.

Definitely gets an honorable mention. However, we are going to have to have your wife’s concurring testimony with regard to the “comfortably” claim before moving your application forward.

i’m so fond of Soloist adding quotes from his wife, any topic. much appreciated.

There may be definitions for Tiny Houses versus tiny, or small houses. For myself, i definitely count houses - esp under 1000 sq ft, as small or tiny. In my area, codes+covenants nearly ban anything under 2000 sq ft., new construction, possibly with the exception of apartments?

Putting a home on a permanent foundation = property taxes.

i’m glad to read here, this is not true everywhere.
i’m not in Chicago or suburbs, but, with a large state university, we are crawling with lawyers and restrictions in this county!
there may be fewer restrictions in other counties - but, also, fewer jobs! see how that goes? - available jobs = higher COL.
young people need jobs AND affordable living.

[Ken]

The typical "tiny house" is one built on a standard size road-legal trailer frame which is 8.5 feet wide by 40 ft long. Any larger than that will require special wide load or oversize permits, pilot cars, etc. to move and then you are in mobile home territory and not tiny house territory.

An 8.5 ft by 40' trailer frame generates a home that is about 300 to 320 square feet of interior space or 340 square feet if you are measuring the exterior dimensions.

Around here some people don't do the tiny house on a trailer thing. Instead, they get a shed kit like they sell at Home Depot to put in their backyard and then just stealth finish it out into a living space for a guest bedroom, studio, etc.

Like so....

[Josh]

Where I live, we have an abundance of single-wide trailers. I suppose you could call these "tiny houses".

[barnhart]

Does tiny homestead include living in small regular houses that are situated in a urban area. If so, maybe we qualify. Our family of 8 lives comfortably in a 750 sq.ft. apartment.

I think a lot of the tiny house idea is economy, and any home in an urban area is probably not really economical. Still, I would give you an honorable mention.

Not necessarily. Many small and medium size cities have a lot of housing in areas where demand is low.

[mike]

Does tiny homestead include living in small regular houses that are situated in a urban area. If so, maybe we qualify. Our family of 8 lives comfortably in a 750 sq.ft. apartment.

I think a lot of the tiny house idea is economy, and any home in an urban area is probably not really economical. Still, I would give you an honorable mention.

Not necessarily. Many small and medium size cities have a lot of housing in areas where demand is low.

I do agree with that. And distressed cities do have a lot of cheap properties available.