There’s a craze going around in the “sustainable” world of climateers and greenies about “Tiny Houses”. They tout the “smaller carbon footprints” and in one video saying ” …tiny house living can lead to a more ethical relationship with the environment, and might possibly lead to a mitigation of climate change.” Yeah, sure.
The two most common benefits often listed by Tiny House proponents are:
Environment-Friendly
– Since your Tiny House is going to be small, you can make a lot of it out of recycled, repurposed, and salvaged materials. In addition, to make your house look cool and unique, it also saves the number of new materials from being made.
Energy Efficiency
– The energy needs for a tiny house are much smaller than the energy needs of a traditional home. Smaller appliances and a smaller space use less power to heat and cool the air.
I don’t think I’d ever be ready to move my entire life into a tiny space like this, nor do I think I’d want to live in one that looks like it was salvaged from a scrap pile…
But, I can think of one good reason for having one in my backyard: extra relaxation space doubling as a guest house.
Plus, guess what I found out? You can purchase all the parts and instructions on Amazon. It reminds me of the way Sears-Roebuck used to sell entire kit homes shipped by rail during the early part of the 20th century.
This one looks pretty cool, and it is said you can assemble it in about 8 hours.
In the description, the plans say that this kit house can be built in less than a day – about eight hours, when two adults team up for the job. Well…. maybe, assuming the instructions aren’t written in Sanskrit. That also doesn’t include pad preparation time.
But, you can probably pull it all off in a weekend. It can also be a studio, sun-room, garden house, pool house, mother-in-law sequestration facility, or truly anything your heart desires.
There’s no HVAC, electricity, or Internet to this DIY home, you’ll need to do that yourself. But that’s all pretty easy. I can see solving the HVAC problem with one of these roll-around heat/cool units once you get some electricity, and you could probably get WiFi or wired Internet using either a power line LAN extender or a WiFi extender.
There are other models too, ranging from a traditional log cabin look to an external office style.
I can see adding a tiny house to extend the American Dream of “living large” in your backyard, but not for a primary domicile.
Plus, imagine the looks on the faces of your green oriented friends when you tell them you are now a tiny house owner, but you had it shipped to you (using fossil-fueled transportation) and added it to your existing home.
The result: schadenfreude, via priceless political incorrectness.
4″x 4″ treated timber posts concreted 2′ into the ground, 3′ apart, with 4″x 2″ treated timber joists covering 18′ x 30′. Roughly 60 posts with a 15′ x 15′ solid timber structure secured to it surrounded by timber decking with enough space underneath for the dogs to keep any vermin at bay.
It has drainage, water, electricity, internet, and a 3m wide entertainment screen with a projector, three couches including a fold down bed, and a beer fridge.
It’s what we commonly call a summerhouse in the UK. OK, it’s possibly a bit over engineered, and it’s entirely liveable in as a guest house, but it’s still at the bottom of the garden and I wouldn’t live in it, other than when the wife kicks me out for a night.
The technology to build even large energy efficient dwellings has been around for a long time but few people in the UK are inclined to demand it as commercial house builders, build down to a price, not up to a standard.
Building your own home in the UK is largely restricted to enthusiasts and is invariably undertaken by very expensive turnkey contractors of specialist kits. Nor is it helped by building regulations which in Scotland, I understand, includes the requirement to conform even to how the house looks these days.
And don’t even get me started on Listed buildings. Our conservation architect wants us to install windows in our old cottage with those made from timber only available from the other side of the world (yes really) which is sent to Europe for treatment before being shipped to the UK for specialist carpenters to fabricate. The original windows would have been from locally sourced, cheap timber. So much for environmental considerations!
Tiny homes can work well, long term for some people and situations –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVDRtQHA7dQ&lc=z23xjhe4lqykgbc5404t1aokgprx4hlvwib3qixnyjj0rk0h00410
Especially when owner built they can be an achievable economic build.
But the commercial typical “tiny house” prices are really exorbitantly priced.
You could buy land and an older house for the same price.
I went to a show with a friend few weeks back.
$30-$90 thousand dollars. They were not small, more like glorified RV’s designed like a house.
However, even I could build those for $15,000. Way too pricey
What Al Bore has to say about this?
Not to ruin the party, but where do you go to the bathroom?
One of those little trees outback?
Has AOC moved int the neighborhood yet?
I can’t see any cooking facilities or bathroom in the featured “Tiny House”.
Perhaps those activities are conducted outside.
Would that make it a “Paleo” house [used to be known as a cave] ?
Proposed by the de-growth movement – the degrowthers: Where do you do #1 and #2 and where is the shower, sink and dishwasher, etc. ??? I guess they just forgot all that stuff.
If it weren’t politically incorrect it wouldn’t be worth doing! Buy 3!!
Tiny houses represent a health hazard especially when you’re forced to live indoor during long winter periods. Fungal infections, lung problems, allergies and mental diseases go off the chart in those cases. Better by an Oak Wood Jacket in the first place. And don’t forget that the concept for small housings is part of UN Agenda 21. The Tiny House Craze, The Global Warming Craze, you name it, it all comes from the same centralists (communists) who have engaged in the “Second Cultural Revolution” and who want to see you dead ASAP. We still don’t know how many people were killed by the First Cultural Revolution which remained confined to the Chinese territory. This one is Global. Just connect the dots.
Free spirits need freedom and space. Period.
The tiny carbon footprint is specious. The lack of any storage space means a small larder and twice weekly runs to the grocery store. Laundry seems to have been ignored in the calculation as well. Micro laundry loads must be done incessantly, or drive to the laundrymat every few days. Lots more gas and electricity.
If sharing a micro living space, remember that there is no separation space. No place to retreat to for mad, anger or even miffed. Ya both are right there all the time.
I predict that the rate of divorce and homicide will be high for tiny house dwellers.
You can google living in a shoebox for lots of tips, but even better — Monty Python!
https://genius.com/Monty-python-four-yorkshiremen-live-lyrics
“But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.”
If we are into promoting tiny home manufacturers, I have a fondness for these, classed as mobile, hand-built by master craftsmen, at the same price and size as your recycled rubish-tip reclamation job.
http://www.barreltopwagons.co.uk/cabins-wagons-lodges-huts.html
Full disclosure: I don’t own one of these, but I have met the craftsmen who make them. Extremely nice people.
My friends in the Philippines call them Smurf houses. I think there is a place for these, and some of them are pretty high tech with all the bells and whistles including toiletries, running hot water, electricity, kitchenettes and A/C. All of the fixtures and appliances are common to the RV market. Many of them are designed to be set up (or hauled) on a two axle trailer or placed permanently. The linked one below has a wood fired hot tub. I have rented in some similar sized built more for the tropics and tourism, which also makes sense if you are just sleeping in in for the most part.
If municipalities and cities devote some space to zoning for these, it will allow students and low income folk to get onto the real estate ladder, and nothing encourages capitalism and conservatism more than home ownership. Which (housing) is becoming a luxury to a lot of young folk, which some then find solace in activism and the climate charade when they can’t access what old generations took for granted.
https://examinedexistence.com/20-awesome-tiny-homes/
Or Google pictures https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C6CHFA_enCA713CA715&q=pictures+of+tiny+homes&tbm=isch&source=hp&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjngpz-tpfiAhUni1QKHXkyDpMQsAR6BAgHEAE&biw=1280&bih=651
Tiny houses were invented nearly 70 years ago. Until recently they were called mobile homes. After a tornado they’re called debris.
They have existed in Scotland for many years. They are called a ‘Sitooterie’ This word is a Scots colloquial term, though not a common one in print. It means a place to sit out in, a summerhouse or gazebo, from sit plus oot (a Scots pronunciation of out) plus the noun ending –erie of French origin that’s familiar from words like menagerie and rotisserie.
Something like this perhaps……
/sarc off…….
That, in Australia, would be called a dunnie!
I don’t need a little house, or a Mc Mansion. Happy where I am.
The house comes with a San Francisco-style no-plumbing-required bathroom.
Check out Monty Python’s ‘Four Yorkshire men’ – They had it tough!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Yorkshiremen_sketch
In Ontario, Canada they are known as “coach houses”. But these smaller houses must meet all building codes for safety, plumbing, electrical, etc. before an occupancy permit is issued.
“Cheaper, but not cheap”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/coach-house-under-construction-1.3942856
Tiny Houses are suitable for young single people, yet to acquire large numbers of possessions and keen to spend disposable income socialising rather than on a mortgage.
Both sides of the climate debate need to grow up and stop insulting each other. Constructive debate might be worthwhile, never ending sneering is pointless.
Tiny Houses do not meet code for primary residencies in New York State.
I spent more than a year investigating these — both scratch built and pre-fabbed — before giving them up. My wide and I would have experienced an enlargement of of primary living space in a tiny house — all of them are bigger than our sailboat on which we lived for a dozen years.
There are two nearby — one a rebuilt two-car garage, with additions, and one built on a trailer frame (with wheels). Their resale value is in doubt, as they don’t meet any building codes — thus do not qualify for mortgages.
….my wife and I ….
Thank goodness we have the PRNY to tell us how big a house we need to live in… Who needs freedom when we have such wonderful, efficient government to run our lives…
They already have lots of theses in the Third World. They are called squatter shacks/ shanty houses. I don’t think the people living in them are happy with the arrangement
Actually, the smaller an object is the faster it loses heat.
Most ecological accom. is huge tower blocks of flats with no windows.
I am currently building a “tiny house” (700 sq ft) not for any of the reasons listed in the article. It is only my wife and I in the middle of the forest on 20 acres, and we have been in a 350 sq ft single room cabin for several years, so it is an upgrade for us.
We own the land outright. The finished house will have cost around $15,000 all in cash, no debt.
It doesn’t look like it came off the scrap heap, though quite a bit of it did.
No building permits/inspectors in the forest, so all those govt. officials can go fornicate themselves with a large iron stick.
If you take your time to amass materials before you build, you can come up with a pretty good little shack for next to nothing.
Oh yeah, did I mention that there is no debt involved here? As in no mortgage, or interest payments?
I have no need for a 5000 sq ft home. I have outbuildings to store stuff I am not using at the moment, and I don’t require much “stuff” in my home, or life for that matter.
And I have seen many much larger homes that were just as much a crapshack, or worse. Drive through a trailerpark sometime, you’ll see plenty.
Not to denigrate on anybody at all, (with the exception of the govt. officials noted above) just listing a few personal reasons for living in a “tiny home” that have nothing to do with eco-lunacy, or being homeless.
At 160 square feet these things are not much bigger than living in a car. A standard 4 door sedan has about 120 square feet of “foot print”, but not as much head room.
In many areas the cost of housing is from real estate, not the dwelling atop it.
In some municipalities in CA they have an issue with RV’s lining the streets alongside and within the city parks. The RVs dump their sewage tanks directly into the gutters and into the storm drains. They use public services for trash removal. This situation is a direct “tragedy of the commons” where private individuals are abusing public use rights for personal gain.