How likely is it that your next home could be a tiny home, or maybe a small home?
As time goes by, it’s becoming more likely that you’ll be able to buy or rent a tiny or small home the next time you’re in the market for a home. These are the top 12 tiny house trends that are helping to fuel this reality. This is a fun read, so grab your favorite beverage, enjoy, and let’s talk in the comments.
The town council of Amherstburg recently voted to allow tiny homes on foundations with a minimum 323-square-feet (30-square-meters) minimum and within 20 meters distance from the primary dwelling, according to the Windsor Star.
Tiny homes take many different shapes and forms, even when it comes to zoning and real estate. One way to get legal tiny houses back on the map is through RV parks, right? That’s one way. Another way to do it is through ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units), also known as guest houses, secondary dwellings, accessory structures, and the like.
Seattle is an interesting place to pay attention to for tiny and small homes because of these 5 trends, as showcased via the Seattle Backyard Cottage blog.
They’re all very interesting trends that we will very likely see spread to other areas. And who knows, you could very well be one of the first to inspire it. Let me tell you a little bit about these trends, and how you could possibly see them in other areas of the country and world.
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1. Newly adopted Seattle code allows for family-friendly DADUs… With an extra 200-sq.-ft. of space, many detached accessory dwelling units (DADUs) are being built for families.
Up until now a majority of cottages were being designed for aging parents or as rentals accommodating an individual or a couple without children. These new larger cottages are also being designed for families with children including a 900 sq. ft. cottage we are designing in Ballard for a family of five. And a 1,000 sq. ft. cottage for a family of four.1
This is the Rainier Valley Cottage by Bruce Parker of MicroHouseNW. It’s a small house designed to be simple to build to keep construction costs low. What do you think of this design/build?
This Rainier Valley backyard cottage takes advantage of solar access and territorial views. The design of this cottage was intentionally simple to keep construction costs down and to make it easier for the owner who operated as the general contractor for this project.
This is the Laurelhurst DADU in Seattle, Washington by MicrohouseNW, they specialize in backyard cottages. This one is a 575-square-foot home with a 390-square-foot footprint. The cabin even features a living/green roof, exposed trusses, and interestingly enough, the bedroom is downstairs. Opposite of a loft, hehe.
DADU stands for Detached Accessory Dwelling Unit, which is basically just another term for a detached guest house. These guest houses are one way to design and build small homes while still meeting local building codes. And in Seattle, people are even creating their own homeowners associations (HOAs) and selling their backyard cottages to others. Yes, some have been listed and recently sold, and we talk about that in this article.
This is how accessory dwelling units (guest houses) are being restructured into condominiums so that they can be sold separately from the primary residence on the property. Pretty interesting, right? What do you think?
…increasingly people are using condominium agreements to sell DADUs separately from the primary residence.1
This is the story of a couple who built a 400-square-foot backyard cottage in their Seattle backyard and then moved in.
Also, they rented out their big house. Genius, right? Sounds pretty smart to me! What do you think? By the way, this story is brought to you thanks to Jenna at Tiny House Giant Journey.
This is the story of Bruce Parker. He’s a Seattle architect who specializes in small backyard cottages, also known as ADU’s (accessory dwelling units).
Bruce Parker, a Seattle Architect specializing in backyard cottages, discusses the high home prices, city legalities, and the potential benefits of building a small house on your land.1
This is one couple’s fisherman’s tiny cottage in Ballard. It’s a backyard tiny home they built which was featured over at the Seattle Backyard Cottage blog. I love backyard tiny homes like this because they’re a wonderful way to (legally) get more small and tiny houses built.
