You might think that tiny house living will solve most of your problems, as I have, because it will lower your bills and reduce the amount of chores you have to do around the house.
But is it really true? I’m beginning to question it even though I’m fanatic about the benefits of living in well-designed small spaces. Laura pointed out some of these realities and shared them with us in a post recently and the following are my thoughts on the issues she brought up after reading Audrey’s post over at Trying on Tiny.
Tiny House Living versus Apartment Living
Tiny houses are big on saving you money. It’s the fastest way to living mortgage free that I’ve ever heard of. But for some people, like myself, the amount of chores compared to apartment living will actually increase. Sure, cleaning your tiny house compared to your apartment will be quicker.
Photo by Alex Pino
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Tiny House Living Expectations: Simplifying or Roughing It? Article by Laura LaVoie
This post on the realities of tiny house living over at Trying on Tiny was brought to my attention. In it, Audrey mentions the unexpected things they’ve had to face since moving into their tiny house; and not all of them have been pleasant.
Audrey and Tomas chose to downsize their lives and hired a builder to construct their tiny house. Because of their lifestyle, they weren’t able to be with the builders on a regular basis and it wasn’t until they had their little house delivered to their doorstep that they realized that there were some things they hadn’t considered.
Audrey mentions some of the challenges that have come up including mold issues surrounding a leaky drain and chores they took for granted in their old life.
She calls her expectations something of a “Tiny House Fairy Tale.” Audrey had a perception that downsizing their lives and moving into a cute little house would solve all their problems not create new ones. She writes, “It’s simple to flush a toilet; it’s not as simple to carry a urine bucket outside and ‘fertilize the garden’.”
Photo by Laura M. LaVoie
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This small NYC apartment magically transforms 420 square feet into 1100 square feet of usable space with the use of multifunctional furniture.
It’s known as the LifeEdited apartment in the Soho/Manhatten area of New York City. What you’re about to see here is the apartment of Graham Hill, founder of treehugger.com.
He bought the apartment back in 2010, as you’ll see in the video below, and has since renovated it. The video was shot and produced by our friends Kirsten Dirksen and Nicolas Boullosa at Faircompanies.com. The project took about 3 years to complete.
The small NYC apartment can become a huge master bedroom or a giant open office with windows thanks to the built in furniture that transforms the space and hides all of your stuff.
Photo Credit Faircompanies/YouTube
Below is a photo of the apartment before the renovations.
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Tiny House Living Perspectives by Hari of the Tiny House Family
Last night, I read Alex’s post and the wonderful discussion that followed on “Let’s Face it: Tiny Houses are Not for You.” Rather than downsizing to tiny or some ideal size, imagine right-sizing your life. What space do you need to live happily? More importantly, how can you make the most of where you live now?
We’ve just set the foundation for our “big” house, and we are all feeling nostalgic. For a growing family of 4, we know we need the extra space our “big” house will provide, but we realize that our time in our tiny house is finite. It’s bittersweet.
It’s been 20 months of pure growth! We might live in our tiny house for another year or so; we really could live in this house for the rest of our lives, but the constant compromise on our solitude and creative endeavors doesn’t feel right for raising two creative kids. Knowing we are building our right-sized house feels good and makes our time in this house that much more precious. I imagine the lessons we’ve learned while living tiny will help us navigate our new space with peace.
Photo Credit TinyHouseFamily.com
Downsizing to tiny forces compromise. Compromise can make big things happen, like building a mortgage-free dream house. During the compromise, unexpected and amazing gifts appear. For us, the gifts are deeper relationships and connection as well as a clearer vision of how we want to live our lives. It’s like we’ve been in some sort of therapy–the therapist is a house, and she made us fall deeper in love.
Our ultimate goal: build a mortgage-free micro-homestead.
Our plan has three phases:
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If you’re interested in building a tiny house on a trailer to live in, vacation in, or work in and you want to learn how to do it yourself then read on.
If you’re already familiar with Dan, you know about his company Tiny Home Builders. He offers a construction guide, plans, building services, and how to videos on building a tiny house.
The videos are a great option if you’ve been thinking about going to workshop, or have already been to one, and want some more guidance as you design and build your own little home.
The video set used to be expensive – almost as much as going to a workshop. But Dan has recently lowered the price to make it affordable for most of us.
Below is a preview/intro to the videos on constructing a tiny home:
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Two Tiny NYC Apartments by Laura LaVoie
As someone who lives in a tiny house, I am very familiar with that look of horror and the question of “how can you live in a space so small?”
Sometimes it isn’t worth answering but it depends on who’s asking. I think from now on I’m going to answer by reminding them that people have been living in tiny spaces for a long time and many even smaller than our 120 square foot home. When they continue to be incredulous I will point them to the mythical land known as New York City.
I am sure there are plenty renters in tiny NYC apartments who would look at my tiny house in the mountains as a luxurious estate. Back in 2010 Fair Companies produced a video about Felice Cohen who showcased her 90 square foot apartment in the city. When I saw this video it was early in our own building project and I was inspired by her tiny apartment. In fact, we took the idea of curtains for closet doors and applied it to our home.
Watch the video tour below along with an even tinier New York City apartment:
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The tiny house movement has been growing organically over the years.
I say organic because there haven’t been any loans or official communities for tiny homes yet. So it’s been a slow and steady growth of pioneers who have been building tiny houses themselves from scratch.
These people have plowed through challenges like zoning, financing, and social norms. They are now living proof that tiny house living has major benefits.
In this video by Jackson Loo for The Daily you’ll get to see the latest happenings in the tiny house movement across the country, from Washington State to Washing, D.C.
You’ll see the home of Dee Williams, Logan and Tammy, Brittany Yunker and Boneyards Studios’ attempt at a tiny house community in the city of Washington, D.C.
“It’s got less square footage than a roll of toilet paper,” says Dee Williams about her little home.
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Tiny houses offer an appealing lifestyle, but they don’t work for everyone. Understanding the realistic challenges helps determine whether going tiny makes sense for your situation—or whether a smaller (but not tiny) home might be a better fit.
Tiny House Community Concept
Photo Credit: Four Lights Tiny Houses
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2012 The Americana Tiny Home For Sale
The first thing I want to tell you is that this Americana Tiny Home for sale is a pre-built shell so the interior is not 100% finished.
This solar powered tiny house has a side entry and totals to 211-square-feet of interior space. But wait, does the auction include the panels? Yes, I checked and it sure does. I think it’s a great design but I’m not all for the James Hardie HardiePanel Cedarmill Siding even though I’ve heard it’s less maintenance. The 8′ by 19’2″ home is built right on a trailer so it’s like a custom built RV with an 8′ by 7’6″ sleeping loft. You just have to finish the interior like choosing your own kitchen countertops. All of the exteriors is finished and the interior walls are framed. This means windows and doors are already in place along with the water heater and propane hookups. The tiny house has a metal roof with a 30 year warranty and it sits on a dual axle trailer with 7,000 lbs of weight capacity.
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I urge you to check out some more photos and the rest of the details below:
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