After quarantines and lockdowns became a normal part of life, Teja was looking for a place of his own instead of living with roommates — but when the average cost of a home in San Jose where he lives was over $1 million, there was just no way he could get into the housing market.
That’s when San Jose agreed to allow ADUs in the city, and Teja worked as a trailblazer to get his professionally-built tiny house on wheels approved on his parent’s property. He’s now using that experience to help others get legal tiny homes situated in the city. What do you think of his awesome tiny?
Janet got in touch to show us her lovely 320 square foot foundation home that was built as an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) on her son’s property in Danville, Kentucky.
Although this tiny home wasn’t Janet’s “Plan A” for a retirement home, it ended up being the best one, she says. Now she lives in her happy L-shaped home just steps from her son and teenage granddaughters. She cooks family meals a couple times a week and yet has her own private space.
Thankfully Danville recently allowed for ADUs, giving Janet this great option for retirement! See pictures of her home and read her story at the end of the post.
Here’s a tiny house you can walk to the beach from out of Dennis Port, Massachusetts.
It’s called the Sand Pebble Cottage, available to book via HomeAway, and located within 1/2 mile from the beach, and 1/2 mile to the village of Dennis Port. What do you think?
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
Just got news that Governor Newsom signed historic housing legislation for California that allows homeowners to build up to two ADU’s (accessory dwelling units) on their property.
This legislation will definitely boost interest and demand for micro, tiny, and small homes in California – where extra housing just like this is desperately needed. What do you think? This is a good thing, right? I suppose, some homeowners will be upset about it.
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.
