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Well, I was surprised that you considered a 1200-1500 sq. ft. home to be very small.
BTW, I loved spending a few months in my kids' 3 room guest cottage. I'm guessing it's about 500 - 600 sf. My plan is to move there for at least 1/2 of the year and find something of similar size down south for the remainder of the year.
Well, that was a compromise for those who would freak out at the thought of living in under 1000 sq ft.
My current home is two floors, 1350 sq ft total. I can and often do live solely on the first floor, which is about 800 sq ft with a bedrm, bath, K, and very large LR. It is open concept so it feels big and airy. I hate to clean although i regularly do, and believe me cleaning more that one bathroom and doing more floors than what I have is not a happy prospect, given my mobility issues. I'd much rather spend the same time helping myself with yoga, or doing creative projects. Cleaning a large home, been there done that, it's over.
The townhouse is small, 1100sq ft. I think 1200 -1300 would be about right. Having the basement does make a difference because it is useful for storage and exercise equipment, yoga space ect.we could add a bedroom for quests if we wanted to. A very detailed cleaning takes about 2 hours, we do have 2 bathrooms!
There are times when I want to kicked the walls out another foot or two, but then I just realize I need to make a few chances and everything is good. I would rather be smaller than larger!
The townhouse is small, 1100sq ft. I think 1200 -1300 would be about right. Having the basement does make a difference because it is useful for storage and exercise equipment, yoga space ect.we could add a bedroom for quests if we wanted to. A very detailed cleaning takes about 2 hours, we do have 2 bathrooms!
There are times when I want to kicked the walls out another foot or two, but then I just realize I need to make a few chances and everything is good. I would rather be smaller than larger!
And THAT is a first, in these United States, especially Texas where everything is better and bigger.
Now "very small house" it seems is open to a bit of interpretation. I'm learning that "very small house" means 2500–3000 sq feet for some people. When I was creating the thread I was thinking maybe 1500 sq ft max (no matter how many floors), and maybe more like 1200 sq ft. This seems unimaginable to most here, so I'm thinking that my original intention has been lost (or never gained).
When I think of small house, I think of 800-1000 sq ft. I have about 1250 now and could do with less which would mean less work.
In many rural parts of the country, especially in the South, small home rental living is common place. The lack of Condos, High rise apts. and the like are almost non existence. I have several friends that have invested in these, own a property rental business ( they call it "management") along side their brokerage. Many were connected to migrant workers, but not so much any more. I am talking 400-700 sq. ft. " bungalows" as the term best describes them. Not sure where that term started, but I know it was common place in the 30s-40-50s for many reasons. Namely after the War so many troops were coming home, a pocket full of cash, wanted to marry their sweetheart that waited for them to come home, along with a new car, which were very hard to get on the open market.
Housing became short as well, so, a new form of "bungalow" was born, a small steep pitch roof house with no frills, like any roof overhang. most were quite ugly, but it was a place to call home, start a family , and go to work in the factory/ mill and or further their education under the GI Bill. The austerity of these homes fit right in with the times. People had money ( a little cash, no 30 year loan stuff ) little or no debt, and were hungry for all the things everyone went without , all for the War effort.Those days turned living into places like LevitTown , Pa. The suburbs, the tick tack houses all in a row, and all alike became the new norm once the Country got started in building again , things different than airplanes, Tanks, Jeeps, all that was done for 5 years.There were shortages of everything including steel to build cars and kitchen cabinets.The times were a changing.
When we decided to move to the Ozarks and started househunting, we wanted a relatively small, easily maintained, single-family home. That's what we ended up with. It's all on one floor which was an absolute requirement, has 1480 ft.² and 200 of those are an all-weather sunroom that we've basically given over to the cats. For us, it's just enough space and not too much or too little. I have my office, my wife has what she calls her dressing room and we even have a master bedroom for us. We wouldn't want any more space but since were thrown together pretty much 24/7, we really wouldn't want any less.
One problem with pre-existing smaller houses (like the post-war houses described) is that, over time, people tend to add on to them. In areas that become affluent, people often tear them down and build new.
My area has a lot of post-war small ranch houses- three tiny bedrooms on a quarter-acre. A lot of people have added second stories to these (there's even a company that does only that). The other small houses, which would be cottages/bungalows (former summer shacks) have often been fixed up for full-time living or added on to, somewhat, but there are still small houses around. I've been in my area for 20 years, and virtually every cottage on my street has been substantially added onto, or torn down. There are four new "straight-front colonials,"which I think are the most boring, boxy and badly laid-out houses anywhere.
I had a 750 sq.ft. cottage that had started out as one room (well-built, basement/attic) with a well and presumably an outhouse before it was winterized and added onto. The adding was apparently done with the infamous hammer and a six-pack. Everything was like scrap lumber/fixtures. After eight years of fighting a losing crumbling leaking battle, I had to tear it down and built a contemporary sort of saltbox/cape (the town doesn't know what to call it) on roughly the same footprint that is about 1250 sq.ft. all told. I love how most houses around here aren't cookie cutter and many are smaller and older and well kept.
The straight-front colonials with the half-circle window- bleh.
That's the price it sold for in Oct, 2012. Denver has gotten crazy expensive.
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for those who would freak out at the thought of living in under 1000 sq ft.
