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Items one and two don't seem to surprising but I was sttracted to #3. I wonder about the phrase "first in, first out" for I might have said, for things only come in if something gets tossed out as "dead man's boots".....but I guess I'm a classic.
Of course, it might be something bigger than that in that I find that most people have only a specialist point of view, that being a generalist has no concept for them whatsoever. My stand point, in the world of things, is to have enough different things to be able to do any job.
But then again....thoughts?
Last edited by TamaraSavannah; 06-29-2020 at 06:36 AM..
If I want to camp out, I'll be in my fifth wheel RV with 4 slides. It's much larger, better equipped and less expensive to buy than a tiny home.
And I can put it in a RV/Mobile Home lot. People don't readily accept tiny homes in cities because they're afraid that they'll be lived in by extremely low income people and druggies. They don't want neighborhood property prices to decrease with the addition of tiny houses.
I couldnt live in a tiny home, i like room. I have lived in apartments all over the world. When i could afford a home i loved it, I would never go back to not having space. Glad they love it.
One big item that's not discussed is that these kinds of houses are not self-sufficient. So, for example, there's no place for a washer-dryer, so you're trucking to a laundromat. There may not even be room for a tub or shower, so you have to shower at a gym, workplace, etc. You can't store more than the minimum amount of supplies/food/etc., so you're going to have to add a shed. Because it's sitting on wheels, you are limited in your water and sewer hookups - water lines and sewer lines need the house not to move. Most of the stories of tiny houses end up admitting that they've put the tiny house in a friend or relative's yard and use that "big" house for things like the big load of laundry, storing your extra toilet paper, winter clothes, etc.
It's not really a house, it's a wooden tent, or a more-developed travel trailer.
Tiny houses are for people whose home life is like that of a traveler: it's just a place to [poop], shower and shave. They're always somewhere else, so anything larger is a waste of space and cost.
I've never seen a tiny house proponent who could much define what "home" meant.
None of which is meant to be disparaging; some people can almost do without a 'home base' and maybe this is the fad for them. Other than the nominal affordability, though, I have been continually bemused at the vast hoopla around them, as if someone just invented the roof or something.
RVs and fifth wheels have been doing the tiny home thing for years, and they're much more efficient at it. And.... they can actually go down the road and travel, which tiny homes are not set up to do.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Our 25' travel trailer (202 sf) is now my temporary home office, and we love camping in it, but I can't imagine living in a house even twice as big. Not that we're claustrophobic, but we just like elbow room. We don't really need our 3,000 sf any more with the kids on their own but too much space is far better than too little for us. When we retire and downsize it will still be at least 2,000 sf.
There are these things known simply as “small homes” (or sometimes disparagingly marketed as “starter homes”). They have all the standard house features, must comply with standard codes, have foundations, and can be made as charming as any tiny house.
Small houses abounded up till about the 90s. Square footage between 700 and 1600, something in that range. Families lived in them, not just singles or couples.
Nobody gets excited by them. Why? Because they are not a new and weird fad?
Shades of 1946 -- and I thought granddad's Airstream was small
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook
RVs and fifth wheels have been doing the tiny home thing for years, and they're much more efficient at it. And.... they can actually go down the road and travel, which tiny homes are not set up to do.
It's like the Post-millenial Gen Z trendsetters saw their grandparent's Airstream trailer and said to themselves "I could pay somebody to build me a box that is uglier, less functional, and faster depreciating!"
(Photo credit: March 9, 1946, edition of “Saturday Evening Post” from Don’t Call Them Trailer Trash, Schiffer Publishing)
There are these things known simply as “small homes” (or sometimes disparagingly marketed as “starter homes”). They have all the standard house features, must comply with standard codes, have foundations, and can be made as charming as any tiny house.
Small houses abounded up till about the 90s. Square footage between 700 and 1600, something in that range. Families lived in them, not just singles or couples.
Nobody gets excited by them. Why? Because they are not a new and weird fad?
^^^ totally agree!!
If someone would start it as a new, MUST HAVE trend - more people would suddenly get interested and put on a WANT list.
Millions of millions of people around the world live in dwellings that are really tiny to our American taste. Most have no real choice, like in many very populated Asian countries, or even in European cities.
I think our houses here in the US, for example, have a lot of unused, underutilized space that is just pretty much wasted.
In the 40's or 50's in the US, whole families were living in houses smaller than 1000 SQ. I see them in my city older neighborhoods. People had 2-3 kids, and a dog, and lived there without any problems, because it was normal at the times.
Everything was a bit smaller there - the kitchens (and most people actually cooked full meals for the whole family), the furniture, the appliances.
I bet it was easier to "find" food in a smaller fridge and less forgotten food was wasted.
So, theoretically, a 500-600 sq house for just a couple or singles should be enough.
Most of us, if we will honestly admit - have too much stuff. Stuff we wanted once, but not needed or rarely used. Clothes we don't wear, appliances we rarely use, furniture that are there to fill the space...
We got accustomed to huge, open space places, big kitchens, king beds, oversized furnitures, entertainment rooms etc. But that's all is wanted, not really needed. Just more space to clean and warm/AC.
Like a fish in an oversized aquarium - we grow bigger with the space...
It's very hard to downsize, especially to
do drastic changes. We have to get rid of many things that we had in our big houses. But after a year or two, lots of people I know said - that they don't really miss them. They don't miss them because those things weren't necessities in their lives, rarely used, mostly ignored.
I think there is a big difference between living in a super small, crowded, noisy apartment building, and well designed tiny house sitting on our own land.
Tiny houses nowadays aren't comparable to the small houses from the 40's. With the same SQ they feel spacey, more utilized, modern.
Our regulations in the US reduce tiny houses to 400 SQ and they must be on wheels.
Change the regulations to 800sq and a slab, and we will surely see more of those.
Some of the extremely tiny houses are just too small for my taste. I think I could live comfortably on 500-800sq but 250sq IS too tiny. And living on wheels instead of a slab is just not the same. It doesn't give you the feeling of stability. Doesn't feel permanent.
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Shades of 1946 -- and I thought granddad's Airstream was small
