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My house is a bit less than 1,000 square feet. I had it gutted to the studs over four winters and remodeled to my taste. Most of the ceilings were vaulted. It’s basically a new house with all new systems. Most of it was re-framed. Rewired. New plumbing. Windows & doors. Totally new heat and a mini-split A/C. 13 years later, I’m married and the house is lacking storage space. I’m looking at sneaking in a half bath to eliminate bathroom contention. I’m toying with adding a heated garage with conditioned storage space.
I’d be fine with a 1,200 sf house with a full basement and an attached garage. I owned a townhouse ski condo for 26 years that was 1040 square feet. Sub-1000 is a bit small for two people.
Depending on circumstances and details, building a half-bath (or even 3/4 bath) into the heated garage might make sense. But then you have to worry about the bath freezing and being damaged if the heat fails. Out here ordinary resistance electric heat can make sense for a heated garage where "heated" means "above freezing" not necessarily "take your coat off and stay awhile" levels of heat. But your electric rates are a good bit higher. You guys in the Northeast seldom have natural gas available.
You might get away with a composting toilet, (assuming you won't use it a lot) and running the grey water from the sink into a French drain. Or not. Tying in to the sewer system would likely be expensive.
I thought about doing this when I built "Garage Mahal" my 2.5 car new pole barn garage, which has electric power and I do keep it above freezing in winter, but decided I didn't want to give up the room for even a small bath, the septic tank is about level with the garage so I had doubts about plumbing into that, which is not strictly to code, two buildings on one septic, but out here I probably could get away with it. In the end I decided it would cost more than it would be worth, and didn't do it. But your sitch is probably different.
After my last divorce in '99, I bought a 400+ sq. ft. house on a huge lot for $7000. Super easy to heat. Just left one burner on the gas stove on. Didn't have to worry about the bad stuff killing me. Old houses like that one are drafty enough. lol My step daughter used to tease that she was going to buy me a big box of Miracle-Gro to spray on my house and maybe grow another room. I had one big room, which was kitchen, den and bedroom all rolled into one, then the bathroom.
Lol, your step daughter is funny.
That is one small house, like a cottage. My grandma lived in a cottage- maybe 600 sf. also on a large lot. We used to play there as kids, there were lots of trees to climb and we had so much fun there. The house was so cozy we thought of it as the gingerbread house cuz grandma always had fresh cookies and it smelled great. Ah nostalgia.
You ever approach any city with plans to build a house? They're gonna want payola to allow you to build. Figure a few hundred grand should cover the city's "costs."
Now, if you HAD to pay a city, say 200 grand, just to get permission to build, you're going to incur costs that a small house cannot possibly absorb/amortize. So, you build big house as there's more profit in that. (Or, you build more of 'em.)
These crazy costs were not always there. City's have discovered that builders are a "cash cow" to be plucked. It also is responsible for filling City coffers too. (Where I am, the City gets $440,000 per house, just to get permission to build...)
Where would you pay $200k just to get permits to build? Certainly not Houston. The only things hard to do here are upgrades to a house in a historic district.
That is one small house, like a cottage. My grandma lived in a cottage- maybe 600 sf. also on a large lot. We used to play there as kids, there were lots of trees to climb and we had so much fun there. The house was so cozy we thought of it as the gingerbread house cuz grandma always had fresh cookies and it smelled great. Ah nostalgia.
My first house was a 400 sq. ft. cottage in a nearby beach town. It had a large kitchen, living room, one bedroom, bath, and big screened porch. The location was ideal as it was 2 blocks from the beach and 2 blocks from a small bay. It was also in the middle of "The Point", which had a mix of Victorian, early 20's, and 50's homes. People used to call it "the dollhouse" because it was so cute and cozy. I still miss it.
Oh, ok. I thought you meant just the permitting/site plan costs. It's standard here, also, for some large business developments (say a strip mall/business park) to have to do road upgrades. A "park" might be incorporated as mandated greenspace/stormwater management but would be contained in the property and certainly wouldn't be open to the public.
LOL, I wish.
I just pulled out those 99 conditions. Number 34 states: A plot of level land, not less than 2.25 acres, to be improved with irrigation, grass/trees, swing-sets, other permanent playground equipment, water fountains, block wall structure for rest rooms (ADA compliant.) Costs for maintaining shall be of the owner, in perpetuity.
So, I gotta buy the land.
Buy the improvements.
Maintain the facility, FOREVER.
Oh, the "proposal" by the City, had the park located 4 miles from my proposed facility....with it to become "city" property...
They also wanted me to build a fire station for them. (NOT kidding.)
I honestly wonder why ANYBODY would want to open/build a business in Oceanside.
Bear in mind, I was an existing business owner in Oceanside. I had to move because my location had been rezoned to "residential" from "Heavy Industry."
So, after 31 years of business, the city summarily "kicked me out of business..."
Again, please list where, other than maybe HOAs or PUDs, there are minimum size limits.
In the area I'm living now, many homes are built in communities. When looking for land to buy, I constantly saw ads that said, "Minimum size 2000sqft" or "Stick built homes only - no manufactured houses" or "Roof must have a (specific degree) slant (meaning no manufactured houses as that's because they have a very low roof line). Some were HOAs, some weren't.
A lot of cities have limits on the size (large and small) of houses to be built. That's why it's always news when a city finally approves ADUs in backyards, and even they have to have a minimum square footage.
I'm not sure who sets the rules, but I suspect it's whoever owns the land. They want the largest bang for their buck and if they think they won't sell houses in a mixed community of different sized houses, they won't build them there, plus the county has to approve them. Counties also think they won't make as much from taxes from several small homes as they would from one large house. So they go with the monster homes.
The banks also don't want to loan on small houses. I checked with my bank and they won't loan on single wide manufactured homes, just double wide. But they'll make loans on 200 sqft trailers! Don't ask. I would assume then, they also make loans on "tiny houses" and I'm not paying those prices on that small of a house.
Park models are also just a shade too small for me, but I've seen two now in great condition and a decent size being offered for sale. One was $15,000 and the other was $18,000. They were gone in an hour.
This is a house that would be just perfect for me. Problem is, when you add in the amount to bring it to my site, the taxes, the insurance, and everything else, it still ends up unaffordable for me. *sigh* And I'd love to live in something like this.
Tiny houses are nothing more than upjumped travel trailers you park in your parents' backyard and pirate electricity.
Bingo!
Plus you use Mom and Dad's washer and dryer and their shower.
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