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Grafton and Coos counties have caught my interest - maybe it's that extra month of winter. Ha!
Any suggestions for specific towns/areas to explore?
Visited Littleton last Fall. Beautiful area, really friendly people. Would like to go back up and spend more time in that area.
As far as shooting goes, thanks for the info. I'd probably opt for joining clubs and/or taking trainings rather than on my own property. But who knows.
My current job is baking/cooking at a friends cafe. Most of my career was in retail/guest services. I'm at a brand new stage in life so starting a small business is a possibility also. I'm an empty nester with a dog, so I've got a little bit of time to explore options.
Housing may be my biggest challenge. Tiny home on a little land seems like my best option so far. I don't want a mortgage again or high rental payments.
Oh and definitely not interested in clubs. (is there actually clubbing until 6am in NH!? LOL!)
I appreciate your insight.
Littleton is a great town, and it has practical stuff like a supermarket, home center and medical services. Real estate tax rates are quite high at $23/thousand. Monroe, Franconia, Easton and Carroll are not far away and have much lower rates.
Littleton is a great town, and it has practical stuff like a supermarket, home center and medical services. Real estate tax rates are quite high at $23/thousand. Monroe, Franconia, Easton and Carroll are not far away and have much lower rates.
Carroll has the potential of going lower if they can either withdraw from or fix the out of whack apportionment formula in the WMRSD.
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Since the topic of tax rates came up, this is a handy site and easier to visualize than the state's page. See the map towards the bottom.
Different people mean different things when they say "tiny house". From what I have seen, square footage, in and of itself, will very seldom be an issue with the town or state. The only times I've seen minimum size requirements, it's coming from a private entity - like a developer who is selling parcels on a street they have built and are selling lots on. So if it's a house of conventional construction, that meets all the ordinary building codes, it'll probably be fine, even if it's only 400 sq ft. In addition to checking with the town, you always want to check with the seller or seller's agent re any special restrictions on what you can build on a lot you're considering for purchase.
But, if it's built on a trailer frame and may not have stairs or doors that meet code, may not have a hookup to an approved waste disposal system on the site, wiring may not meet fire codes, etc - that's where you can run into trouble in many, many places. Nowadays, most states have minimum insulation requirements too that might not be met by a "tiny home".
This site seems to indicate that the state of New Hampshire has adopted international residential building codes, as most states have. That would be state-wide. Of course, there might be a rural town somewhere where the local zoning board or code enforcement officer simply looks the other way re violations, I don't know - no town is going to put that on their website.
To look at some concrete examples, this small 1-bedroom and this "carriage house" are probably going to be okay most anywhere, but this trailer will be harder to find a lot for... not impossible, just more difficult than a conventional building with a conventional foundation, well and septic.
Last edited by OutdoorLover; 03-19-2023 at 12:47 PM..
I did find this nice website - tinylife.com, that has a page for every state. And on each state's page they list tiny-house friendly cities/towns, links to area builders and dealers, and even some tiny house communities and rentals. They're suggesting Ellsworth, Grafton and Concord for cities, and perhaps you can ask some of these New Hampshire builders or dealers about what the prospects are for tiny house trailers there - they must be dealing with technical and regulatory questions all the time.
If you're interested in a tiny house on wheels - effectively a mobile home, those might be governed by different regulations than houses built on a foundation. Some of these folks must be familiar with the particulars... and if you're keen, I assume they could provide some references from among their customers who could also tell you what their experience has been - they're living it already. Perhaps you could rent one for a long weekend or a week to get the feel of it too?
Tiny house living in NH is unlikely to ever take off, if only because of simple physics (the square-cube law)
I can't see "tiny" becoming particularly popular in New Hampshire, if only due to the immutable laws of physics -- for a given building shape and insulation R-value, the smaller the house, the faster the heat loss, and this is exacerbated by "mobile" housing up on wheels.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OutdoorLover
From what I have seen, square footage, in and of itself, will very seldom be an issue with the town or state. The only times I've seen minimum size requirements, it's coming from a private entity - like a developer who is selling parcels on a street they have built and are selling lots on. So if it's a house of conventional construction, that meets all the ordinary building codes, it'll probably be fine, even if it's only 400 sq ft.
Housing may be my biggest challenge. Tiny home on a little land seems like my best option so far. I don't want a mortgage again or high rental payments
Watch out for zoning setting a minimum lot size per dwelling unit, ranging from 10,000 to as much as 100,000 square feet, as well as a minimum of 250 linear feet of road frontage (e.g. Merrimack has residential zoning mandating 100,000 square foot lots).
Yes, there are towns with no (or limited) zoning, but they still strictly enforce the septic regulations and every town has an active fire warden and (being an state which is +80% wooded) they're all rightfully paranoid about fire risk.
I can't see "tiny" becoming particularly popular in New Hampshire, if only due to the immutable laws of physics -- for a given building shape and insulation R-value, the smaller the house, the faster the heat loss, and this is exacerbated by "mobile" housing up on wheels.
Then there's zoning setting a minimum lot size per dwelling unit, ranging from 10,000 to as much as 100,000 square feet, as well as a minimum of 250 linear feet of road frontage (e.g. Merrimack has residential zoning mandating 100,000 square foot lots)
Yes, there are towns with no zoning, but they're rarely in highly desirable areas of the state.
I agree that when it comes to energy efficiency - as well as keeping pipes from freezing in cold spells, you'll be better off with a basement or a frost-protected slab foundation... to me someone is much better off with a small conventionally built cottage - the size of an efficiency apartment or small 1-bedroom apartment, roughly 500-650 square feet. You'll also have more space, and if you use a loft, can have a staircase instead of a ladder - especially helpful for aging people. And you can site such a house in a lot more places.
But, clearly some people are using these tiny homes on wheels and making them work, just as they do mobile homes - which are similar.
P.S. This page here is from Huntington Homes, a quality modular home builder in East Montpelier, VT. They offer turnkey packages in central and northern NH where they'll run the whole project from end to end, and have some smaller plans available too.
This is their 624sq ft Lark Cottage plan - one of their stock plan options. It looks like it's built on a frost-protected slab, and you can see it's built from two modules that are "married" together along that thicker central wall.
You can upgrade anything, but they also provide clear, detailed documentation of their standard building specs for the stock plans. The stock plans will be the most cost efficient project, but you can also do semi-custom or full custom plans with them if desired. Specs for stock plans: https://huntingtonhomesvt.com/wp-con...SHEET_P2.1.pdf
P.S. This page here is from Huntington Homes, a quality modular home builder in East Montpelier, VT. They offer turnkey packages in central and northern NH where they'll run the whole project from end to end, and have some smaller plans available too.
This is their 624sq ft Lark Cottage plan - one of their stock plan options. It looks like it's built on a frost-protected slab, and you can see it's built from two modules that are "married" together along that thicker central wall.
You can upgrade anything, but they also provide clear, detailed documentation of their standard building specs for the stock plans. The stock plans will be the most cost efficient project, but you can also do semi-custom or full custom plans with them if desired. Specs for stock plans: https://huntingtonhomesvt.com/wp-con...SHEET_P2.1.pdf
In all my research, I managed to miss this website!
Actually, I'm leaning toward off grid. So grey water rather than septic seems to be my biggest challenge...as far as zoning goes.
Will be digging into this further.
Appreciate all the support.
Last edited by NorskGirl; 03-23-2023 at 03:26 PM..
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Tiny house living in NH is unlikely to ever take off, if only because of simple physics (the square-cube law)
Will dig into this information. 
