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OP, regarding tiny houses — I just found out there's going to be a tiny house conference in Charlotte this April: Tiny House Conference | April 2014 . Looks pretty cool.
Not all are mobile. The larger tiny homes are too big to be mobile. So you either build a smaller one that's on wheels or larger on a foundation. The ones on wheels would be way too small for me.
Yes the ones in Sonoma are being set up as an RV park because the city doesn't see a house that small as a legal house, so the way around it is to zone them as an RV park.
It doesn't mean that all residents will have their home on wheels.
I wasn't saying they were all mobile, but most of the ones I've seen in passing (keeping in mind that I never looked into them as deep as a potential buyer would) seem to involve mobility in some way or another (for example products from this site: Tumbleweed Tiny House Company - Welcome to our website ! ), or they are highly modular (large parts of it pre-assembled and later fully assembled on site).
A mobile home does not mean it is necessarily always on wheels, it means it can be easily moved from one location to another; while many would say any home fits that criteria, most of the tiny homes I've seen are not built on site, and even if they were it would be easy to move it onto a truck and take it elsewhere. I'm sure someone out there will go overboard and try to put a basement under one of these just to say they have a permanent foundation, but I doubt that's the norm.
I'm sure some of these are custom built and of higher quality than the typical modular setups, but doesn't investing a lot of money in these or exceeding a certain size sort of defeat the purpose of the cost savings they are supposed to provide?
Also curious if you have a link that supports your theory about the RV zoning in Sonoma being based solely on size? Not saying it isn't true, would just like to read about it.
There are several tiny houses in the downtown Cary area. less than 800 sq ft.
I thought the definition of tiny house (by the trendy definition of tiny house, not just houses that happen to be tiny) were in the 400-500 sq ft range? Also I think the trendy definition wants a certain amount of "smurf appeal" on the outside rather than the really small ranches from the 50s or guest house type structures we see around.
I wasn't saying they were all mobile, but most of the ones I've seen in passing (keeping in mind that I never looked into them as deep as a potential buyer would) seem to involve mobility in some way or another
A mobile home does not mean it is necessarily always on wheels, it means it can be easily moved from one location to another; while many would say any home fits that criteria, most of the tiny homes I've seen are not built on site,
but doesn't investing a lot of money in these or exceeding a certain size sort of defeat the purpose of the cost savings they are supposed to provide?
Also curious if you have a link that supports your theory about the RV zoning in Sonoma being based solely on size? Not saying it isn't true, would just like to read about it.
Typically a tiny house is either portable (on wheels) or permanent (built on slab or foundation), Don't know the stats on the popularity of either type. Do some folks remove the wheels, I suppose so if they want to go to the trouble. The portable ones are typically built on a small pull behind trailer, they're not typically the size of a mobile home like you see in an RV park. The permanent ones are not intended to be moved from place to place, like an RV. Yes, some companies do offer a built off site option, like a typical modular home. Some folks just build their own right on site, just like a stick frame house.
Not all folks building a tiny home are doing it because they can't afford or don't want to invest money in a high end home, some simply want one for the space savings and/or the mobility, like Sonoma. And I doubt Sonoma would allow anything but high end.
I'm certainly not an expert and can't provide a link since I haven't gotten that far in the research process but from all the reading I've done, maybe not Sonoma specifically, many tiny home owners or prospective owners can not build their tiny homes in the towns/cities they wish due to zoning limitations/restrictions. Size could be a factor and/or the fact that the portable ones are not hooked to permanent water/sewer, all depends on the particular town/city what obstacles a person might encounter.
Again, I'm not an expert, it's just a topic that I'm very interested in and have done a lot of reading on the subject. If the information I've been reading is inaccurate then my information could be also.
Would be great if a tiny home owner would chime in with their experience.
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