Tiny house

[Cooler]

I was watching a show about luxury tiny homes.  The builder makes homes with 200 square feet of living space (plus usually a loft for sleeping).  They use high end materials.

The build looks like fun.  Living in one does not look like much fun.

What I don't understand is spending $94,000.00 for a 200 square foot home that will no doubt depreciate in value over the years (they are tow-able).

For about 1/4 that price, and less than 1/4 the weight, you can get a 28 foot Jayco with similar space.

Or for about $25,000 more you can get an Airstream, also with similar space.

Both are fully engineered and much more tow-able.  The Airstreams seem to hold their value really well.

I still would not like to live in one, though if I had an office trailer I could use as a wood shop...maybe.

[MsNomer]

For less than half that, I can have more than 60 square feet in my van that drives itself to all sorts of wonderful places. Not sure I'd full-time in it, but I can certainly spend months and regret having to go home.

[K. L. McReynolds]

Fad.

Most tiny homes are really campers on trailers since most cannot meet minimum house standards.

The 'craze' is mostly made up---TV shows done for that purpose. Seems many home improvement shows are liberally edited and scripted, so Tiny Home types would also be done that way.

[crokett™]

I had the same thought in regards to tiny homes vs a camper. The consensus in the thread I posted was a camper looks like a camper, but a tiny house has 'character'. Another issue would be financing... I can get an RV loan. With few exceptions, I can't get a Tiny House loan.

[EricU]

yeah, as an engineer, if I had land I wanted to put a small house on, I'd get a trailer.  My sister really likes the idea, but she thinks it would help her control her impulses to hoard stuff.  But the first hoarder I ever met lived in a house the size of a tiny house.  Back then, in Appalachia, we called them "shacks." I lived in an upscale area, we didn't have tar paper shacks, they all had shingles as siding

My favorite tiny house was featured in Fine Homebuilding.  I think it was 250 sq. ft. Open floor plan. The family had a 14 y.o. daughter, they worked from home, and they were home schooling.  I keep expecting to see a blurb in FH about a murder-suicide in that family.  Any of the three might be the one that cracks.

[Cooler]

I've seen restaurants made from retired rail cars.  Superliner rail cars are 85 feet long and 10 feet wide--almost as big as a small apartment.  Many were made in stainless steel and aluminum.  Kind of a Delorean on rails.

There is a magazine called "Dwell" that promotes pre-engineered (and often pre-built) houses, but all falling under the "pre-fab" heading.

Here are some images:  https://www.google.com/search?q=dwell+ma...sQ_AUIBigB

  I wrote to the editors once asking if there was any data on resale value of these  homes vs. stick built homes.  We know that in normal times stick built homes retain value and usually appreciate in value.  I know that mobile homes depreciate in value like a car does--though the land might increase in value.

But where does the pre-fab fall?  Where does the tiny home fall?

The tiny homes have to be a bear to tow.  They often have tiled floors.  I know that mobile homes have vinyl floors (mostly) and paneled walls (not sheetrock) because the travelling will cause the tiles to pop and the sheet rock tape to rip.   

But everything is nice and square and it seems like a manageable project (unlike building a entire home)--though I met a guy in Pennsylvania once that built an entire home by himself from plans.  So it can be done.

[Large Wooden Badger]

I always thought it would be fun to put up several on a lake lot for a weekend getaway.  One central one set up with kitchen/laundry and then several just as bedroom and bathrooms.  Could have several couples up to the lake for a weekend and everyone could have their own space but have community space as well.

[Admiral]

Fad.

The 'craze' is mostly made up---TV shows done for that purpose. Seems many home improvement shows are liberally edited and scripted, so Tiny Home types would also be done that way.

+1

Pretty stupid idea.  If you want small and portable, that onion has been peeled already with RVs.  I watched 10 minutes of one of those shows and flipped the remote to another program.

[daddo]

I'd just soon have a half Teepee.  


Used to make one from an old parachute many moons ago.

We looked like squatters.

[Snipe Hunter]

I've watched some of these places sell used on ebay. You can pick them up under $10,000 used, the nicer ones are under 20k. What you will see is tiny houses with 50 "watchers" and no bids. Only a handful sell and most don't get any bids. I'm not even sure it's really a fad. I've only seen one and it was a display model at the fair.

We had our tiny houses on our backs. 1979. Heading out of Glacier Point into the wilderness for a couple weeks. Good times. I'm on the left,