For the past few years I have become more and more obsessed with alternative house building techniques. I know I want to own a home and land but without all the debt. I do not want nor need a McMansion, I do fine with living in tiny spaces. For a summer a few years back me and my buddy Mike built two 10×10 sheds and I lived in them. I was perfectly comfortable and had everything I needed. One of the most interesting alternative houses is the Tiny house. They are built using traditional hose techniques, framing etc just much smaller. One the inside they have been optimized for getting the maximum usage out of the tiny space. Today I’m going to talk all about tiny homes and share my love of them with you.
History
Tiny houses are not so much an aberration as they are a return to normal. Only in America and only recently have huge houses become the normal. Throughout history houses have been historically smaller. In the 1950’s the average house size was 983 square feet compared to the modern average of 2,349 sq. ft. That mean that houses have more than doubled since then with family sizes getting smaller. Less people now need more space to live in. Best as I can tell the modern return to smaller houses began in 1997 with the Publication of the The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka. Since then I would contribute the major push of the movement to Jay Schaffer and the Tumbleweed Tiny House guys. With workshops, plans and the ability to buy already built tiny homes the movement is set to explode.
Resources
YouTube has a great many videos showing off beautiful tiny homes. It does not have many videos showing how to build one. Recently I found a great series by a guy named Kevin Coy that showed step by step how he built one. You can check out Kevin’s YouTube channel here. The Tumbleweed Tiny House Blog has plans for sale on their site.I even found a site that has them listed for sale and rent. Tiny House Listings even had several houses in my area.
I would love to come visit with a local tiny house and shoot video if anyone has a tiny house or other alternative hose in the Tennessee area or close by state drop me a line James@survivalpunk.com.
Do you have an alternative house? A tiny House? Do you want one? Let me know in the comments!
Today’s article brought to you by the great folks over at Survivalgearbags.com home to all your Bug out bag and tactical needs. Help support Survivalpunk by supporting the great folks at Survival Gear bags.
I have similar goals, I want land, a tiny home and a small homestead without debt. I love the small home concept. One of the problems is that our local government councils are in bed with wealthy builders who want you to have to build a big home and all your neighbors are concerned with perceived value, so they don’t want you living in a tiny hut (it might bring their resell value down) which all act to apply pressure on you to conform with a large conventional house. Most localities and even many areas out in the country have restrictions on minimum square footage. Very hard to find affordable land with true no restrictions.
I’ve liked the idea of tiny houses for a long time. This one: http://tinyhouseblog.com/log-construction/jons-cabin-in-wisconsin/, is my favorite that I’ve seen so far. It would be challenging to live in and manage one though. The bathroom/shower situation is the most important problem. I just think it could get a little unsanitary. I was thinking of a covered deck with a normal sized shower/bathroom on one side and a living space on the other. For an extremely cheap, self made shelter, plumbing is even more problematic. I was happy to learn about incinerating toilets, but apparently they smell and also might not be good for you. I guess I’m unintentionally segwaying into toilets, which isn’t what I planned to do but I’ll go with it. The evil Bill Gates funded a competition about who could reinvent the toilet best and someone came up with this http://www.treehugger.com/bathroom-design/crapping-bill-gates-reinvent-toilet-winner.html, which looks complicated, but something like it might solve the plumbing problem. Drinking water I know can be simply absorbed from the air with a machine called an atmospheric water generator. Solar power, car batteries, and a fire place would be enough for me in terms of heating and electricity. A laptop with a wifi stealing antenna (http://www.uberreview.com/2012/06/super-wifi-antenna-allows-steal-internet-far-away.htm) would allow someone living cheaply in a tiny house to still write on sites like this. I can’t think of any more problems or solutions right now, but thinking of things like this might be helpful to anyone looking into tiny houses.
Hi James,
I think you hit upon a very important topic. Whether we like it or not the view on the horizon is that we (and subsequent generations) will have to jettison this paradigm of bigger and better “stuff.” Many of our social and economic ills are rooted in the fostered perception that we had to have more and more, paying for it with assets that we’re yet to earn. We’ve been lulled into the belief that there will always be a better “job,” with more “money,” and great rewards at the end of the rainbow. Our having bought into the false idea of the continuous and successful expansion of economy (both personal and macro) was clearly a mistake on our parts.
Having said that, it’s clear that more, bigger, and better is not the road map to happiness. It’s clear that our having become reliant on other people to supply our needs, thereby having reducing our own abilities to create and sustain by our own personal talents. What a trap!
Your discussion of tiny houses, built on land that is debt-free, is most timely; however, as Gregory pointed out, is fraught with challenges that, quite frankly, shouldn’t be there. The only advice I could offer with respect to the restrictive zoning regulations would be to challenge them. If that doesn’t work, then look elsewhere.
While stick-building a small home or acquiring a kit one is a great idea, I have found a potential alternative that does have some trade-offs. I discovered in my own research a company in my neck of the world that sells pre built, small buildings that are easily finished inside and would provide a very nice mini-home. They’re built to residential code. The fascinating thing about these is that they will do a payment plan with no-credit check or interest.
I have no connection with this company, but have spoken with some of their workers. They’ll deliver the home and set it up (within a certain mileage distance) on whatever foundation you have prepared at no additional cost, and I’ve been very impressed with the great attitudes of the folks I’ve talked with. The name of this outfit is Graceland Portable Buildings. Here’s their website. I linked to the particular model that I like. http://gracelandportablebuildings.com/storage-buildings/lofted-barn-cabin/
I don’t know if that will help or not, but wouldn’t hurt to see if there are any dealers in your area. Also, they do have “repos” that they bring in from time to time, then sell them at a reduced rate. So, another avenue of approach.
Hi, It is my goal, down the road m to own a tiny home. I was wondering how so they stand up in bad weather. In other words, I won’t need to worry about being blown away will I ?