Totally down with this. I've been reading on the small house movement for a while now. I really really really like the idea of living in the absolute minimum viable space, -one that demands less material consumption. When I moved in with my fiancé, all of my possessions in the world fit in the bedroom I was living in in my previous house, and fit in one load on the U-Haul. I was so satisfied with this. The house I live in now is small by American standards, -just shy of 900sqft, but....I just feel like it's filled with so much extra stuff we don't need. It's actually much larger than that because of the basement and a decent sized detached garage. Anyway, my fiance is bit of a collector. Loves estates sales, anitque shops, and also runs owns a clothing store in our hometown, so as you can imagine, she is not as spartan as I am, especially because she uses some of the space to house fixtures for her store when they are not in use. At least she gets a real sense of delight looking at cool smaller houses, -she likes the idea. I just don't think they are a great match for her traditional behavior patterns and the store does demand a little something more on the storage end. If it were up to me I'd love to have a go at converting a couple shipping containers. If you got the prefab route, which I've looked into, it is terribly easy to lose value. If you want a small prefab with beautiful design, you quickly run the cost up and when you factor in comparably sized traditional existing houses that have basements and garages, you can easily start scratching your head and wondering why you're looking at this again. Seems to be an area where sweat equity and mad DIY skills would pay enormous dividends. Anyway, without further delay, here's a pintrest collection of tiny-home groups for your viewing pleasure: http://pinterest.com/search/boards/?q=tiny+home Most are not practical for a variety of reasons, but I love pouring through them. Here's a page of pre-fab boards on pintrest, -these have much better design and bang for the buck starts to plummet:
I think part of the attraction to these is also the human-sized nature of these spaces. They seems to be built around people as much as they are built around the traditional spaces in a home. I love moving through interesting spaces. Our house has an old elevated playhouse that I am restoring for my daughter that is still far too young to use it. One of my upgrades is a spiral staircase that goes up to the platform. The entry to this staircase is under the platform, so you walk under, then climb around to the top. I'll have to post images of the project. Anyway, I just want to create an interesting spacial environment that she can feel is her own. She'll get a bunk-bed of some sort for the same reason. I love our house, but I've always dreamed of living in one with less traditional arrangement and movement.
I love this. Not only does it save money, but it saves time. It forces you to try to maximize the space that you have. How many people have houses where they have those one or two rooms that aren't really used for anything, save for the special occasion when a guest stays over? These houses eliminate that waste, and are something I would consider living in after college.