seems like a person would be claustrophobic and lonely in such a tiny house, or maybe that's what people in that market are familiar with.
Quite possibly...it's probably not the most desirable place for the extroverted, socially needy type to live. Have you read Thoreau's Walden? In his wise words, sometimes, 'I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.'
those houses are so neat. its disgusting how north americans think they could not live happily in anything but a resource consuming suburban monstrosity. take a look at almost every other culture. so many of the worlds people live so simply and naturally. fucking entitlement mentality. people really piss me off sometimes. i would love one of those little things, theyre so well designed. and imagine, everything you need for what like under $20000? i cant believe more people dont have these.
the prices are stupid,, you could build any of the first 4 for a quarter of what he says.. 10 grand for materials?? WTF?? here in my sig 120 square foot with a 60 square foot loft.. ill gladly sell it to you for 36 grand.. pfft we have about 2500 in it...
it does. if you knew what you were doing and didn't waste any material, you could build a 12 x 12 ' house with a porch for like $2000. you could purchase a nice, cheap, quiet piece of land some where for about $10,000. so, $12,000 for the bundle. say you work part time on top of that (income of $100 a week) you could easily have enough money to live well.
entitlement mentality? what entitles someone to have their own house of any given size at all? whats simple and natural about being alone in life? i say any given person is ultimately entitled to their fate, whatever it is, if its being pissed off about someone else's choice *shrug* thems the breaks i guess. live in tiny houses.
or if you bought a bigger piece of property and had your own garden you wouldn't need to work at all. have an apple tree, a peach tree, a plum tree, some carrots and popatoes, 10 tommattoe vines.... if you were to learn how to store it for winter (can, or dry) you'd be set. i love daydreaming of this subject.
This would be true, if there were no such thing as property taxes, or if you had a sizeable nest-egg account set up which paid for your property taxes with it's interest, in which case, the purpose of your doing all of this (small home etc..) would be entirely a personal belief eco-friendly green mentality driving you do do this, not so much a financial one, since you'd already be set from the nest-egg fund. I'm going to be designing one of these primarily for financial reasons, because the U.S. economy is on a slow but sharp downhill turn, and it's going to be less of an option NOT to do this type of thing as standard of living expenses skyrocket in the next few years (no this is not alarmist mentality.. read the papers.. it's happening.. dollar is 60% of the euro now.. gold is rising FAST.).. I'm planning to have mine fully designed with as much self-sustainability as possible.. recycling water .. solar power etc.. within a year. I've got a good paying job, and I hardly ever spend that much time at home, so it would not be that big of a change from the small condo I share with a roomate now. The most prominent issue I think that stands out about this, is the fact that you're only heating the area that you use. ie: .. imagine setting up some webcams in your house and see do a time lapse recording of yourself for about a month. then fast forward it and overlay the footage with a blur..(just use your imagination folks).. you'd see a trace of where you spend most of your time. you'd see a big blur of yourself in your bed, a big blur of yourself in your shower, on your toilet, in your kitchen, and at your computer desk(if that's where you have your computer)... all the other areas would prety much have a random and rarely filled blur.. or none at all. you're spending time working at your job.. so that you can get a paycheck.. (if you're employed).. to pay a utilities company to heat your home. you're spending all that time working.. so that you can have money to heat all those areas that you don't even use. I say why not just have a house that ONLY includes those places that you spend time, and just spend oney heating those. This girl on the www.tumbleweedhouses.com website.. has a utility bill of 5 dollars a month for a tank of propane that heats her house. I'm at work most of my day (sometimes very very late .. love my job..) I go to the gym or the park.. then people's houses.. and alot of time is spent driving.. so I pretty much come home.. use the shower, sink, kitchen and bed, and desk.. then leave. these houses fits the purpose.. and I wouldn't be wasting money heating it, or cooling it. If you want a more social situation, which I would want in the future... then why not network with other tiny-home owners (or turn others on to the idea) .. and form a circle of them on one shared piece of property?.. with a campfire or tented area in the center.. or maybe a communal living area in the middle? a "lodge" of sorts.. to socialise in.. ideas can become reality if you put your mind to it.. and i think this idea is not only a good one, but is going to be neccessary in the forseable future. just heat what you need heated.. just cool what you need cooled.. not some huge energy wasting space thats being heated or cooled while you're gone. get off the grid even. -M
