The advantagesTiny houses are hardly a new idea. Henry David Thoreau lived in one on the banks of Walden Pond. And Thomas Jefferson lived in an 18-foot-by-18-foot, two-story, 648-square-foot box with his new wife while building his grand Monticello. Today's tiny-house advocates extol their virtues, including:
I am currently living in a 480 sq ft house. Beleive me it is SMALL! I love it mosly althought here are times when I miss the extra space. It definitely makes you more selective about your belongings! I only have to run a electric heater about 5-6 days a year. The rest of the time my house can be heated by the body warmth of myself and my dogs. If it gets really chilly, I fire up my crockpot and cook something.. the heat it puts out is amazing and I get dinner out of it! I actually have more trouble with a need for cooling in the summer than I do with heating in the winter. Also, a reminder, tiny houses arent always owned by crazy buts in the back of beyond. Mine is in Denver proper. It was difficult to finance and I had to jump through some pain in the neck hoops when I bought it but I dont think I would trade it!
An idea that would more widely suit a family would be reverting back to the house sizes of the catalog homes of the early 20th century where many houses ranged from 600-1000 SF. To my mind these are reasonably sized buildings that could easily be made energy-efficient with todayo’s innovations along WITH the added bonus of a long life because of their functionality (something I do not think the majority of these tiny houses will have in the long run).
I believe my earliest memories of a small house are of my grandmothers, it was under 6oo square foot. I have downsized from 2000 sf to a log cabin with 576 sf. I am single and realize that I do not use anywhere near that much space. In my future I see a Tiny house in my plans. I currently build small garden sheds and playhouses but can not wait to build a Tiny house.
