I see your moronic article about fringe nutjobs, and raise you a few million 2500 square foot homes built on a postage stamp.

Hipster 'trailer' trash.

Great concept and great idea, but I can't see paying $50,000 for one of those things.

It also seems like you'd run into some serious zoning issues trying to put up multiple single homes on single building plots. In most places, anyway.

_McMnsn 

Pocket Ninja: Great concept and great idea, but I can't see paying $50,000 for one of those things.

It also seems like you'd run into some serious zoning issues trying to put up multiple single homes on single building plots. In most places, anyway.

I'm guessing legally they are trailer homes and therefore have different rules. I'm a little ambivalent about these. I can't see someone securing a mortgage for what is essentially a vehicle on shared land, but they seem a better option than many 200 square feet apartments.

They are called campers.

Ummm housing crisis? Houses right now are cheaper than they have been in like 20 years.. how is that a crisis?? you can buy 700k houses here for 200k now. I think this article has it backwards.. That being said, i never want a house that i have to chain its wheels together so it doesn't get driven away...

I like some of the small house designs I've seen. Wouldn't want to live in one that small, though. Some privacy is nice.

I wonder when Hipsters will realize they've gone mainstream

It wasn't the consumption of the McMansion that was the problem. It was the architectural garishness that was the monstrosity.

I could live in a space that small no problem. But I would rather not downsize to some pre-fab plywood toxic hellhole with my neighbors 2' away. To do it right I would want green building materials and a garden larger than my indoor area.

I wouldn't mind cleaning that though.

Pocket Ninja: Great concept and great idea, but I can't see paying $50,000 for one of those things.

It also seems like you'd run into some serious zoning issues trying to put up multiple single homes on single building plots. In most places, anyway.

I agree, I would have no problem living in a 200 square foot house, but $50,000? really? From an investment standpoint, it's horrible. $10,000 is more like it.

"Fark your McMansions!"

You paid $50K for a farking shed you stupid hipsters.

Pocket Ninja: Great concept and great idea, but I can't see paying $50,000 for one of those things.

This. I've seen a lot of nicely done micro-residences via the internet but the sellers almost always demand a price far in excess of the cost per-square-foot of a normal sized residence.

FORWARD!

No, I've only got one. I've had one for some time, but a few years ago I said I was thinking of getting another, and since then some people have called me "Two Sheds".



Icetech3: Ummm housing crisis? Houses right now are cheaper than they have been in like 20 years.. how is that a crisis?? you can buy 700k houses here for 200k now. I think this article has it backwards.. That being said, i never want a house that i have to chain its wheels together so it doesn't get driven away...

Ya know, the crazy thing was that people were able to sell or refinance $200k houses for $700k.

And if you can put down $50k and have a home in a million dollar district then you might be ahead. The point of the mini-houses is that you spend your time outside the house. It roughly the reason NYC works.

It's getting easier and easier to go that direction. Flat screens instead of tubes. E-books. All the paper crap that my dad would hoard now in a nice tiny 2T drive (also better organized and with an offsite backup copy). And it so keeps you honest about "no, we don't need that decorative china in a hutch". Because you don't.

That said, I still like some 'stuff'. Tools, Out-of-season clothes, sport stuff. I've said it before... I'd give serious consideration to swapping my 1600 sqft house with 250 sqft garage for 250 sqft of heated/cooled 'house' with 1600+ sqft of garage/barn/'outbuilding'. Guy thing, maybe.

approves

Shouldn't the title be "Washington DC gets a trailer park"?

$20-50k for one of those!? I could build one of those for less than that! Actually, come to think of it, I did on my grandparents farm. In a tree. It was awesome, the only thing we didn't have was running water and heat, but, other than that, it was a great little tree house.

Families need not apply.

In Ohio, if you pay $300 a month lot fee they'll give you the trailer for free.

This won't fool the tornadoes. They know a trailer park when they see one!

How do you have a normal sex life raising kids in one?

They are so close together, you could tell if your neighbor had Taco Bell the night before...

My Camper

OUTSIDE


INSIDE

I went from a 3000 sq ft house with a 2 car garage and a 2000 sq ft workshop/office on acreage to a 900 sq ft house with a 2 car garage on a city lot.

It is working out fine. But until I get rid of the kid, the dog and at least one of the cats, I can't go smaller without losing my mind.

Kinetocracy: Families need not apply.

Yeah, those look great if you
A. Are single
B. Have no Children
C. Have no possessions
and
D. Treat your home as a dormitory, not a living space

NannyStatePark: How do you have a normal sex life raising kids in one?

I get my hooker provided BJs in a van like everybody else. What do you do Mr. Fancypants?

solokumba:

My Camper



/ sees what you did there

That is a tad too extreme. I don't want to be able to saute while I am poopin.

Sticking feathers in your ass does not make you a chicken.

Call it what you will, but if you live in one of these things, you're basically trailer trash.

Wait until I tell country boys the new fad is driving into the big city and house tipping.

I am single with no kids and I wouldn't live in one of those shanties. I prefer the finer things in life, like a bed and shower.
/I guess hipsters don't mind showering with a garden hose.

It could be pretty cool (and even more of a "green" impact) to kind of combine a bunch of these into one building. Maybe even stack some on top of each other. Each unit could be inhabited separately from the others, but they could share common space (like the yard, hallways between the units) and they could share centralized heating and utilities.

If only someone, somewhere, had ever thought of such a thing before...

Yeah, no thanks. I just bought a brand new 3000sf house with 1150sf garage, and I like it just fine. If you can be happy with 200sf, go for it! LOL

yea... 'cause I've always wanted a license plate on my house...

abhorrent1: You paid $50K for a farking shed you stupid hipsters.

In an area where houses of a regular non mc mansion size homes cost 375-400 000 thats a pretty good deal.

for me I would think 400ft² would be enough

betelgeux: NannyStatePark: How do you have a normal sex life raising kids in one?

I get my hooker provided BJs in a van like everybody else. What do you do Mr. Fancypants?

Lol that's Mrs. Fancypants! I've never had to pay!!!

Although if I started that kinda thing, I'm worth more crack rock than those other hoes!

TFA: 'The baby boomers raised their children. Now, they're looking at all this stuff they have and thinking, 'What has meaning for me now?' Plus, these tiny houses are small enough that you can clean - actually clean them!'



/hot like a stick figure
//um... never mind

$20,000 house...

$50,000 in building permit, lot permit, local taxes, state taxes, federal taxes...

FTFA: "'It's no longer about impressing your friends with your huge 1980s castle, it's more about your lifestyle: What restaurants and fitness centers and community life can you walk to? It's not about driving everywhere and staying inside and spending hours watching TV,' said Monty Hoffman, chief executive and founder of PN Hoffman, a Washington area condo builder."

IOW, it's still about impressing your friends...just about a slightly different set of factors.

Oh, and this is what a 200 square foot modern home might look like...

$20,000 to $50,000 for a glorified shed. No thanks.

JWideman: [themovieblog.com image 400x483]
approves

CSB, went to the set while they were filming the last movie. Saw Bubbles' shed and I tell you it stunk of cat food. It was quite surreal. No one was there except the security guard and the stunt driver as they had been filming the night prior.

Oh look, another ad for the tumbleweed company, which claims to have invented small houses on wheels. Never mind Gypsy wagons from 200 years ago, or camping trailers, or this famous book, from 1979:

So the purpose here isn't for hispters to be cool-- it's for people who only have smaller needs to have a nicer place to live. Most square footage gets unused.

Pocket Ninja: Great concept and great idea, but I can't see paying $50,000 for one of those things.

It also seems like you'd run into some serious zoning issues trying to put up multiple single homes on single building plots. In most places, anyway.

Trendy cities are starting to allow "granny pods." Would you pay $50K to get not wake up to your MIL?

eKonk: It could be pretty cool (and even more of a "green" impact) to kind of combine a bunch of these into one building. Maybe even stack some on top of each other. Each unit could be inhabited separately from the others, but they could share common space (like the yard, hallways between the units) and they could share centralized heating and utilities.

If only someone, somewhere, had ever thought of such a thing before...

Getting occupancy permits for 200-250 sq ft apartments isn't going to happen most places. Newsom has tried to get some variances for some apartment buildings with small apartments in San Francisco, but even that's a hard sell. But, the 200 sq foot tiny houses tend to use a lot of vertical space that apartments don't usually have, so it's somewhat more comparable to a 350 sq ft studio, which is on the edge of what you might find most places.

WhippingBoy: Sticking feathers in your ass does not make you a chicken.

Call it what you will, but if you live in one of these things, you're basically trailer trash.

Elitist much?

The nice thing about trailer parks is that stuck up snobs rarely visit unless they are getting jacked on their drug deal, getting their asses kicked, and then when the popo comes calling, nobody saw Cletus pull your wallet out of your pants when you get knocked the F out at high noon on Saturday.....

Ok