Tiny houses are just gentrified trailers.
But where does that put manufactured homes?
As the economical choice being squeezed out by landlords who can make more money off of hipsters living in over-engineered sheds.
Small World: The Tiny House Trend
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Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend
#12The Tiny Home trend and the "Van Life" trend are slightly unsettling to me - I wonder which forces are at play who intend to convince us that lowering our standards of living is cool?
No judgement from me if you do choose to do these things, though. I do see the appeal. Maybe there is no conspiracy, maybe it is a coping mechanism.
Edited "deeply" to "slightly" upon further reflection.
Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not necessarily. Look at this house for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUZcHeszQU It's amazing what you can do with 20sqm.
This house looks amazing! But it doesn't seem like a "tiny house". I thought tiny houses were by definition on wheels with a more flexible way to hook up and out of utilities?
Not necessarily. Many are stationary, built on standard foundations. Though given their size, they are definitely easier to move than larger buildings.
Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend
#14There's definitely an appeal to engineers in building your own house from scratch. As an example, I built an 8x12' shed (details here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/comments/2kof5x/i_built_an_8x12... ) several years back. All it took was a few months' worth of weekends and a few trips with a borrowed full-size pickup and I had it together. Obviously you'd put more effort than that into making a house (you need insulation, utilities, and more interior construction and layout), but the point is, it's all within your grasp. And it was nice working with my hands for a change given that during the work week all I'm engineering is software.
And at 96 sqft, that's well within the range of the homes being discussed in the article. If I were doing it to live in rather than as a shed, I'd build a 12x16 or a 16x16, for 192 or 256 sqft. 16' is the maximum length of dimensional lumber you can typically find at a hardware store, so the advantage there is that the house has structural members extending the entire length of the house, which means it's super sturdy. 8' and 12' are also common lengths of dimensional lumber, hence the size of my shed. Also no surprise that the height is simply 8' (uncut lumber) minus the height of the floor.
Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not necessarily. Look at this house for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvUZcHeszQU It's amazing what you can do with 20sqm.
This house looks amazing! But it doesn't seem like a "tiny house". I thought tiny houses were by definition on wheels with a more flexible way to hook up and out of utilities?
I don't think so. Rather, typical zoning codes in the US don't really allow for permanent tiny homes, so they usually have to be built on trailers in order to be legal.
Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend
#16The Tiny Home trend and the "Van Life" trend are slightly unsettling to me - I wonder which forces are at play who intend to convince us that lowering our standards of living is cool? No judgement from me if you do choose to do these things, though. I do see the appeal. Maybe there is no conspiracy, maybe it is a coping mechanism. Edited "deeply" to "slightly" upon further reflection.
I think it's more that our standards of living were artificially inflated for the past 100 - 150 years.
A person doesn't actually need that much room to live comfortably. Particularly if you make use of public spaces and the outdoors.
Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend
#17Tiny houses are just gentrified trailers.
More like a gentrified log cabin if you ask me... nearly everyone used to live in places about this size. Having a huge home for everyone and their dog is a rather modern development, and often people don't even use most of the space in their house, or don't use it well anyhow. I personally would want more space, but it's an interesting development in culture.
Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend
#18I can understand the benefits of building tiny houses in spaces that wouldn't accommodate larger buildings (such as as accessory dwelling units [ADUs] in traditional single-family neighborhoods). But I don't understand the benefits of building clusters of them: why not build a standard apartment building instead? Construction costs will be cheaper, and shared walls reduce heating/cooling costs.
Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend
#19Some of the most fun I've had was company team building at habitat for humanity. I basically learned how to frame, insulate, and finish a home in 2 days. I think most engineers love this stuff.
Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend
#20"Tiny house" AKA a normal house in the rest of the world.