Small World: The Tiny House Trend • Hacker News Board

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#211

Post by ModFightsCron » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 7:24 PM UTC

reidjs wrote: post #162

ModFightsCron wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, they can tell you're weird. In a way where you take the bad things in life, and convince yourself they're good. Likely because growing up you were a little weird, so to hide it you made weird your thing and became a lot weird. Here are some things you can't do, which I am sure you have replaced with other things, and convinced yourself you don't want to do them: 1. doing laundry while you're sleeping or your baby…

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but this sounds like a miserable lifestyle to me.

sleep at night, having friends over, and having a home gym sounds miserable to you? to each his own I guess. some people prefer to be woken up and being fat probably. most are not some though.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#212

Post by jlokier » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 7:24 PM UTC

alistairSH wrote: post #44

rb808 wrote: post #20

"Tiny house" AKA a normal house in the rest of the world.

Is that really true? Most of the trendy tiny homes are 200-300sqft with a loft bedroom. My townhouse is modest by US standards at 1500sqft and 3 bedrooms. I believe this was about average in the early-70s (when the home was constructed). The average new home in the US is now about 2600sqft and 4-5 bedrooms.

In the UK.

The flat I live in is the _largest_ place I've lived in 28 years. Lived in quite a few different places, maybe 15.

It's a two bedroom flat.

Total floor area 36sqm, aka. 390sqft.

It's not a "tinyhouse". It's a typical rented flat, about average for the area.

I would love a larger place. I dream of storage, of a workshop room.

But when I see people reporting US sizes, it's hard to even imagine that much floor area.

To think, my biggest place is the same size as a specially-named "tiny house" in the US!

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#213

Post by dbancajas » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 7:27 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #140

tjr225 wrote: post #12

The 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 have the same unsettling feeling as you. The conspiracy theorist in me is definitely on high alert and sees it as an attempt at conditioning this generation towards accepting a lower quality of life than their parents had. If we can be made to actually believe we want to live in tiny cramped homes and apartments, then when it comes to pass we won’t get out the pitchforks and torches and riot. Eating bread and plain…

you could live in a smaller home. 1500sq ft is plenty enough for a family of four. How I know? I grew up in one. If your mortgage banker tells you you could buy 600K house, don't ever fall for that trap.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#214

Post by CydeWeys » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 7:27 PM UTC

vram22 wrote: post #116

dwater wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You probably know that you can find longer dimensional lumber at a lumber yard instead of a big box store. I am building my own 2-story 2-car garage, and was surprised at how many independent lumber yards there are tucked away around town. I needed long 2x8s for my rafters, no problem finding them up to 20'. And engineered lumber comes even longer. I'm making the upstairs into a finished living space with kitchen and…

Interesting. Are you doing it all by yourself, or is the work such that you need some physical help for the labor?

Speaking for myself, it helped a lot to have another pair of hands for much of it. I enlisted my dad a lot and my friends a little bit. Anything involving moving a whole sheet of plywood is tough, especially when going from ground level to attaching to the structure.

I did all the smaller stuff myself, including framing, putting together the roof trusses, and roofing (minus the sheathing itself). You can easily manhandle around dimensional lumber by yourself; it's long but skinny easily to easily handle, unlike sheets.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#215

Post by nradov » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 7:29 PM UTC

jniedrauer wrote: post #66

tjr225 wrote: post #12

The 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 actually really resent the McMansion obsession in housing design for the last 40 years. Houses are not built to be functional or comfortable. They're built to be a status symbol. A shoddily built, poorly insulated, overpriced status symbol. I would already own a house if there were reasonably sized houses on the market that were well built. But there aren't. There are acres of McMansions springing up everywhere, bu…

McMansions are actually quite functional and comfortable for the way upper-middle class Americans live today (at least those who can afford the utility bills and to pay others for cleaning and maintenance). The major real estate developers hire sociologists to study the lifestyles of real families and then incorporate the results into architecture. For example by putting a large window with a clear view of the entire back yard above the kitchen sink so that a parent can simultaneously cook dinner and supervise small children playing outside.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#216

Post by ip26 » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 7:29 PM UTC

driverdan wrote: post #117

breakingcustom wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a noble idea, but you must be joking thinking you are going to be able to build a sub $1000 trailer home with basic tools. The steel for the trailer alone will cost $1k on top of $200 for a decent welder. Factor in lumber, nails, windows, roofing, waterproofing, etc. What total square footage are you aiming for?

I've already done the rough math. It'd use a Northern Tool 5x8 trailer that costs $550 or less on sale. The $1000 price point is for a basic box to sleep in and store possessions. There would be additional plans for larger builds and more amenities for people with a larger budget. No welding necessary, only basic wood construction.

That's not a trailer home, that's a dirtbag camper.

It's a fairly mature market, and FWIW basic wood builds tend to wind up being too heavy to tow with a small car.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#217

Post by bluGill » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 7:30 PM UTC

driverdan wrote: post #145

bluGill wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That northern tools trailer is rated for 1000lbs - you won't be able to have 2 humans inside without breaking something.

It's rated for 1715lbs: https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200612541_20...

I stand corrected. There are many different trailer models (over the years), with slightly different specs...

The point that they are too light duty for this use I think still stands.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#218

Post by pchristensen » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 7:31 PM UTC

megaman8 wrote: post #169

bluGill wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can build what you propose, but there is a downside: cost. A 2 story house costs more to build. Towers cost a lot of money for what you get, and are hard to insulate well. The driveway your propose actually takes up more of the lot than the one you hate (it is cheaper, but there are downsides to stone that makes most people willing to pay a lot more for something hard). You can get the nice house you propose if…

personally, I'd rather have something that's smaller and better looking than large and ugly.

This book (and others in the author's series) is a beautiful exploration of that concept: https://www.amazon.com/Not-So-Big-House-Blueprint/dp/1561583...

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#219

Post by ip26 » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 7:34 PM UTC

war1025 wrote: post #70

jerf wrote: post #27

Tiny house retention seems to be fairly poor. Search a bit for "give up tiny house" or something and you'll get a lot of people giving up the lifestyle, and it seems hard to come by people who have been doing it for a long time. Not impossible, because nothing is impossible, but not easy. It makes journalists swoon, but I don't see it as something that has a lot of future to it. Seems like something that sounds a lot…

I lived in a 600sqft studio apartment for ~5 years with my wife. For the last year of it with our oldest daughter. I found that size of house to be pretty great. Then we found out we were having twins. Now we live in a 1200sqft townhouse, which is also pretty nice. It seems plenty big for what we need. The thing that always amuses me is that all our relatives are wondering when we'll move into a "real" house. Apparen…

Reserve passing judgement until your three kids are in middle school. Your relatives may know something you don't. (Or maybe they don't)

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#220

Post by marttt » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 7:38 PM UTC

An archetypal Soviet-era garage box recently got converted to a Tiny House in Tartu, Estonia: https://g1.nh.ee/images/pix/iseloomuga-maja-muidu-paksude-ka...

Blocks of garages like these are a common part of Soviet heritage in Estonia, so they're essentially everywhere. Not quite sure, but due to its tiny size (probably ~215 sqft or ~20 m2) one may not need an extra building permit for doing something like ths.