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Small World: The Tiny House Trend

believermag.com

321–330 of 344 posts

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#321
I'm not sure smaller accommodation can be considered a trend so much as a sign of reduced access (or higher costs) to more desirable accommodation.

This more or less sums it up for me: 'Though he doesn’t opt for tiny-home living himself, LaBarre is enthusiastic about the trend'

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#322

I really wish there was more diversity in offerings when it came to manufactured/trailer homes. To clarify, I'm not talking about RVs. I like tiny houses, but really only in the sense that I'm fascinated by unusually small things. Otherwise I think they're actually kind of ridiculous if your motives are to downsize and not pay $300,000+ on a house Trailer homes are pretty incredible when you think about it. They're t…

[deleted]

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#323

I really wish there was more diversity in offerings when it came to manufactured/trailer homes. To clarify, I'm not talking about RVs. I like tiny houses, but really only in the sense that I'm fascinated by unusually small things. Otherwise I think they're actually kind of ridiculous if your motives are to downsize and not pay $300,000+ on a house Trailer homes are pretty incredible when you think about it. They're t…

I too have been thinking similar to this. Been doing it for years; taking notes, saving pages and stories.

I've got a few ideas how to expand and scale in ways that I think is not really being done, and have been planning a trip to look more into these as a possible base plan: https://www.escapetraveler.net/traveler

I think good looking is important, and then branch into three lines, pine focused on super affordable, another with luxury and multiple uses, and another with expand-ability.

I had initially looked at some spaces in TN that could ramp this kind of production up, but now I see it would need seed money to actually get off the ground.

I think these could solve the problems of several groups with different goals, and that is exciting.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#324

I really wish there was more diversity in offerings when it came to manufactured/trailer homes. To clarify, I'm not talking about RVs. I like tiny houses, but really only in the sense that I'm fascinated by unusually small things. Otherwise I think they're actually kind of ridiculous if your motives are to downsize and not pay $300,000+ on a house Trailer homes are pretty incredible when you think about it. They're t…

I bought a 920sq ft, 30 year old trailer home for $50,000 in a lovely community and I love it. I don't pay land taxes, instead pay about $600/month in rent on the land (equivalent to land taxes in my area - New Jersey). For reference, in my community people are not allowed to sublet/rent to others and houses are spaced apart about 3 car widths. Highly recommend to everyone!

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looked through your IG, very cool. Who/what are you using for internet access while on the road? I'm interested in trying to travel more when working remote but trying to make sure I end up with a decent connection each day seems like it could be challenging.

I'm currently using AT&T Wireless Home Internet. It's about $120/m with 100GB of data. https://www.att.com/cellphones/att/att-wireless-internet.htm... I previously used an unlimited Sprint hotspot. It had more data but had poor coverage in many areas.

I'd also recommend the Calyx institutes unlimited plan for $500 but that is Sprint backed. https://www.calyxinstitute.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?r...

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm currently using AT&T Wireless Home Internet. It's about $120/m with 100GB of data. https://www.att.com/cellphones/att/att-wireless-internet.htm... I previously used an unlimited Sprint hotspot. It had more data but had poor coverage in many areas.

I'd also recommend the Calyx institutes unlimited plan for $500 but that is Sprint backed. https://www.calyxinstitute.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?r...

I used Calyx hotspots for 2 years. The hardware they offer is garbage and Sprint coverage is spotty.

The Franklin R850 is outdated and unreliable. I had one and hated it. The ZTE hotspot they had after that wasn't terrible but the charge controller was bad and would overcharge the batteries. Now they're back to the terrible R850 since ZTE is banned. I can't speak to the R910 but after my experience with the R850 I never want to own another Franklin product.

I may get another unlimited Sprint or T-Mobile hotspot since they're good for high bandwidth activities (eg streaming video) when the signal works.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm currently using AT&T Wireless Home Internet. It's about $120/m with 100GB of data. https://www.att.com/cellphones/att/att-wireless-internet.htm... I previously used an unlimited Sprint hotspot. It had more data but had poor coverage in many areas.

Have you considered Verizon's unlimited jetpack or AT&T's unlimited tablet plan for $30 a month? https://buyasession.att.com/sbd/Common/ShopRatePlans.action

There is no such thing as unlimited. They throttle you after 22GB. I paid extra for the 100GB plan so I would have guaranteed no throttling.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You can actually build the house you want. There are empty lots on the market most places. That's what we did. Our house is so well insulated and passive-solar heated that here in Iowa, even with the -20+ temperatures we've just had, the furnace doesn't run all day.

The financing required to buy the land and build a new house is more difficult than buying an existing house.

Building a new house typically requires more collateral because the bank is wary of loaning the money and then the project falling apart before its finished. When that happens, all they can reposes is parts of a house that aren't even worth (on the open market) the cost of the building materials and work already put into it.

It's not a huge deal if you go with an existing builder with lots of experience, especially if they already have a relationship with the bank... but if you want to save money by being your own general contractor or do any work yourself, that's when you encounter the most problems.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#329

I've been living in a shuttle bus I converted for about 20 months. I built it to be like a high end RV, with everything you'd expect in an RV but with lithium batteries and a solar array. I did it for two reasons, so I could own a home with minimal expenses and so I could take my home and dog when I travel. My cost of living is significantly lower than living in conventional housing. I estimate I've spent around $50k…

I'm also in the Austin area and I'm very curious about this. I understand your initial investment on your "RV" is $50k but what is an estimate of your monthly spend on spots for water/power/etc+? And then what % of the time are you boondocking? +And whatever else would make it equivalent to an apartment/house. Do you have to hold any special insurance or have any other special recurring expenses?

I park on the street. I go to a campground for a night every 3-4 weeks (McKinney Falls when I'm in Austin) to refill my water and dump my waste tank.

In the summer I run a generator for AC when necessary which is expensive. It uses $10-12/day in gas when run 24/7. A better choice is to drive where it's not as hot which I wasn't able to do last summer.

No special insurance.

If you want to grab a coffee or beer let me know. My email is in my profile.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American apartments often don’t share heat very well, each unit is heavily insulated from each other and it’s not using piped hot water from a central heating plant like in Europe and Asia. Still probably a bit more efficient overall.

Despite heavy insulation, quite a bit of heat still migrates upward in new apartments and condos. Your neighbors are also nearly perfect insulation compared to your exterior walls too :P

I’m currently in a top floor apartment actually and we quickly hit outside temperatures in the winter if we don’t run the heater. This is Seattle where heat is mostly electric, radiators would probably be very different.
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