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Sustainable Micro Home that Costs Less Than $30,000

mymodernmet.com

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Re: Sustainable Micro Home that Costs Less Than $30,000

#41

Post by anonymous »

brudgers wrote: post #37

Pretty pictures. () open steps over the food preparation area is not particularly sanitary due to what can fall off the bottom of a person's shoes, socks and feet...neither is using a food preparation surface as a tread. () Considering falls are the principal mode of fatal and serious domestic injuries, no handrails on a winding stair that the occupant will be navigating to use the toilet in the middle of the night i…

I think your first two points are mostly trivial to address - put a board going beneath all the steps and add a handrail.

The bed seems a poor idea to me too though. Maybe if it were just for one person or if you used a futon that you'd roll up. Isn't a futon more in-line with the micro home concept anyhow?

Re: Sustainable Micro Home that Costs Less Than $30,000

#42

Post by VLM »

robotic wrote: post #3

Isn't this just a fancy mobile home?

That brings up the interesting topic that the "natural" design progression seems to be making a fancy mobile home, but I'd think you can start from a fancy RV just as well.

The RV part would help when you're out in the wilderness instead of in a utility provided mobile home park. Some RV features like batteries for DC power, extensive ventilation instead of relying on AC powered air conditioning, etc.

Of course on the other hand RVs aren't as energy efficient as mobile homes because of a desire to minimize the tow vehicle gas/diesel consumption rather than propane heating consumption.

As a specific criticism I am fairly unimpressed with the size and features of this $30K "rv". Its not that much better than an elaborate $5K or so teardrop trailer. On the other hand its a little bigger than a $90K conversion van. (And when exactly in my lifetime did conversion vans change from middle class machines in my youth, to the current mid level sports car prices?)

Re: Sustainable Micro Home that Costs Less Than $30,000

#44

Post by VLM »

ctdonath wrote: post #10
robmil wrote: post #2

Isn't the problem that, while the house may cost $30,000, the land on which it would have to reside will inevitably cost far more than that?

No. A couple minutes with zillow.com or trulia.com will show you lots available for well under $10,000. Sure, they won't exactly be in premium locations, but with some work you can find some that are desirable & decent. I've seen some under $2000 just outside Atlanta, rural half-acre lots close to rivers & lakes.

The tech inside the house visually appears to be mobile home tech not self contained RV tech. So you'll need the $10K septic field, the $10K electric power line, maybe natgas/propane for heating/cooking, a $5K and up water well or $10K to connect to city water if available, it adds up.

(edited to add I forgot to add the cost of a foundation, in the south the freeze line is like 2 inches, but where I live I believe its 4-5 feet, so you're already spending 90% of the cost of a full basement, may as well finish it off and have a basement, but thats another $10K perhaps for something this small?)

Re: Sustainable Micro Home that Costs Less Than $30,000

#45

Post by angersock »

stcredzero wrote: post #38
pyre wrote: post #36

- No temperature control. This could only work in areas with moderate temperatures year-round. You probably wouldn't want one of these in Arizona or Montana. - Seems like it would have the same tenuous relationship with tornadoes that trailer homes/parks do. - Lack of a divider between the stairs and the kitchen makes it seem like it would be too easy to accidentally knock things off of the shelf or counter while goi…

If you made this out of plywood/polystyrene sandwich and gave it a slightly more aerodynamic shape, you could probably arrange to have this quite securely anchored, depending on the ground where you are moving. The hyper insulation of such materials would also do a lot to alleviate the climate control issues. You'd want to arrange for shade to control solar heating in warm climates. Also, such a small house would be…

There also does not appear to be a shower.

Re: Sustainable Micro Home that Costs Less Than $30,000

#46

Post by SwellJoe »

mkramlich wrote: post #26

This is great but adding a shower would be a huge improvement towards making it a more feasible choice. Because as a general rule: every day I need to sleep, eat/drink, urinate/defecate and shower/bathe. Enable all those functions and you have a compelling product/price.

As someone else mentioned in another comment, it may be a "wet bath" as found in smaller RVs and on boats. The whole bathroom converts to a shower, basically, by having all surfaces water-tight. It's a very efficient use of space, but very few larger RVs have them, because they aren't considered comfortable by some; keeping them dry and clean is reportedly an issue.

I've been thinking about tiny houses for years (and I've live in a motorhome for about five years), and I think I would prefer to build slightly larger and have a nice bath and shower. But, in other regards, small is beautiful.

Re: Sustainable Micro Home that Costs Less Than $30,000

#47

Post by SwellJoe »

I think many of these kinds of designs are very expensive, and often not as sustainable as I'd like.

When I finally settle down and build my own tiny house, I will likely start from an existing structure. Either a classic RV (like an Airstream of Avion) or a shipping container, and build up from there. It'll still end up costing about $15k-$30k, but I'd also like to reuse old materials wherever possible; not so much to save money (as I have a decent income), but to reduce waste and environmental impact. All of these "sustainable" building designs always use so much newly manufactured material. It makes it somewhat less impressive, to me. Another option might be natural building materials; cob, earth bag, etc. I've only recently started learning about them. Though they have other issues...they take of a lot of space, and often make it more difficult to build up, when you need more space. Tiny houses built with conventional modern building materials can be quite tall without a lot of extra effort. At the very least, a loft bedroom is pretty useful in building with a smaller footprint.

Re: Sustainable Micro Home that Costs Less Than $30,000

#48

Post by bcbrown »

SwellJoe wrote: post #47

I think many of these kinds of designs are very expensive, and often not as sustainable as I'd like. When I finally settle down and build my own tiny house, I will likely start from an existing structure. Either a classic RV (like an Airstream of Avion) or a shipping container, and build up from there. It'll still end up costing about $15k-$30k, but I'd also like to reuse old materials wherever possible; not so much…

You'd probably enjoy checking out the books of Lloyd Kahn: http://www.amazon.com/Lloyd-Kahn/e/B001JS1BQY/

Re: Sustainable Micro Home that Costs Less Than $30,000

#49

Post by VLM »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #27
ctdonath wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is quite a market for them, don't knock it. Buy a cheap lot somewhere, pour a slab, wheel the tiny house into place, nice starter home for a young'un in one weekend flat.

Why do you even need the slab? Just get some concrete blocks, bring the home in, put in a septic tank...and you are in business. Bonus if you live in the boonies and have to burn your trash.

Pour a slightly larger slab than you think you need, and call it a patio. Inevitably no matter how big a slab you pour you'll find a way to fill it up and wish you made a bigger one. The folks I know with RVs and hunter's cabins and similar want to spend time outdoors, that was the whole purpose of the purchase, and the tiny cabin or RV is just somewhere to sleep out of the rain, they actually live on the patio when not hiking / fishing / hunting / snowmobile / whatever.

Re: Sustainable Micro Home that Costs Less Than $30,000

#50

Post by honestcoyote »

Pretty to look at it but deeply impractical. Others have described the faults better than I could, so here's a couple of builders, who have houses actually in production, which beats this micro house in both price and practicality.

Scott Stewart builds some interesting designs and most of what he sells is under $30k. His modular design at $8k per module has some potential.

http://www.youtube.com/user/scottstew1/videos

Or there's this house, 12' x 24', for 20k. Not a modern design, but it looks quite liveable and is more practical than the 30k micro.

http://www.sugarloafsmalls.com/

Of course, there's always Tumbleweed but their prices tend to be around $50k if you have them build it.

I'd highly recommend Tiny House Blog if you find this type of house design interesting.

http://tinyhouseblog.com/

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