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Small World: The Tiny House Trend

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Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#181

Post by hoaw »

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 mostly agree and think there are a number of points to be made.

1. There is nothing wrong with living small, but there is a point when every square meter/feet makes a lot of difference.

2. We really should be getting better standards of living over time as manufacturing gets easier. Most people should be having even modest vacation homes bigger than this.

3. Even if you don't believe in these things, it is to some extent at least an ideal. Maybe especially in the US giving up this ideal is a significant decrease in prosperity.

Ultimately one has to ask themselves "for what?". I can in many ways see the appeal and I am interested in things like house construction. But ultimately it is also a result of the absurd situation where we aren't producing new opportunities anymore. And you can't really compensate for the changes in the bigger picture.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#182

Post by jdlyga »

Most people living in Manhattan are already doing this. It's really not that bad. You just treat the outside as part of your living room. I go on walks all the time, and hang out in coffee shops a lot.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#183

Post by avgDev »

CydeWeys wrote: post #101
avgDev wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been remodeling a house for the past 7 months. It is a pain. However, I feel like I could start a construction company with my knowledge. I had to purchase several books describing different concepts and work is done up to code. Now, when I visit newly renovated homes, I see so much corner cutting, work that does not meet codes and sometimes is unsafe. Plus, the stuff does not change as quickly as software. If…

Seriously. I bought several books too, checked out more from the library, and also watched a ton of YouTube tutorials. It's all pretty easy if you pay attention, and makes intuitive sense, e.g., king studs carry the weight of the top plate (and thus roof/second floor), jack studs carry the weight of the header above the opening, and cripple studs carry the weight of the header below the opening, i.e. carry the weight…

That is awesome, I also had a similar experience with a inspector.

My parents house kept getting water in the basement because of soil being sloped towards their house. Neighbor was too high and their house was too low. I ended up designing a solution, which was a retaining wall and french drain system. The last inspection, two inspectors came out and asked if I do that professionally because they have been impressed by the drawings submitted and the scope of the job seemed unreasonable to be tackled by a home owner. The older inspector said I should do it for a living and he thought there was no way we would complete the project.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#184

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

CydeWeys wrote: post #98
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…

True. The nice thing about 16' lumber is that you can still just barely haul it in a full-size pickup by weighing it down, strapping it in, and putting a flag on the ends sticking out. Once you're talking about 20' plus you probably need to pay them to deliver it -- which realistically is the better option anyway if you're talking about doing a whole garage, as that would be a lot of trips in a pickup truck. A shed i…

Roof rack with a hitch attachment lets a truck carry long boards.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#185

Post by Bjorkbat »

stcredzero wrote: post #154
Bjorkbat wrote: post #142

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…

Trailer homes are pretty incredible when you think about it. They're the closest we've come yet to building houses on an assembly line in a factory. People are already building house components on an assembly line in a factory. By components, I mean entire rooms and sections of houses. I wish some brave soul would undertake the task of creating, I don't know, the VW bug of trailer homes. Doesn't have to be a luxury t…

People are already building house components on an assembly line in a factory. By components, I mean entire rooms and sections of houses.

As in prefabs? Of course. But trailer/manufactured homes take it further. It's one single unit.

If "the VW Bug of" means a willingness of the manufacturer to modify the traditional chassis and body layout to better accomplish design goals, then GMC did build something along the lines of what you describe

Close, but again, no RVs. I'm looking at trailer homes, which at the moment all come kinda country and kinda kitsch. That's all you get. I think it would be incredible if there was something that was contemporary, reasonably cheap, and has personality. Like a VW bug.

EDIT: Forgot that double-wides are typically transported in two, so not one single unit, and they kind of are a trailer home. Yeah, nevermind then.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#186

Post by michaelt »

driverdan wrote: post #75
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.

> lowering our standards of living Why is living in a smaller home a lower standard of living? Wasted space is a higher standard?

Tiny home = Small trailer in a trailer park... but marketed to the middle classes = Low-quality housing for those in poverty, marketed to the middle classes = sign of people believing in very poor prospects for the middle classes.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#187

Post by dwater »

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?

There are parts of framing that are safer and easier with 2 people, but there are a few places that I used a block and tackle to haul stuff around by myself. The only days that I really needed extra hands was setting up the posts & beams (most buildings now don't have these but I liked the idea), and setting the roof ridge beam, a 27' long pair of 2x8s that needed to be put 25' off the ground and 15' above the floor decking before any of the supporting structure was in place. Sheathing the roof would be smarter to do with 2 people but I didn't.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#188

Post by pessimizer »

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.

Choosing a house based on external appearance makes about as much sense to me as choosing a surgeon based on how handsome they are. Especially when that appearance ranking has nothing to do with cleanliness, or neatness, but, I don't know how to interpret this, culture or era of origin? Aesthetic, but not based on color or comfort or neatness or cleanness?

I'll never get conspicuous consumption.

Re: Small World: The Tiny House Trend

#190

Post by module0000 »

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.

That's funny - I thought it sounded really nice. It evoked nostalgia from the military. Different strokes eh? :)
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