Tiny living

[nayeli]

I like the finished houses, but...I have over 10,000 books. They're all in storage now anyway, because we're renovating, but I hate it. I've lived in one room in the current house for ages, it's now two (the others don't have internal walls, rain gets in, etc). It's often pretty miserable because you can't keep it clean and wild animals break in a lot. Hard with a three year old too. While I know people who have tiny makeshift places they adore, none have kds, or a 3-4 hour work commute like me. Living really frugally with things like space and heating can be problematic if you have nearly no time before bed during weekdays.

Why such a long commute? I would think that would kill your budget alone with gas prices today!

 

[Steampunked]

Why such a long commute? I would think that would kill your budget alone with gas prices today

Public transport I only pay about $11 in transport costs each day, which is cheap for us. It does mean a very, very long commute.

It's not relevant to this discussion, but house prices where I live are almost the most expensive in the world - we're living as close to our jobs as we could afford to, and while my partner can change jobs for a closer one if he can find one, I would be insane to (my job is understanding on leave for children, mental health (I have PTSD), emergencies, bushfires etc and has excellent superannuation).

Our house cost $320K and is falling down and was full of asbestos - it required restumping, rewiring, replumbing, and has nearly no internal walls. A fairly old house purchased by a friend of mine in cycling distance to his work (about 15kms) was $750K, and needed quite a lot of repair work. The international norm for an average house price is three times your yearly income - in Australia, it's vastly more.

Rental is very threatening in Melbourne for people with children, and I and most people I know have experienced suddenly becoming homeless due to agents raising rent outside our ability to pay, and finding it hard to find a place to move into that will accept children or pets, or not be more than two hours away from our jobs.

The national national median house price of AU$539,400 (US$489,538) means that our house was very, very cheap, which explains why it's so far away and so damaged.

And now I've rambled on and deflected away from the topic - which is tiny living! And speaking of that, here's a Seattle nail-house which is kind of funny: http://dornob.com/super-skinny-seattle-spite-house-sells-for-nearly-400k/

 

[nayeli]

Public transport I only pay about $11 in transport costs each day, which is cheap for us. It does mean a very, very long commute.

It's not relevant to this discussion, but house prices where I live are almost the most expensive in the world - we're living as close to our jobs as we could afford to, and while my partner can change jobs for a closer one if he can find one, I would be insane to (my job is understanding on leave for children, mental health (I have PTSD), emergencies, bushfires etc and has excellent superannuation).

Our house cost $320K and is falling down and was full of asbestos - it required restumping, rewiring, replumbing, and has nearly no internal walls. A fairly old house purchased by a friend of mine in cycling distance to his work (about 15kms) was $750K, and needed quite a lot of repair work. The international norm for an average house price is three times your yearly income - in Australia, it's vastly more.

Rental is very threatening in Melbourne for people with children, and I and most people I know have experienced suddenly becoming homeless due to agents raising rent outside our ability to pay, and finding it hard to find a place to move into that will accept children or pets, or not be more than two hours away from our jobs.

The national national median house price of AU$539,400 (US$489,538) means that our house was very, very cheap, which explains why it's so far away and so damaged.

And now I've rambled on and deflected away from the topic - which is tiny living! And speaking of that, here's a Seattle nail-house which is kind of funny: http://dornob.com/super-skinny-seattle-spite-house-sells-for-nearly-400k/

I'm sorry! That would be really difficult to live there. I can see why tiny living would be appealing!

 

[Cold Canadian]

Been reading your posts , and also following the small house upstart .......not so much here (Canada ) as we seem bent on building larger and larger houses it seems ? But myself I'm loving the small house concepts .Have looked on line for ideas as I own a small band saw mill and want to build a small house with timbers as I have seen on one reality show . Would love to do the container concept .........but we get to darn cold to realistically insulate one .....further south , for sure ! price's have been going up on containers as the idea has caught on big time in warm climates . The ones on wheels ? unfortunately I think they are just house trailers done up to follow the small home revolution ..............................but that's my view on them , others might like them . Anyways hope me jumping in hasn't bothered anyone .......post on please

 

[nayeli]

I just did a blog on a thing you could probably repurpose into a tiny house! http://thenewdaybringshope.blogspot.com/2015/03/two-story-tiny-house-shell.html

 

[Cold Canadian]

Interesting , but it looks like a shrunken version of a fairly often used standard house .......not a bad thing , but I prefer the one floor , ranch or cabin design ......has a more home feel I think ?

 

[nayeli]

Interesting , but it looks like a shrunken version of a fairly often used standard house .......not a bad thing , but I prefer the one floor , ranch or cabin design ......has a more home feel I think ?

I found one that looked like a cabin, but it wasn't well constructed! I like both but I really like two story houses... not because I like huge houses I just like the layouts and the stairs!

 

[Cold Canadian]

I live in a two story and I totally understand what you're saying , I always liked the old Shaker style homes , two floors without the impression of a two story ......plus they had those angles upstairs that added character ........and most were rather small yet provided room for some large families .......no wasted space

 

[nayeli]

I live in a two story and I totally understand what you're saying , I always liked the old Shaker style homes , two floors without the impression of a two story ......plus they had those angles upstairs that added character ........and most were rather small yet provided room for some large families .......no wasted space

We are looking at moving and we are looking at both a two story (plantation style) and a one story (cute style lol). What is funny is the first is 2000 sq ft and the second is only 1000 sq ft! The smaller one is MUCH cheaper though, and comes with 3.75 acres whereas the plantation is more expensive and only comes with 2. They are both cheap though LOL and they both need some work (updates, fencing, outbuildings).

 

[Cold Canadian]

Myself , I'd go with the smaller one , the land would be the selling point .......not making it anymore .....lol....plus if needed to you could add on to the smaller one .1000 sq feet was the norm in the 70's and up to the mid 90's ........then for some reason everything doubled in size and dollar value ? Now to see single family housing in 2400 sq feet is the norm .........a lot of unused space as well as heating or cooling costs ...........small makes more sense , a place for everything , everything in it's place ........good logic I think .