Living in a 200-square-foot space

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle ... story.html

"“This is the dream,” says Rin Westcott, 28, who lives in Columbia and came out on a wintry Saturday afternoon bundled in a flower hat to help her friend Lee Pera with a tiny-house raising.

Pera, 35, wore safety goggles as she treated the cedar boards of her “little house in the alleyway,” one of three under construction in what is thought to be one of the country’s first tiny-house model communities.

If these affordable homes — which maximize every inch of interior space and look a little like well-constructed playhouses — are the dream, they represent a radically fresh version of what it takes to make Americans happy."

http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/30/obama ... z2EQbPPrWa


Barbie’s Lowered Expectations House. Put that thing in Flyover Country and cue the Palin jokes. Put it in northeast DC and it magically becomes a fashion statement.

It’s odd… You only read stories about how great it is to be poor, how empowering it is to settle for less, when a Democrat is president. If a Republican was in charge, would WaPo be doing stories about how awesome it is to live in a breadbox?

They’re just trying to prepare you for the inevitable crash. Their ideas don’t work and they know it, so now all they can do is try to make you think their failure is somehow a statement of principle.

I wonder how they are heating them?
I wonder where the hot water heater is?
Are they connected to the city sanitary sewer or are they using chemical toilets? I guess if I had to down size like that I would buy a mobile home instead.

gmule wrote: I wonder how they are heating them?
I wonder where the hot water heater is?
Are they connected to the city sanitary sewer or are they using chemical toilets? I guess if I had to down size like that I would buy a mobile home instead.

One of links had a pic. I saw a chemical toilet and an in wall gas heater.

Might as well live in a camper then

If I was single I would consider it. With more single households these could become popular. Spin on bad times? Right after Obama got elected I read a story about how being unemployed brings families together.

FredHayek wrote: If I was single I would consider it. With more single households these could become popular. Spin on bad times? Right after Obama got elected I read a story about how being unemployed brings families together.

It has about as much room as a French hotel room. I've stayed in many European hotel rooms that were as small and comfortable as that "playhouse." I think it's a good idea.

Half the places I have lived or built for myself are smaller? 200 is not so small. We only use about 300 sf of our house and we are pretty fancy.

That would be illegal locally - FYI - you DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE SUCH A DECISION TO LIVE LIKE THIS HERE. In CO where they have a Building Code, you MUST build at least 600 sf, no exceptions, no good reasons either (except the standard CO argument that your neighbor has rights to make you do whatever they want). People could speak up and change this, just go walk up to a brick wall and start talking.

So like most other things these days, don't ask for permission.

Call it a trailer and you don't have to worry about the 600 sq. ft. nonsense. Just stick a couple (removable) wheels on it and then register it as a trailer every year. Gets you out of those pesky building codes too, but you do have to follow the codes for trailed vehicles. You'd probably have to put a specific class hitch on it and some brakes, not to mention running lights and a couple of brake/indicator lights on the back, plus the license plate light, of course.