My students started discussing something they had head about online – tiny houses. One student read about someone who was living in a 94 square foot house. The group decided that he had gone to far and was just being ridiculous.
I turned the question back to them and asked if they could live in a 1000 square foot house, and almost all agreed that would be quite nice. The average home size in the US is 2400 square feet.
Our economy is changing some of this. The housing market currently has 40 million McMansions that can’t be sold. Meanwhile the market needs 30 million more small homes and 10 million attached homes – homes with smaller pricetags and smaller footprints.
The backlash? Tiny homes. Below are 5 floor plan options for the Gifford 99-square foot home by Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. It can be purchased assembled for $13,999.
My students would never live in this house, but they could learn a few lessons from it. The first is about efficiency in design – a place for everything and everything in its place. Three of the above designs “lack” a bed – a space filled with a sleeping loft or a built-in Murphy bed.
Living a small-footprint life doesn’t mean you have to be cramped into this tiny space. Tumbleweed also has small home designs for sale, such as the 2-bedroom 750 square food Sebastarosa below.
The best thing about a small house is that it makes living simpler easy, and bonds the people inside the house to each other. It’s hard to hold onto piles of stuff from your past. It’s hard to buy more than you need. The space encourages you to prioritize what is most important in your life and include only that. It also encourages you to live outside as much as your climate allows.
Besides, can you imagine the lot price for this house?
sustainabilityenergy 