The tiny house craze.......

[Fishmission]

 

[ndbwhunter]

There was a time where I dreamt of living in a shack on a mountainside in Idaho not much bigger than that. Now? Well....

I would still like to do this.

 

[eyexer]

our house is about 700 square feet..dont have kids, don't plan on it. we bought the house I was renting about three years ago, itll be paid for next year. I like what fnzfwl says. I think of a huge mortgage as signing a contract as a indentured servent. someday when land prices get back to reasonable we will buy some and build a 900 sq ft house. I'm glad to not have to give a bank 1200$ a month for 30 years and pay 2000$ year on taxes.

thankfully I have no mortgage. But I pay 5K in property taxes. So I guess in a nutshell I do have a mortgage that will never be paid off

 

[fnznfwl]

I would still like to do this.

live in a tiny house in the mountains and you're an outdoorsman, but if you write blog about it, you're a hippie.

 

[jer79]

ouch.. mine went up last year.. almost 600$ total..i should add though that storage has been a issue, I have plenty of stuff. the single car garage if full and I built another shed last year, that's full too. but in the end I'm glad she talked me into staying and buying the house instead of looking for something bigger.

 

[NodakBuckeye]

I think they call that being materialistic. :;:thumbsup

Would you work 40 plus hours a week to live in a big house when you could work 20 to live in one half the size and go fishing with your kids the extra 20 hours a week you have? or would you work the extra 20 just so your boat could have more sparkles?

If I could work 20 and still make what I do now, yes. Would I settle for less pay, less house, less retirement, less for college for my kids? Less sports, scouts, trips for my kids? Less money to support causes I believe in or just to help someone out? Nope. More to it than just sparkles on a boat but I do get your point.

 

[Fisherman25]

I guess I enjoy company too much to have a small place. I've saved a lot of money not hanging in bars, that much I know.

 

[KDM]

I guess I enjoy company too much to have a small place. I've saved a lot of money not hanging in bars, that much I know.

Yep!!!

 

[sbe2]

in 2012 my wife, 2 kids and myself sold our house to build another and in the meantime went from a 2200 sq ft 3 bedroom, 2 bath house to a 900 square foot 2 bedroom 1 bath house that we rented until our new house was done. Quite honestly I learned a lot in the time there and could move back into a smaller house again with no problems. Sure sometimes it was a little hard to get away but on the other hand it was cozy and got me to thinking that I would easily sell my house and move into a smaller house to have a minimal mortgage and more money in my pocket to travel more or take my kids to more places and spend more time with them but to each his own.

However there is no way in hell I could live in a sub 200 square foot house thats insane.

 

[Bfishn]

I could definitely live in a 1,000 sq ft house as long as i still had a three stall garage for all my toys and storage. My parents have one of those park homes at the lake, which was actually one of the choices on the tiny homes show i watched the other night. I think it is a little under 500 sq ft plus a loft. They are great for a summer cabin, but wouldn't want to live in it full time. The tiny house craze is definitely another hipster fad. I would love to know how many of those people last more than a year in those things. Having said that, I don't blame people for not wanting to get trapped in a big house and big mortgage for the rest of their lives. There is a happy medium though. Buy something you can afford with a 15 years mortgage.

 

[johnr]

sparkles...haha

My kids are in school while I work anyway, so even if I went down to 20 hours a week I would not be spending any more time on the water with them than I do now. They also would not want to have me hanging around 100% of their free time..haha

I have a ProV so no sparkles, but my next one will be all sparkled up.

 

[Sum1]

Like others have said if I was single I would actually seek out a small house as long as there was a good sized shop/garage of some sort. I like the idea of simple living, unfortunately getting married and having kids isn't conducive to simple living. Far from it.

 

[Traxion]

Interesting points of view. I couldn't live in one that small, however I do understand the want to live with little to no debt. That said, I live in a 1000 sf house (unfinished basement) with 2 car garage. I have a storage shed for my boat and other gear. We bought the house at the right price and I am happy with it. We have plenty of room and plan to stay here for awhile, no need for anything more. I have friends building that have 1.5-2 times invested and it doesn't make ANY sense to me.

But, like I said before, I would build a nice small SIPS home with solar and all the hippie goodies and be very happy....as long as I had a nice shop/garage LOL.

Best thing about the tiny house craze is it gets people thinking about living in smaller homes and with less stuff. That I think we could all benefit from a bit. But not down to 200 sq. ft.!