I build BIG houses because that's what people pay me to do. As Willie said, "If they've got the dime, I've got the time." Most are well over 5,000 sq ft. But for myself, I want the comfortable, cozy, affordable lifestyle a small home offers. Here's an example:
This is a 2012 small house award winner by Seattle architect Matt Hutchins and featured in Fine Homebuilding Magazine. It's about 900 sq ft and is actually in the back yard of their 1926-vintage primary residence. They no longer needed 3,000 sq ft as their family is now grown, so they built this in order to stay close to their friends and their long-time neighborhood and then leased out their big house.
Most of my clients request I install in their kitchens $35,000 ultra-high-end appliance packages when truth be told, they rarely use anything but the microwave. Something like this (again the Seattle award winner) would work just fine for 99% of us....me for sure.
The trick is to learn to put every single nook and cranny to use, like this entertainment space (TV, old vinyl records, CD's, etc) tucked under the stairs. I have a thousand ideas such as this that can make 1,000 square feet live like twice that much.
Something like this is what I want to some day build for K and I. Fortunately she and I think alike, at least on this. ;)
The objection will come from the cities who don't want small houses. Their rationale is they'll have to provide police and fire protection, water and sewer service, trash collection, parks, streets, etc, and small homes won't generate enough tax revenue to pay for those services, while a 4,000 square footer will provide way more than enough. It's all just a numbers ($$$) game to them. Today small homes are usually "zoned out".
One option would be to go out in the country and build....cities have no jurisdiction there....but I refuse to live out in the sticks. I have no idea if I can pull this off, but I'm gonna try. It may take years for all the stars to line up, but it'll be worth the effort if it works. Wish me luck.
S
Maybe you need to find someone who has a big backyard and put your little house in it.
ReplyDeleteI'd like a small house. I'd even take a shack in the woods.
PT, you need to see the Tiny House Blog:
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I love the idea of smaller houses. How much space do we really need. And smaller houses are easier to maintain and keep clean. I do wish you luck in pulling this off.
ReplyDeletetoo much zoning? I don't know if you'd have that problem in Houston.
ReplyDeleteTrue but Houston really isn't where I want to live. No way.
DeleteI like a small house as well, back when most families had 3 or more children the small house somehow worked out just fine. Today families tend to be 2 kids or less so they need 5000 sq. foot homes...go figure.
ReplyDeleteIn some areas, anyway (like the suburbs of Minneapolis) the urge isn't toward maintaining the big house mood. We're seeing tax advantages to more houses on a given square mile of residential neighborhood. Probably this happened because the value (and hence tax assessment) on those houses plummeted.
ReplyDeleteI"m with you on this. Smaller houses make a lot of sense.
You are absolutely correct about the zoning issue. That and cities equate size with quality plus they want low density. Garland is beginning to steer towards urban style higher density smaller housing.
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ReplyDeleteI'm not in the market for a house any more, but a 900 sq ft, two-bedroom house is all I would want. There are plenty of smaller and older homes here that are perfect for an owner who wants to renovate and personalize, and most of them are pretty close to the downtown but on quieter streets. All I'd need is a 900 sq ft income :-)
ReplyDeleteYep, that would work fine for me, too. :)
ReplyDeleteGood luck from someone who is also a fan of smaller houses! Love the pictures of the award-winning Seattle house; will have to check out the Tiny House blog next.
ReplyDeleteMuch of the Tiny House blog deals with truly tiny homes (up to 200 sq ft), but some of it deals with "small" homes (200-800 sq ft.) too. That's the niche that appeals to me. Let me know what you think.
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I was watching a video on you tube about a man that ran into that situation of not being able to put up a small home, so he submitted plans for a larger home with a detached garage. he built the garage in a certain way and has never started the actual home! dont know if that's something you could do, I found the link that i watched....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxGr9uloL9k
That is so swesome. Gotta give it to the guy, he played their game and won. Thanks for the link, doo. :)
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I thought people were catching on that smaller made more sense. I hope you do design and build one. You aren't alone in this. I downsized to 1100 square feet. Everything feels much simpler.
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