Could you live in a tiny house?

Could you live in a tiny house?

A typical tiny house comes equipped with fully functional kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms. Larger tiny homes may offer an upper level loft for a second (or primary) bedroom away from the living area downstairs. Nicer tiny home options may offer screened in decks or porches.

Could you live in a tiny house?

    Let's have a little fun this weekend and talk about living in a tiny house.  Tiny homes are not simply "small homes".  Tiny homes are complete homes meant for a family to live in that, in many cases, can be transported on the back of a trailer and plopped down almost anywhere in the world.  Square footage?  Between 80 and upwards of a 1000 or more.

    Picture of a Tiny Home

    Literally, these homes allow the resident to pick up and move, almost at a moment's notice, to virtually anywhere in the world.  You might say this is minimalist living, but some of these tiny homes come with quite a few luxuries despite their relatively small stature.

    Tiny homes can be bought pre-assembled through companies like Tumbleweed Houses, Wind River Custom Homes and so many others.  Or, for those of us who are more DIY-inclined, blueprints can be bought by the homeowner through services like ePlans.com or TinyHouseBuild.com.  There are a wide variety of resources online to obtain free or low-cost blueprints and designs for tiny homes.  Try this Google search for a few options.

    Tiny Home pictures

    Most tiny homes come equipped with fully functional kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms.  Larger tiny homes may offer an upper level loft for a second (or primary) bedroom away from the living area downstairs. Nicer tiny home options may offer screened in decks or porches.

    The architectural choices are plenty.  Like the A-Frame look?  No problem, tiny homes can be built in almost any configuration, using a variety of architectural designs, colors and concepts.

    What about the cost?  Depending on the type of tiny home you get, and whether or not you build it yourself, tiny homes can be built for as little as 10 or 15-thousand for the smallest homes to hundreds of thousands for larger, commercial-built options.  This woman built her 84-sqft home for $10k when prices were cheap.  But yeah, only 84-sqft.

    What about modern conveniences like running water, showers, sinks and toilets?  Provided that your spot of land has water and sewer services, any tiny home with the available space can offer regular "wet area" features just like a traditional home does.  Check out the folding shower to the right that looks like it comes straight out of Star Trek.

    And electricity?  No problem, tiny homes can be wired up with the same electrical capacity as your home.  More or less, if your spot of land is fully connected to "the grid", then your tiny home can be built to take advantage of modern conveniences in almost every case.

    Again, many tiny homes aren't so minimalist.  Many come with nicer kitchens than you'd find in your typical traditional house.  Granite or concrete countertops, tile floors, closets, book shelves - anything you might need.

    The only difference is these homes are small enough to be hoisted up on the back of a trailer and hauled off to some other spot on earth.

    Could you live in a tiny house?

    S

    Steve Adcock

    774 posts

    Steves a 38-year-old early retiree who writes about the intersection of happiness and financial independence.