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Forum Index : Other Stuff : Tiny homes
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powerednut Senior Member  Joined: 09/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 221 |
Radio national had an interesting piece this morning on tiny houses. Its here on abc's site for download if anybody wants it. |
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MacGyver Guru  Joined: 12/05/2009 Location: United StatesPosts: 1329 |
powerednut I can safely say I'm already on this page. Here is a Youtube link to my backshed (dwelling). I intend living here off-grid as much as possible for the rest of my life. Size indeed counts, but being nearly 7 feet tall (Dutch) I've learned to appreciate small as well. Oh, and while we're talking about size counting, that business about "big hands, big feet, big . . . " -- It's a myth! 
. . . . . . Mac Nothing difficult is ever easy! Perhaps better stated in the words of Morgan Freeman, "Where there is no struggle, there is no progress!" Copeville, Texas |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Mac For a long time big was beautiful in houses that is, but in reality it means more money and more work to maintain so some ideas as to practical living are re emerging in various ways. A popular TV show here in AU has featured a home based on shipping container size constraints that seems quite practical for on or two people, with possible multi container for family, however the local council building regulations will surely squash it's practical application in conventional subdivisions and will in all probability be restricted to community park living. I have lived in a trailer on site at times and personally find it a bit too constricted but with a small increase in size it could be comfortable. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5078 |
Unfortuately here in Australia there is a trend to build bigger houses. Many new houses come with a "media room", a room set aside to watch movies  . What a selfish, self absorbed society we are becoming, and a lot of it has to do with keeping up apperances.
I'm currently renting a 3 bedroom house. 1 bedroom I sleep in, another is my home office where I work all day, and the other is storage. The lounge room is massive, mostly empty space, and I have a sofa and TV set up at one end. It's a lot of space to heat up during the cold nights when I watch TV. I need about 20% of the space thats available, and if the room was 20% smaller it would cost a lot less to keep warm. Of all the places I've lived in, the smaller ones were the most homely and comfortable. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| Georgen Guru Joined: 13/09/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 462 |
Hi all, my first post! Friend of mine did something along these lines for heating purposes as lived in South sun-room (converted from verandah) in winter with no heater. He built kind of a wall from floor to ceiling out of empty cardboard boxes (later on kept filling them with papers, phone books, and paper pamphlets). Looked terrible, but you could tell the difference what it was before without the boxes and after. Light was the major drawback, but had to put up with artificial light. Later on I heard similar thing regarding empty fridge. To save on energy it was advised to fill it up with containers with just water in them. Trick was that when you open the door, not as much cold air falls out of the fridge. You could make transparent partition. Or move TV to other bedroom. Actually I have small TV room for winter. George |
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vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
[quote="Sarah Susanka"]In fact they are often not even furnished, which is a crazy part of it, because it was never actually intended to be lived in, it's something that...you know, we acquire that space because at some point in the future, some future buyer may need that space. In fact part of my frustration as an architect was that so many people were building a good third of their house for some resale event, probably 30 years from now, and they weren't designing the house for the way that they actually wanted to live. So it seemed like a really crazy use of their money for something that they were never going to get value out of.[/quote] Not my business but that's odd! I see the Mac's "nest" something right also for me. Intimate and functional. But... I think this explain it: [quote="Jay Shafer"]...although it seems a bit awkward to say that flatulence can be a big problem in a tiny house.[/quote] Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| Air Bender Senior Member Joined: 25/01/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 206 |
Hi all We bought a small 2 bedroom 4 roomed cottage with a small lean too on the back that had the bathroom and laundry in it. The house is over 120 years old and it was that run down we got it for land value. We took out the wall in between the two back rooms which were the kithen and a bedroom and this area became an open kitchen and living area and the living room in the front became our bed room. this made it a three roomed house with a small lean too on the back. We insulated all the outside walls and the ceiling. The windows that were replaced were replaced with ones of the original size. When our second child came along we built an extra bedroom on the back knocked down the lean too and built a proper bathroom and laundry. We have the cheapest gas and power bills out of any one we know, and that was before we put the solar on the roof. The house as always warm in the winter ond cool in the summer we dont go out of our way to conserve energy. Being in a small house the kids tend to spend a lot more time outside, a lot more than most other kids we know and some of the naubours kids spend more time at our house than there own. I think one of our biggest saving comes from having our kitchen bathroom and laundry being in one corner of the house were our longest lenth of hot water pipe is 4m long and our shower is only a meter from the hot water service, a lot of energy is wasted with hot water going cold in pipes. It is less work and cheaper to maintain a small house which leaves us more time and money that we woulnt have if we lived in a bigger house. I couldnt get the wife and kids to move from this house even if I wanted too. All the best Dean. |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Dean That is the way to go, too many young people have the must have it mow disease spawned by the banks and advertising, it is good to see that you have resisted and gone the right way about living. In saying that it isn't possible for most due to lack of suitable housing in the area where they choose to live, and they give no thought to decentralization. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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philb Regular Member  Joined: 05/07/2008 Location: United StatesPosts: 96 |
That's using you head Dean. 
I have 2 8'X40' shipping containers bolted and welded together now and I'll buy one more. A 24'X40' house is plenty big enough for 2 people (unless she's mad at me). I'm going to pour foam on the outside of the containers and seal that with a few layers ferrocement even though the foam is supposed to be nearly fireproof. No inside theater room and I don't feel deprived. philb |
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| VK4AYQ Guru Joined: 02/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2539 |
Hi Philb My friend has a set up like yours with three containers set up in a U shape with a roofed over open living area in the middle, it works wonders as the roof is open around the edges for air circulation, and insulated under the roof so it is cool in summer, and a big open fireplace for winter, the whole lot cost less than $20K and is so strong that a tornado wouldn't blow it away. He has used a cement sheet product on the outside, here they call it blue board, it is screwed to vertical 1"x1" RHS welded to the container to act as an air gap, it has a 2 hour fire rating so is very safe. All windows in the rooms are double glazed to the outside. All the best Bob Foolin Around |
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