Environmentally sound 40 sq foot house!

[serryjw]

These were in the Sunday Paper.
Tumbleweed Houses..........40 sq feet (other sizes)

The kitchen in the 50 sq foot house

160 sq feet w/porch!

The McMansion at 320 sq feet

..Finally the Mansion at 500sq feet


http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/houses.htm
I live in 550 sq fee, so I know this would be fine especially with high ceilings. The other ones are even too small for me.

[Rainscents]

1. These are so cute! I would live in one... I don't need lot of rooms.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Hey! these are TRAILERS...

although they would make for a very nice trailer park.

OK, the big ones aren't, but stil...

Anyway, he charges 3 bucks a mile delivery, so add around 10 grand to get one here and I might as well build it myself.

on edit...

I notice that with the little one he sez one guy uses a chamberpot and an outhouse.

They are cute, though.

[DRoseDARs]

4. Or get just the plans for $680 and buy your own materials...

Might prove to be cheaper buying locally-produced materials near you instead of him shipping the house (or just the pieces?) to you.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. I did build my own house once...

only about 700 square feet, and didn't really build it from scratch but replaced just about everthing in it including most of the exterior walls and extended it. Plans I can do myself for little things like these, and yeah, the materials would be a lot less than they charge. I don't think they really plan on selling these to many people on the East Coast.

The real problem with these things is that no place I've lived would allow them-- maybe a trailer park, fishing cabin in the woods, or as an outbuilding. Can't imagine the building department in this town giving a certificate with the wiring, plumbing and other codes they look at. Sewer hookup, anyone?

And 40 square feet??? Cute, but I know a couple of apartments in NYC that small, and you gotta really live with nothing to live in them. I couldn't fit my books in there. I have a storage unit bigger than that, and I ain't using no chamber pot.

[serryjw]

20. Oh Come on...No you haven't

NOW I Have seen 200 sq foot apts in NYC BUT not 40 sq feet. As an X-NYer I can see a 300 sq feet home that would be livable, especially if the ceilings were high......BUT anything smaller is an 'outhouse'.
I love my Pacific Dome (see below). There are some really small ones but the 44 ft has 1520 sq ft foot print and 22' celings that could be made into a loft for way under $75K...NOW I just need to find affordable land in Colorado!

[TreasonousBastard]

27. Yeah, that's small even for NYC, and...

it's too damn small to live in. It's around the size of a camper top for a pickup truck. (A sheet of plywood is 32 sq ft, BTW)

For 24 grand, you can buy a used camper, or just get a van and trick it out. At least then the thing can move around and you got showers at truck stops and campsites. I know someone who bought a piece of a mountain in upstate NY and lived in a school bus for a year.

Pacific Dome is one of what seems like a brazillion prefab companies coming up with all sorts of great designs. I know a guy who works for an outfit in PA that's been selling more conventional prefabs for years and seems to be backordered.

There's someone buying up a bunch of those shipping containers clogging the ports and turning them into housing. You can connect them into fun designs.

If I had my druthers, I'd think of a berm-surrounded home to reduce heating and cooling costs, or maybe something underground with a small living area on top of it. I like the small-footprint idea, and efficiency is paramount with me.

[nonconformist]

3. I feel claustrophobic just looking at the smallest ones

But they are very cute!

[DRoseDARs]

5. The biggest of them unsettle me, but there are multistories...

...and expansion options. :thumbsup:

[eppur_se_muova]

6. I was expecting a teepee or wigwam. Interesting, though. nt

[benburch]

7. More here!

http://www.resourcesforlife.com/groups/smallhousesociety/resources.htm

[benburch]

8. Housing the homeless!

http://www.madhousers.org/

[Up2Late]

9. 50sq feet? That's smaller than my front entry hall, and it's rather small.

My entry hall (with the closet) is 88sq feet.

They would make great play houses for kids, but living in it? No thanks.

[ClayZ]

10. They are beautiful! K and R

It would be nice to have one or two, up in the mountians, by a quiet lake.

:kick:

[upi402]

12. LOL, I downsized from a big, new, hog of a house to a 500 sq footer!

And I'm just lovin' it. Those Mansions are a bit cuter though!
:rofl:

[spinbaby]

13. They're really cute

Attractive, too. In a more perfect world, FEMA would be transporting thousands of the things to the gulf coast.

[MadHound]

14. Nice houses but I think that the prices are a bit out there

23,000 for 42sq ft. 32,000 for 48 sq ft. This certain isn't housing for the poor. Hell, in my neck of the woods, you can get a decent 900 sq. ft. house, well insulated, with various new amenities for $50,000. This isn't housing for the poor by any means. These are weekend doll houses for the well off to play in.

And these houses are nowhere near being earth friendly. Made out of commercial building materials, wood, foamboard, glue and metal, they certainly can't qualify as "green" housing. You want true "green" housing, then build your home out of straw bales or out of rammed earth and earth filled bags. Not only do these two methods use less wood and are much more energy effecient, but you can build a much larger house at at a lower cost. These wee houses don't even provide solar panels on top. It seems that their only claim to being "green" is their size.

And frankly, it would be hazardous to live in one of these houses, especially in the Midwest, where tornadoes abound. The smallest house weighs in at a paltry 1250 pounds, while the biggest looks to be aprox. 2.5 tons. Given that most mobile homes weigh as much or more than the largest of these houses, one can imagine the havoc a tornado, or even just high winds, would wreak on one of these small houses.

I appreciate that this fellow is trying to get people to think small when it comes to housing, but I find his claims to be disingenous at best. These aren't really "green" houses, in so much as they use the same polluting products regular houses use, just in a smaller quantity. And I find it appalling that he charges rates per square foot of house that are higher than commercial property. The poor and less well off simply can't afford to be paying the kind of prices he charges.

If I had a piece of lakefront property or some other such getaway, one of these houses might catch my attention. But even in that sort of market, most people are going to go the bigger, more sturdy house. I wish the guy well, it seems that he is finding a niche market. But I don't think that this is the solution for our housing problems

[blogslut]

15. I want an Earthship!

http://www.earthship.org/

"Earthship n. 1. passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials 2. thermal mass construction for temperature stabilization. 3. renewable energy & integrated water systems make the Earthship an off-grid home with little to no utility bills.

Biotecture n. 1. the profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their sustainability. 2. A combination of biology and architecture..."

[serryjw]

19. I like Earthship but Pacific Domes is still my favorite

44' Dome Features: Standard Layout
Floor Area - 1,520 sq. ft.

Bay Window: 15ft. tall x 30ft. wide

Frame Package: 5ft. x 3ft. x 3ft.

Ceiling Height: 22ft.

Dome Weight: 1,500 lbs.

Cover Package: 3ft. x 3ft. x 3ft.

Assembly Time: 20 hours with a crew of 3 or 4 (Double your first time).




Look around it has a great website...from tiny homes to domes for commerical use.
http://www.pacificdomes.com/index.html

[blogslut]

24. a hobbit dome!!!!!!

[fed-up]

16. Here are some cheap Pre-fab houses in Belize w/pics

http://www.belizeproperty.com/belize/construction.htm
and same website, updated w/slightly different info
http://www.belizeproperty.com/construction.htm

There are a group of Mennonite builders that do pre-fab houses for about $10-40K, but I can't find their website if they even have one. Here's one being trucked to its new home.

http://new.channel5belize.com/archive_news_cast.php?news_date=2004-07-09#a6

and a pic of hurricane proof houe
http://www.wooddepot.bz/product.asp?ItemID=8

[BiggJawn]

17. I LOVE that 40-foot Vardo!

Maybe a larger one, on the back of a 5-ton truck, and bum around the country enjoying the Blank Life and spreading the word on the evils of Conservatism...

Unfortunately, in this "21st Century Economy", I'm gonna have to work until I drop dead, just like my great-grandfather did when Carnegie and Morgan and Vanderbilt ran things...

So even if there WAS fuel to move the truck, and I could afford to build one, I'd never get to enjoy it anyway.

[Bill McBlueState]

18. would be hard to fit a bed in the 40 sq ft one

Just for comparison, a queen size bed is about 35 square feet!

[MazeRat7]

21. Hey... I should build one of those for my dogs.... they need a new house.

[SoCalDem]

23. My husband built a fantastic house for our labs

It had a wraparound porch for them to lay on, and was "stilted" because they loved to dig under it..It had 2 windows and a side door as well as a front door..shingled roof too :) It was carpeted,and was big enough for all three of them to comfortably cozy up together inside it.. They almost preferred it to being inside :)

[Jara sang]

22. I've seen those before, they are expensive as fuck.

[in_cog_ni_to]

25. If I was single, I could EASILY live in the McMansion 500 sq. ft.

It's so CUTE! My favorite is the little purple house, but that's just too small.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

26. Ok, I Don't Get It. What Is The Point Of These? I Mean, They're Cute And

all, but why would anyone want one?

on edit: are these like meant for poor bachelors or something? Who's the market for these, college kids? :shrug: