Show HN: Live Simple – Tiny homes
livesimple.io
livesimple.io
Disclaimer: builder
To your point they do seem pretty expensive. If you were building in your area what is the price per sq/ft. I understand that it is a terrible metric, but it is the only one that I can think of.
It's about the total cost beeing affordable, an running costs beeing as low as possible.
Also this started out as a DIY movement, but now that professional builders are involved, prices go up.
Perhaps you're missing the point: it is demand that drives prices up, not supply.
The classic economy wants to grow infinitely to be happy. But a sustainable approach means people are now focusing on conservation of resources, leading to behavior that is the opposite of growth.
The real economy actually wants to shrink, in some cases literally. You see that with tiny houses. If people could wave a wand and shrink their house to reduce their cost of living and footprint, they would.
I think the focus on sustainability is great, but we need to adjust our economic and social structures to accomodate that.
Here is an idea I had related to tiny houses: http://runvnc.github.io/tinyvillage/
PS: The first listing is really just an ad for a small home custom builder? Savvy of him to get oodles of free promo for his business but may want to look into that?
From what I gather, the fact that they are too small to be legal in most (urban/within city bounds) areas creates all kinds of challenges. I have long been interested in the subject, and I sometimes fantasize about living in a tiny house, but I have not yet in earnest tried to make it happen.
Having watched some of the shows I still don't catch the full appeal. Perhaps so you can claim you don't live in a trailer? Modern campers are at times better finished and likely to pass more stringent inspections. Throw in that trend towards slide outs on campers/trailers and they have space on demand.
Custom workmanship might be the real key, still it is a trailer by any other name.
If you're a millennial, you'd typically buy a starter home. Student loan debt and wages (having been disconnected from productivity in the 70s) cause workers to have insufficient income to devote to a "traditional" housing expenses. Therefore, a tiny home with less financial exposure is more attractive. Even though they're not dirt cheap, they can be of high quality construction and cost about the same as a traditional deposit on a traditional home.
There was a gentleman who posted his entire progress and his financials for the Tiny House on HN a few weeks back, and parked his in rural Texas. There was another young man who placed his on some borrowed land near the University of Michigan, as what he paid to build his was substantially less than what his dorm would've cost.
Remember, tiny houses get you around zoning laws. They're not homes, they're RVs/trailers. You can get much more creative about where you place them compared to a house you'd have to build.
I'm interested in it because I'm in the middle of building a Tiny house my self.
> "Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs" [0]
0: http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/2549...