Forum Index > Full Moon Saloon > Anyone else try Tiny House living or Tiny apartments?
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Brucester
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Brucester
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 9:28 am 
I've been living in 265 square feet for the past 15 years and I've finally called it quits as of this month. While I made it work, it was a constant battle with "stuff." We all have stuff, bikes, winter gear, trail maintenance tools, family heirlooms etc. At first I stored them within the 265sq ft but eventually found storage within our building but after questions of security I stored stuff at a name brand storage facility. Having a loft seemed to be essential. Although it's a challenge while dating, it worked well for me. I sleep without a traditional mattress and sleep on a "3 pad for my back and it also takes up less space. If I was frugal I could have saved bank because I got into tiny space living when it wasn't popular. But now for some reason under 250 sq ft seems to be a new "thing" if you look for it on rental sites and can be quite expensive in the metropolitan area. Unless there's some kind of natural view out the window such as a hedge or a tree and not a house '12 from my window you can feel "trapped." One window facing a side of the neighbors house can also feel depressing. There are many advantages as long as your rent reflects a "fair square footage price." It's a breeze to clean if not detail clean. Cheap to light, heat, furnish and decorate. I paid $50- $80 a month for utilities of which I'm not sure how they calculated without a meter. I seldom cook, use water and my heat is always turned off. 4 LED bulbs? I'm not finished with tiny space living. I dream of converting a school bus when I find land for it. I'd do it here but that may just be a pipe dream in the Seattle area nowadays. I'm curious who else has done "tiny living" or thought, ideas of others.

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neek
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neek
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 10:31 am 
Thanks for sharing your story. I was intrigued with that whole lifestyle a while ago, when Tumbleweed was getting started, and planned to get some cheap property out in the country and give it a shot. Then reality (family, hobbies, etc.) hit. Maybe some day. But now I have trouble understanding the point. I'm into FI/RE, but don't think it requires extreme sacrifice. If you want energy efficiency, get good insulation, a Sun Frost fridge, maybe rooftop solar if you live in the right place, and so on - but I pay so little for energy with fairly conventional living that I think you really have to know what you're doing (and enjoy the process) for all this to make sense. Live in a place where you can go car-free without too much inconvenience, stop going out to eat, don't travel (if you live in the PNW who needs to anyway). Again - not saying people should do this, just that they may want to consider these things (and much more) before squeezing themselves into a tiny living space. We had friends who pooped in a bucket and ran pipes through their compost pile to make hot (or, lukewarm) water. They gave all that up after a few years. Aside from guest houses, one place I see tiny homes working is in communal living establishments, for people who are into that. Your tiny house is basically your bedroom and place of retreat, but you share various communal spaces. Not for me (stay out of my kitchen!) but a good arrangement for some.

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Backpacker Joe
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Backpacker Joe
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 10:59 am 
Im in a single level 1450 square foot house. Two bedrooms two bath. Its perfect for me. I don't want stairs or a place too big. Its just me here. Its all I need.

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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treeswarper
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treeswarper
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 11:47 am 
I could go smaller, but I'd want a big insulated shop/garage to keep toys in. I get a good idea of tiny house living when I go for long trips with my tiny travel trailer. My small by today's standards house seems huge when I get back. Our family had no well at the place my folks finally bought so we hauled drinking water and showered in irrigation water. The irrigation water would be shut off every spring when the flooding occurred. That could last a week or a month. I had enough of using an outhouse and hauling water and don't intend to do so ever again. I'll go without electricity, but I want running water. I suspect people will soon tire of their tiny houses, although what many of us boomers grew up in would be considered to be small houses. I was shocked to find out that what I thought was a really big house that we lived in when I was small, was only 900 sq.ft.

What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
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Randito
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Randito
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 11:53 am 
treeswarper wrote:
I could go smaller, but I'd want a big insulated shop/garage to keep toys in.
That's what I need -- a 1 bedroom apartment on top of a three car garage (with cars parked in the driveway of course)

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BigBrunyon
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BigBrunyon
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 12:09 pm 
These days you're seeing these ads for sub 150 square foot living spaces in the city. Usually around $1500/month!! And they have the audacity to advertise as though the extremely LOW square footage is a good thing!! A selling point!!

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treeswarper
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treeswarper
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 2:00 pm 
Talk to the people living in the motor homes on the street about tiny house living. I spent a couple of Methow years living in a 26 foot travel trailer. It was miserable in the winter, even with heat going. But when I finally found a house to move to, I was amazed at how much stuff I had crammed into every nook and cranny of that trailer.

What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
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Schroder
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 2:03 pm 
My wife and I started in a 600 square foot house and lived there for 5 years and had our first child when living there. We also had a barn at the time but we didn't have much to store in it back then other than our tools. We thought we'd scale back to that in our retirement but somehow we ended up with just two of us in 3700 square feet.

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IanB
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IanB
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 2:28 pm 
I lived 17 years in 320 sqft. Everything had to have a place - and be put back after use. It felt like what (I assume) living on a boat must be like. Then I was in 600 for 6 years, and in 800 for the last 5. Seems like a mansion. I finally bought a couch recently (so visiting company didn't have to camp on the floor.) Then a friend gave me a coffee table to put in front of it. Gotta admit, never before has where I lived felt this much like a "home" - it's kinda nice!

"Forget gaining a little knowledge about a lot and strive to learn a lot about a little." - Harvey Manning
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RichP
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 5:28 pm 
Get your property soon if you want it cheap. Everything's getting bought up everywhere. Might be related to that Calif thread.

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Randito
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Randito
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 7:24 pm 
Last winter my wife and I were RVing in a vintage 28 foot RV -- effectively 190 square feet -- as Treeswarper notes the stock furnace on those things are pretty weak and the walls aren't exactly thickly insulated -- plus the stock furnace is ridiculously loud and burns through propane in a jiffy. It was better heat and sound wise using a catalytic heater -- but then moisture management became a big job. Anyway with two people in 190 square feet -- you've got to be very efficient and only have exactly the things you really need. We had some good training for that experience, however -- having just lived in NYC sharing 900 square feet with my son, daughter-in-law, their son and their identical twin girls, helping them out during the challenging birth to two years period with the girls. I'm back rattling around in my Bellevue townhouse now -- way too big for two people -- but it needed a bunch of repairs -- but once we complete those -- I think we going to rent it out again and head out in an RV again -- except this time my wife wants something smaller -- 25 feet or less -- we ran into several roads in National Parks that were restricted to vehicles 25 feet or less.

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Malachai Constant
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Malachai Constant
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 7:58 pm 
Our first married house was a 900 sq ft shotgun shack on lake sammamish. Slugs in the bathtub grow room downstairs still there was great fun when young and in love.

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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Cyclopath
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Cyclopath
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 7:58 pm 
I could do a tiny home if it was on the right land, with a garden.

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HitTheTrail
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 9:00 pm 
It's all relative. When we first got married my wife and I had a normal size apartment down in the tri-cities, where I had a job at the Hanford project, but all we had was a small kitchen table with four chairs, a two person love seat( that you could not lay down on), and we slept on the carpet in a single wide sleeping bag for several months. We look back on that as the best time of our lives.

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treeswarper
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treeswarper
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PostSun Dec 15, 2019 9:28 pm 
RandyHiker wrote:
Last winter my wife and I were RVing in a vintage 28 foot RV -- effectively 190 square feet -- as Treeswarper notes the stock furnace on those things are pretty weak and the walls aren't exactly thickly insulated -- plus the stock furnace is ridiculously loud and burns through propane in a jiffy. It was better heat and sound wise using a catalytic heater -- but then moisture management became a big job.
I did not cook anything that required boiling during the winter. Condensation was horrible and on some mornings the inside walls were frosty. There are a few companies that make or will make trailers that are insulated for winter. Arctic Fox of course, and then the fiberglass companies Bigfoot, Oliver and Escape. There are probably others, too. The other problem, and it might not happen anymore was that my refrigerator would quit working as soon as temps got below freezing. I could keep a cooler outside and I also rented a locker in cold storage in Twisp. There was a boot repair/fishing supplies/cold storage business downtown at that time. You could rent a basket for pretty cheap to keep frozen stuff in. They also now make fresh water hoses that come with heat tape built in. No more wrapping hoses in heat tape and insulation, I guess.

What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
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