The Tiny Life

So one of the most frequent questions I get about Tiny Houses is: “what if I have a family?”  It is a good question.  To paraphrase Jay Schaffer, “it’s not the size of the house that matters, it is the size in relation to the number of people living in it.”

But this question always bring to mind a question for me

Is it ethical to raise children in such small spaces?

Now I would love to hear you all weigh in on this in the comments section, so please, share your thoughts, I love discussion!  But here is my take on it all, it might not be right, so take it with a grain of salt.  It is also important to know, as a matter of full disclosure, I don’t have kids, nor do I plan on having any.

Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs

I personally think that the raising of a child is successful when the child is loved, is socialized properly, is taught life skills and intellectual ones.   This combined with consistency, safety, room to be a kid and financial resources are also very important.  I feel that as a young child, living in a 400-500 square foot home would be excellent so long as there is a safe place to play outside.

As a child my mother almost never let us watch TV, we didn’t have video games or a computer and if it wasn’t raining outside, out we went.  Luckily we lived on a decent lot in a small town in New Hampshire.  My mother would always dress me in a bright red jacket, which happened to be my favorite color (here I was thinking she encouraged it because I loved red), and I would make forts, climb trees, jump on the trampoline.  In the winter it was snowmen, snow caves and munching on icicles.  I couldn’t imagine having anything less for a child of my own.

The reason I tell this story is that one of the big appeals to Tiny Living is that it gets you outside and reconnecting with nature.  The outside world becomes your second home.  This rare in our society and it is to our downfall, in my opinion.

There are two instances where I think that a Tiny House might not be all that ethical or good for the child.  These two, privacy/boundaries and evaluation of social services, really concern me.  As a child gets older she/he needs their own space, they need their own privacy, a dedicated space solely to them is important in my mind.  It also builds in responsibility for keeping up one’s own space, cleaning, folding, how to make a bed, personalization, and a place for solitude when needed.

The final issue that I think that is a huge issue and this has yet to be tested in the real world is how a representative of social services / child protective services would view a child living in such a small space.  It is often the case that Tiny Houses are not legal, that they in fact by definition (however  deeply flawed) is not a habitable space and would be condemned.

I fear that a child would be removed from the home and the custody of the parents.  That the Tiny House would be boarded up, the parents might be charged with neglect.  It is simply a parents worst nightmare, to have their children taken from them because they are labeled bad parents.

What do you think?

What would social services think?

Is it ethical to raise a child in a Tiny House?

The Seattle Times has a great new article on a really Tiny Apartment that fit the needs of this bachelor.  Really interesting design elements here, especially the hidden soaking tube that is hidden under the floor!

Sauer likes this precision. Awkward spaces, wasted places annoy him. Two alarm clocks, two music sources, extra furniture. Needless, needless, needless.  “What I really wanted was one place with exactly what I needed and wanted. Quality is more important than quantity for me, and extra space only a problem,” he has written, describing his nearby too-big-for-him, one-bedroom condo.  To me he says, “I tend to like things in their place.”  And that explains it: The uber-cool, fully functional 182-square-foot home for two on the basement floor of a 102-year-old apartment building that Sauer is finishing after seven years of work. It could also have something to do with his line of work — airplane interiors engineering for Boeing. And education — a master’s degree in whole-systems design.

Via

This Scandinavian prefab is pretty interesting.  Its “add a room” concept allows you to start with their base unit, which is a small bedroom/living room, then add on rooms as needed.  You can add a kitchen, bathroom, extra bedrooms or storage spaces. I think one of my favorite features is the outdoor kitchen connector, it has these big doors that open to reveal a great workspace.

via

So my friend Kent over at TinyHouseBlog.com has put forth a great post, he is asking about the next steps we need to take to start meeting face to face.  Now this is not an easy task, for many of us, we are far from others.  In fact, this blog is read by people in 150+ countries!

I did have a map going of where Tiny House people are located, but it recently was shut down because the website that ran it shut its doors.  The other bloggers and I need to come up with a replacement, I will be talking with them soon on that note.

Why should we meet?

First off, it is always good to socialize with people who are passionate about the same thing.  I have talked about how relationships are so important and how I try to drive a personal connection.  Next I see it as a way to gather and share information in a highly concentrated form.  The information gained in a few hours of talking would talk 10′s or 100′s of post on this blog. Finally bring a group together with a Tiny House bring press, press bring awareness to our issue and challenges thinking.

What will do?

What I propose – this can be changed and improved – is after locating people in a certain area, we determine a meeting place that is central.  The most successful meet will have at least one Tiny House which will draw people and the press if things go well.  The day will consist of:

• Meet and greet
• Tiny House tour
• Sharing our story with press
• Information sessions
• Distributing materials
• Exchanging contact info
• Determining next steps (if any?)

What’s next?

In the comments please give me some feedback on what I laid out here.  Some questions you might consider in your comment:

• What would you like to see?
• What info sessions would be useful?
• Where are you located?

I have talked about straw bale houses before (see post) but this house is a whole new take on bales, specifically cardboard bales.  For those who might not be familiar most retail stores and other truck/shipping places have a large machine in the back called a baler, basically you throw your cardboard in them and you have them recycled.  You can even make money off the sale.  But there are some cardboards that are simply not able to be recycled.  So check out this neat take on bale houses.

Via

The mirror surface of these odd looking rolling houses is kinda of an interesting concept, with the mirrored shell, it blends the house into the landscape somewhat, making the focus on nature.  I really like this, houses often can detract from natural settings, disrupt the rawness.

Sustainable to the core, rainwater collected on the roof is circulated into the structure for gray water reuse, the toilets compost and top-mounted solar panels and/or a wind turbine create electricity that, in turn, can be used to heat water and space inside of the airstream-esque mobile pod house.  At nearly 300 square feet, each individual unit has closet space, a bed, kitchenette, living area and a bathroom complete with toilet, sink and shower.  While best suited to just two people a single one of these portable homes could house up to six people as needed

Via

Here is a Tiny House that was designed to be eco-nomical, eco-friendly, and eco-logical.  Measuring at 523 square feet and $50,000-$100,000 this Tiny House is designed to be setup off the grid.

The Osprey includes a bedroom, bathroom, living room, galley kitchen, and integrated decks.  It can easily go off-the-grid, as well, if that’s what the homeowner wants or needs.  The standing seam metal roof has room for thin-film solar to generate some or all of the home’s energy needs.

• Energy Star, low-e windows;
• Energy Star appliances;
• R21 walls, R19 floors, and R50 ceilings;
• 15.5 SEER/8.5 HSPF ductless HVAC;
• On-demand tankless water heater;
• Zero-VOC paints and an air filtration/cleaning system;
• Low-flow faucets and showerheads;

Via

What many of you might not know is that there is a growing subset of Tiny House folks that see these houses as a solution to homelessness.  I covered one group based out of Atlanta called The Mad Housers, a group that make modular Tiny Houses that they setup in a few hours.  They do this all for free.

Here is another group that is taking on this challenge with design of Tiny Houses:

Fresno architect Arthur Dyson says he has the solution to the city’s homeless problem: villages of tiny homes built with recycled materials and surrounded by fruit trees.

The first structures — some measuring only 80 square feet — are already under construction on the Fresno State campus, where Dyson has been working with students in a construction management class to develop concepts.

But the structures won’t become living spaces for the homeless unless city officials can find a suitable spot for them.

Gregory Barfield, Fresno’s homeless prevention and policy manager, said the city is ready to assist Dyson with the project, including finding a site.

No finished house photos yet….

Via

This Tiny House started out small, but grew to a whooping price tag of $100k!  Now I am sure that you could do it for much less, the fact that it was built on an island I’m sure added some cost.

This 260-square-foot shed is located in Bowen Island, British Columbia, and was built with reclaimed or certified lumber, low-E windows, low-VOC paints, an R20 concrete slab, steel roofing, rainwater harvesting, and a 2,400 gallon cistern that irrigates Glave’s organic farm.

Via

Tiny Houses have continued to charm and excite imaginations with yet another headline by NPR featured on the Yahoo! homepage.  It is obviously that Tiny Houses have an innate charm and spark conversations across the globe about how we live or more specifically, what we live in.

The Japanese have long endured crowded cities and scarce living space, with homes so humble a scornful European official once branded them rabbit hutches.

But in recent years, Japanese architects have turned necessity into virtue, vying to design unorthodox and visually stunning houses on remarkably narrow pieces of land. In the process, they are also redefining the rules of home design.

Few Americans would consider a parking-space-sized lot as an adequate site to build a house. But in Japan, homes are rising on odd parcels of land, some as tiny as 300 square feet.

Link to full story:  here