I was reading an article somewhere on living in a very small house. The number mentioned was 150 square feet.
I like the idea, but am having a hard time imagining what 150 square feet is like. An ideas?
I was at the mall and looked at the parking spaces. Maybe about nine feet across and maybe 27 feet long? So that is about 250 square feet. Does that sound about right? What does 150 square feet look like?
Any thoughts on a small cottage?
Your average American suburban bedroom, with closet. (Perhaps add a foot or so to either edge, but not too much more.)
Mark off a 10 by 15 foot rectangle.
Think of a 10 x 15 foot room. 3 x 4.5 meter
Area = width times length
I think you’re overestimating the size of a parking space. According to Wikipedia the average size is 8-9 ft by 16-18 ft, or 128-162 sq. ft. IOW, it sounds like your Parking Space idea is probably a good visual idea.
Another one I thought of is cubicles. I think an average cubicle is either around 6x6 or 6x8. If it’s the former, you get about 4 of those, if it’s the latter, you get about 3.
If you find a place with square foot floor tiles, it’s easy to get a feel for how big the space would be. The quick answer is not very big. Out of curiosity was this the article?
Five four by eight chunks of plywood would be 160 square feet.
Use 1 for the bathroom, one for the kitchen, one for the dining room, one for the living room, and one for the bedroom.
That is a very clear mental picture.
Thank you all.
The CNN news article actually had pictures of the things:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/10/22/tiny.houses/index.html
Largish utility shed on wheels.
I was once offered, as office space, an empty elevator shaft. I pointed out that it was less than 100 square feet of space. The admin guy kept pointing out how cool the 4 story ceiling was. We had a few funny conversations about the situation (and they echoed!).
I lived in an apartment that was 180 square feet once, including the bathroom. It was in a building that was a hotel in the 1950s and didn’t have a window. $200 a month, all bills paid. I liked it.
I found that article not-so-helpful as it had no interior photographs. Here is another link with a number of ideas.
There’s a company that makes these places called Tumbleweed Tiny House Company. Their website is down right now, but you can check out a tour of one of their homes on the Tiny House Blog: http://tinyhouseblog.com/stick-built/tumbleweed-tour/
Yikes! This guy’s less than 100 square-foot house is insane. Forget it.
That’s rather big for an elevator shaft. I guess you could install a stairs with platforms and quadruple your space. You could have done one of those house of the future rooms where the floor moves up and down, to use the office, kitchen, bathroom, and filing room.
I hope that was the kind of job that let you start on the ground floor.
It woulda been cool. The space was never used for an elevator, so it was clean. It was a non-profit animal shelter that got a huge donation earmarked for structural renovation. They were in a hurry to spend the money, and in a great example of haste making waste, the construction people were given the wrong set of blueprints.
Just to reiterate, that example is 98 square feet, with a 56 sq ft loft.
150 sq ft on one level would seem palatial ! I lived in a not-so-tiny house that must have been about 250-300 sq ft and it was fine for one person.
It was about 1/3 bigger than this (like if the right side was the same as the left):
There’s a 3 picture “slide show” in that link. The first one (the red thing) is the 154 sq ft one referenced in the article, as indicated by the owner’s names (The Kastrinos). The second two are the 100 sq ft one.