Some builders are pushing very small houses today (less than 1000 sq. ft.) as an alternative to the oft-despised “McMansions”. The reasoning is, small houses are:
-less energy intensive (lower heating costs)
-cheaper to build
-more appropriate to smaller lots
-big enough for 2/3 person households.
My question for you RE experts, are these houses really a good idea? Is reselling such small homes difficult? I think many homebuyers would balk at such limited space-and many people cannot display their prized furniture in small living rooms.
I’m all for efficiency, but these houses do not appel to me, unless you like a rather spartan lifestyle.
anyone have experience witha small house?
I live in a 2-story 850 square foot townhouse. Two bedrooms, one bath. It’s more livable than you’d think; a family of three could live comfortably, possibly even four. The master bedroom is surprisingly spacious, as is the living room. The bathroom is cramped, though, and there’s little interior storage aside from a single broom closet.
It’s also not terribly efficient, because it’s on the southwest corner of the building. Huge windows face south and west, ensuring that the place gets blasted with the afternoon sun, and circulation is poor. That’s an artifact of this particular house, though.
I think a family willing to be conservative and creative with their furnishings could live quite comfortably in an 800-1000 square foot home. There would have to be an implicit regard for personal space, though; four people using one bathroom would get pretty crowded if not everyone was considerate of each other.
ETA: I have to say I’m sick of this particular house, though. I’m hoping to move somewhere with cheaper housing costs and try to get a house twice the size for the same cost.
Some areas’ zoning laws specify minimum sizes for houses. Sometimes the minimums are absurdly-large; I believe Faraday Township in Ontario specifies a minimum of 1100 square feet.
ralph - My old house was 1008 sq ft. Although I’m single, the family from whom I bought it had 5 kids. It had a good sized livingroom, small kitchen, dining room, three bedrooms (and the master bedroom was 12X17, not tiny) and one bathroom. And a laundry room. All in all it was quite livable.
StG
I like living in small spaces because they’re easier to keep clean and they discourage the collection of a lot of crap.
People have lived successfully in small spaces for quite a long time (both my parents grew up in tiny houses, for instance).
People are still choosing to move into teeny places, and now paying a fortune for the privilege. Downtown condos around here are often comparable to these micro-houses in square footage, and there is an emerging industry in furniture/design targeted specifically towards very small spaces.
A lot depends on how such a house is laid out. With an efficient use of space it could quite comfortable for 2 people who are not packrats.
My first apartment, that I lived in for 2 years, was only 120 square feet. I didn’t have a problem with that.
Our new place is just a tad bit over 1k square feet. We have one bedroom, one bathroom (laundry in the bathroom), galley kitchen and a big living room with a dining nook. It’s really very spacious–my pain comes from the downsizing, because frankly we should have gotten rid of more stuff. We had a 2800 square foot three story house which was absurd for the two of us.
You can see our house plans here.
I think our house is around 900 sq ft and we don’t use the upstairs at all. I would like to be able to use it. That would be perfect for us. But I’m able to function fine in the space I have. Not optimal, but it works ok.
I lived in a house that was a little bigger than 800 square feet. It was small, but comfortable.
The footage doesn’t count the unfinished basement, and it had a large back porch.
Sometimes my wife and I would get in each other’s way, but mostly it was fine. I actually preferred that house to the one we have now which is 1500.
As far as selling it-the small size turned out to be an advantage. All the houses in our neighborhood had been renovated, and enlarged except ours. The person that bought it was single and really wanted to live in the neighborhood, but neither wanted nor could afford a bigger one.
Really? That’s only 10x12 feet. That’s enough for a kitchen and a bathroom, but there wouldn’t be enough space left over for a bed. How did you do that?
You realize what you’re describing is the typical “starter house” that was especially popular after World War 2 and all the way into the 1960s?
Before we were married, my wife bought a 650 sq. ft., 2-bedroom detached house. There was plenty of room for the two of us and our firstborn.
As for displaying prized furniture, when you live in a small house, you simply get smaller prizes.
Since the trend is away from formal dining rooms and living rooms folks feel very comfortable in smaller houses.
Yes, that is correct.
It’s called an “efficiency” or a studio apartment. You have one room and a small bath (and in my case, a small closet, too). You don’t have a kitchen, you have a stove, sink, and refrigerator on one wall of your one room. There is room for a bed and a card table and not much more, but for a first apartment when you’re a student have haven’t accumulated a crapload of stuff it can work out very nicely.
Plenty of condos are that small, or even smaller. And with a house, at least you’d presumably have some kind of outdoor space, plus not have to worry about disturbing your downstairs neighbors. At this point in my life I don’t anticipate ever living in a household with more than two people in it, so sure, I’d far rather have a detached house than a condo, if cost were reasonably comparable. I’m sure I’m not alone.
Check the plans at The Not-so-big House website. I think they look lovely. The key thing is all the space is used intelligently… as a result, they don’t really appear “small” inside.
Indeed, so. The first house we bought was a VA house in Kensington, MD. Built right after WWII when we bought it had about 1150 square feet and had been added on three times.
The entire neighborhood was built as these homes. 600-800 square feet or so as starter homes for the GIs (or others, I suppose). All the major street were named for flag rank officers during the war and such. Nice neighborhood.
It was often interesting for me to compare the change in standards that those homes represented. In 1946 or so a 750 sqft starter home was completely acceptable. Nowadays it’s considered unusual.
Welcome to Japan, the land of tiny homes. Our new house is about 800 sq. ft. We know people who live families of 3 or 4 in smaller homes.
It takes work at keeping things in control
Here in the UK my average-sized 3 bedroom terraced house comes in at around 850 sq ft. excluding the attached garage. I’m single so space isn’t an issue. My neighbours have 2 kids and manage fine since they converted the garage into extra living space.
We’re (two of us) currently in a 2 br 1ba that’s a shade over 900 sq ft. The second bedroom makes a great giant closet and there’s an unfinished basement and sheds for storing tools/bikes/etc…
It sits on a half acre lot so we’re pushed away from the neighbors and that’s a good thing.
I think I prefer this to a larger house. There is something to be said about being able to clean the whole house top to bottom in a couple hours. Also my annual heating costs seem to be equal to a monthly McMansion heating bill. It’s also nice to know that one of us could cover the mortgage if the other was out of work.
I think the whole “buy as much house as you can afford” plan is flawed.
I grew up in a fairly large house, probably about 2800 sq feet, and every house I’ve lived in since seems way too small to me. My current house is about 1500 sq feet, and it’s just the two of us. We’ve only been here 5 years, and we’re already cramped. I’d love to add on or convert the attached garage just to get more room to move around. We’re both packrats, too, so we need to build a barn just for junk storage.
On the positive side, our mortgage payments are well within our means, while a lot of our newer neighbors with their 6-bedroom, 8-bath homes are teetering on the edge of foreclosure.