# Tiny houses **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 19, 2018, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-houses/810812 "2018-03-19T04:15:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-houses/810812/81 "2018-03-23T01:51:54Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > The biggest concern with Tiny houses is avoiding city blight. No one wants to see 60 tiny houses on a small piece of land. > > That’s even more denselessly populated than a Trailer Park. > > Zoning for Trailer Parks should apply to Tiny Houses. Every lot should have connections for full utilities. That and a loss of property tax revenue. There isn’t much tax money to be made in homes that cost $30,000. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-houses/810812/82 "2018-03-23T03:06:29Z")
> [@hibernia](#): > > \*\*These tiny house shows are a joke to anyone that has ever lived in Europe as they tend to be bigger than most people could ever afford in London, Oslo, etc. > \*\* I just need to ask: are people really shopping for 150-300 sq ft units in London, Oslo, etc? Are units that size even available? I could see as a studio perhaps, but is it a common thing for a family to try and buy a house or apartment of that size for 4-5 people? ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-houses/810812/83 "2018-03-23T10:43:11Z")
I’ve watched the shows about tiny houses and wondered how long the people actually lived in them. I’ve seen very little about the long term outcome. [This](https://singularityhub.com/2018/03/18/this-3d-printed-house-goes-up-in-a-day-for-under-10000/#sm.001s1p6mfff3duk10ee24atlu0nbg) 3d printable house seems like a good compromise. Presumably it can be as little as $10K USD and can be assembled quickly. Once zoning and NIMBY are handled, it seems like a reasonable way to get affordable housing. > [@FairyChatMom](#): > > We lived aboard our sailboat for a year with a newborn - \*\*much \*\*less space than a tiny house. I’m curious; How big was the boat? I spend the occasional weekend on our ~30 footer and can’t imagine living aboard for any length of time. Maybe on a 40-50 footer, but then you’re at the price of a house anyway. We’re RV-ers also, but decamp to a hotel for a few days on multi-week trips. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-houses/810812/84 "2018-03-23T11:09:08Z")
3D printing of anything only makes economic sense if your market is very small. You’d be much better off with conventional prefab. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-houses/810812/85 "2018-03-23T11:59:03Z")
The first one we lived aboard was a 32’ 1937 wooden gaff-rigged pilot cutter. The engine room and cockpit took up at least a quarter of the length. But it had a 13’ beam, which helped a bit. The second was a 37’ motorsailer, and fully the aft third was engine room and cockpit, so it wasn’t living space. But it did have a pilot house, which was a nice extra space. And one of its water tanks leaked. Good times! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-houses/810812/86 "2018-03-23T23:55:12Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > I just need to ask: are people really shopping for 150-300 sq ft units in London, Oslo, etc? Are units that size even available? I could see as a studio perhaps, but is it a common thing for a family to try and buy a house or apartment of that size for 4-5 people? My last apartment in Miami was 400 sq ft. IIRC. When I left, I gave the futon I’d bought from one neighbor to another neighbor who lived in a unit the exact size and shape of mine with her 10 kids. They were superhappy because they were going to be able to stop sharing a single queen-size bed. My apartments in Sweden could, like the one above, be called a studio since the only doors were the ones to the outside and to the bathroom. One was about 300 sq ft.; the apartment directly below housed a family of 5. The second one was about 200sq ft. and I know several similar-sized units held 2 or 3 people. 90m[sup]2[/sup] (969 sq ft, says Google) is the Standard Flat in Spain. At that size they usually come as 3B1b; if they’re 3B2b the bathrooms are for very slim people. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-houses/810812/87 "2018-03-24T00:59:04Z")
Thank you **Nava**. 400 sq ft for 11 people is terrible. It sounds sub-standard living conditions (but it’s better than living on the streets). I think a 200-300 sq ft flat for 2 people isn’t completely unbearable or unreasonable, although saying Sweden makes me wants to look at IKEA sample rooms on how to organize that. 🙂 90 sq meter flat (3 bedroom/1 ba) seems like what many American houses were until quite recently, and likely still are in urban centers. I still don’t get building 200 sq ft on a trailer though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiny-houses/810812.md?page=4)