I am very fond of this cottage plan, it looks large enough to get around in a wheel chair, with a little modification of the bathroom.
If one can feel self righteous living in 350-400sf, what’s wrong with the 7 of us in my household living in a little over 2500sf? Isn’t that the same footage per capita?
To simplify and be OK with it, is not self righteous.
To look into the benefits of alternative, and possibly more cost effective housing,
IMO is no cause for self righteousness.
What do you mean by “…feeling self righteous…” about a tiny house.
On my family farm there’s numerous outbuildings; one of which is a 2 story summer kitchen with plumbing and electric that I often fantasize about turning into a tiny house. It’s probably actually a big bigger than the average tiny home, but completely within the range of being a tiny home.
It’d be such a cool project… It’s not really that old, maybe 80-100 years. But it has some neat features - it’s a post and beam construction with big rough hewn beams.
And it’s just sitting there on my farm not being used! I don’t think I’d ever want to live there or in any other house that small full time but it could be a great overnight home or for guests or temporary use. And honestly, although it’d wind up being an expensive hobby, I just love the idea of planning, designing, and actually doing the work. I’d be excited even if it wasn`t some glorified shed my great-great-grandfather built.
About 5000 sq ft, and sometimes I feel cramped in my house. If I had to live in something like that, in the articles, I’d shoot myself. Maybe when I was younger…
Actually, the first linked article is about a “tent alternative”.
I was talking to a friend in Japan Saturday. I asked her how big her apartment was and it worked out to 226sq ft.
I’m giving some thought of putting up one of those in my backyard as my “man cave” and giving the full-sized house over to the girls to do with as they wish.
Said the buried corpse to his new neighbor.
Smaller is better, IMO, but those Barbie Doll Playhouses are not in my future. Our house is about 1300 sf, but the finished portion of the basement is all storage, so we live in about 900 sf, which is plenty. No kids, of course.
Kind of the Hugh Hefner approach. 
You people who live in tiny houses- where do you keep all your books?
Well, square feet per capita would be a pretty weird way to decide how large of a house you need - it’s not like a 2500sf house is the same as seven 350sf houses added together. I highly doubt that your 2500sf house has seven kitchens. And even with the trend to having more bathrooms in large houses, you probably don’t have seven bathrooms. Even with a large family, there’s diminishing returns on adding square footage. You want a larger living room or den than a single person, but adding another couch or a few chairs doesn’t mean you need a living room that’s seven times bigger.
Libraries are great, wonderful things.
I have book shelves in my office at work that are jammed packed.
And I’ve been reading a lot on my Kindle.
Smaller spaces do not work if you are a sentimental person.
Yes, but then the responses mentioned some places as ‘small’ when they’re bigger than the ones Jjimm and Quartz are talking about.
The ones in the first article aren’t intended as proper homes, just festival accommodation or a shed you can sleep in. The second link, to the one in Connecticut, isn’t all that small when you include the loft space where the bedroom is - and it does have a kitchen.
During the last huge property boom some ridiculously tiny flats were for sale in London, and not for ridiculously tiny prices either. I remember one that was something like 50’ sq - though it did fit in a toilet, sink and shower. It was basically intended as a pied a terre for someone who worked long hours in the city and just needed somewhere near work to sleep at night (and didn’t want to live out of a hotel), spending their weekends at a larger home elsewhere. Obviously it wouldn’t be somewhere you could raise a family, but not all homes have to have the option of being family homes.
They are awfy cute–the ones I’ve seen in the past. But for 30K in this economy one can pick up a hell of a lot more footage per dollar plus the ground it sits on.