Apr 27 2007
Mini Homes On The Road
A couple of days ago, I was talking about Mini Homes. These are fully functional homes that are in the 100 square foot range. Well, Evelyn was going through our old trip photos and found this picture:
It was taken last summer during our first trip down to Austin. As you can see, the mini homes are often pre-built and simply trucked to their final location. Because of their tiny size, a big pickup can haul them. Pretty neat.
You can also see how dry it was last summer. They were in the middle of a really bad drought. I think that the photo was taken west of Austin, in the Dripping Springs area (on 290). Could also have been on 71, which runs north-west out of Austin. I need to check on the photos around this one to be sure. Update: I checked the other photos, and this is on 71, heading north toward Lake Buchanan. The lake is located about 65 miles northwest of Austin. There is a big state park in the area, which includes a really cool cave tour.
7 Responses to “Mini Homes On The Road”
I’ll bet that ‘mini-home’ is actually a shed. Saw one just like it at Home Depot the other day — thought it’d make a good garden shed, you could put a potting bench in it too. My aunt has a trailer in FL — the main living space is a very large screened “porch” that you entered from the side trailer door. It’s on a concrete slab. Very relaxing, nice place to hang out in.
I find it amusing, and somewhat distressing, that people would have a shed that’s nicer than many peoples real homes!
Here are some more of those mini homes:
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/houses.htm
And Big Wheels! I miss my big wheel so much. I want an adult sized one.
I miss that camper and those summers…And going off by ourselves to explore the woods. That and access to a swimming pool everyday.
Dave brings up a good point: Part of keeping your sanity in a mini-home is to have plenty of stuff going on outside your home. Otherwise you get a bit claustrophobic (as we do in our little 625 square foot place).
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Personally, I’d much rather have individual dwellings, each having a different use, interconnected by pathways. I like the idea of having the sleeping areas completely away from the kitchen/dining/living areas, which are in turn away from the library/office area, and so on. It also means I can be more “crude” for certain buildings. For example, use inexpensive metal pre-fab for the workshop. I’d then spend the big money on the more “homey” parts of the house.
It makes some things more difficult/redundant (plumbing, hvac), but not too much. (Do you really need a toilet in the library building?) I also like the idea that I wouldn’t have to cool down a whole house when I’m only using a small part of it. (Cooling is far more important in Texas than heating. We could pretty easily go without a furnance in winter. We had ours on maybe one week this past winter.)
Looking at the floorplans for the tiny houses, I am now drawn to make them on The Sims and see how they react to the space.
I sent your mini-homes link to Martin, and now he’s very excited. He likes them a lot. maybe a retirement home or 2!!!
If I had the land/money, I think the mini homes would be a great medidation/study/reading area. The trouble is, they are pretty expensive.
However, you can make your own! ReadyMade has some plans for a hide-a-away room/building. It doesn’t have any plumbing or electrical, but seems perfect for fair-weather use. The plans are pretty good (I have a copy), though you’d need to be good carpenter to put it together. I think the parts cost is around $1500.
http://readymademag.com/feature_10_shack.php
Here is the designers site. Some pretty cool modern-looking structures:
http://www.modulardwellings.com/flash_content.html
(sorry, it’s a flash site)