Comments on: Mini Homes On The Road

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 01 May 2007 21:17:26 +0000

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)

By: Deb

Deb — Tue, 01 May 2007 17:20:15 +0000

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!!!

By: Ann

Ann — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:43:07 +0000

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.

By: Ron

Ron — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 15:09:07 +0000

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).

* * *

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.)

By: Ann

Ann — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 15:07:53 +0000

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.

By: Ron

Ron — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 14:58:04 +0000

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

By: Deb

Deb — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:51:22 +0000

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.