Who uses these small houses permanently?

[Jared Drake]

How many of you live in these little things full time? My wife and I are planning on building a small house for us and our three (four when my son visits) kids out on my dad's farm. I'm having problems with a three bedroom two bath with the MB downstairs and two br's and a bath up stairs. So how many of you are full-timers

[Laura21]

600 sq ft is an averaget two bedroom houes here a few years ago. Families of 4 and sometimes more comfortably lived in these homes. When I was younger, my parents house was about that size and it was for 4.

Tell us wat types of problems you are having and maybe we can help with them.

Laura

[Jared Drake]

Right now I'm just trying to design a house on 3D HA. I'm working one up that's the size of the one we're in now, about 34x34. I can't seem to design one that's 600 sf that'll work for a couple and three small kids (5, 3 and 6 mos as of now). I've got a list of things I want (like a wood stove) and things I've got (ent. cent and a counter-height oak dining table that's 4x6 w/o chairs). I can't seem to find a corner ent. center in 3D HA, or I'd use that and it'd help me make the living room a lot smaller.

[Daddymem]

I'm in a 612 sf cottage with two adults, one 4 year old, one 15 month old, three cats, two dogs, and a 28 gallon fish tank and it is toooooo small.  The point is, it depends on you and your lifestyle, how much stuff you have, and where you live (try getting snowed in for several days with that ark load!).  Every room in our house is too small and the layout stinks.  

We aren't looking for a mansion, but twice the size of what we have is right on par for us.  We chose John's 2 story farmhouse and using Chief Architect, modified it a bit and it seems to work fine for us.  I modeled many of the plans found here and they all were just too tight until we came upon the 2 story.  If you went with that house you can get four bedrooms and one bath up easily.  Every person around here that I show it to all say "wow, small house"  but I can't see it needing any more than a finished romper room in the basement, a future screen porch, and a future sunroom to be ample enough for my growing family (maybe a garage for me ).  Sometimes I get the feeling that this is even too big and that 1,000 sf could be enough.  Keep modeling, keep revising the models, and try visiting homes of similar sizes for ideas, that is what we have been doing.

[Jared Drake]

My plans are for a 600 (or so) sf house on the main floor, with a gambrel roof up top so I can have two bedrooms upstairs. I'm considering a knee wall of 3-4 feet so the roof pitch doesn't need to be so steep on the sides. We'll be on twenty acres, with a barn, a feed shed with a small room connected for small animals or one or two horses/cattle. We've got no need for inside pets and no desire on my part. There'll be no more kids, so I won't need to add on. I do want a screened in front porch, though. I think I want two bedrooms downstairs for me/wife and the girls and one upstairs for the 5yo boy. So, I'm working on it.

[trish2]

Jared:
What is it about the Gambrel roof that is so appealing to you?  Is it that you feel that the constrution is so much easier or do the lines of the gambrel house please you above all other types of architecture?

If you could find a flow that you liked, you can alter and adapt it to any roof line.  www.coolhouseplans.com and www.dreamhomesource.com are two sites that have lots of plans to review.

[Greenbank]

John's former office mate Ross Chapin has some plans for small cottages and houses on his web site. They're priced reasonably for stock plans. www.rosschapin.com

[John Raabe]

My own house had 1450sf (the Solar Saltbox on the plans page) with three bedrooms, 2 baths. So that is not tiny by any standards but works well for a family. It has more spacousness than many would require. Our cental entry hall was dominated by a rope ladder when the kids were little. They would run in the door, an arm would go up and they would grab a run and then swing around like a monkey in a 10' diameter circle.

Now that everyone is mature that space is less used. However, I am very glad it was "unused" when the kids were little.

[Jens]

I am 25, with a wife, three kids (aged 6,4,2), and fourth on the way.  We have lived in a 2-1 824 sq ft house for the last two years.  It is small, but not too bad.  The kids all share a bedroom that is 10.5 by 10.5.  Now that we have remodeled it, and changed the floorplan, it is a very nice house.  One more child would make a 3rd bedroom nice, but that would realistically only take it to 1000 sq ft max.  What I am trying to say is that you do what you can with what you have.  Build it a bit bigger than 34 by 34 if you can't figure out the layout.  Be careful about getting caught up in the American routine of bigger is better, because all that big space does, is tell you that you need to buy more useless crap to fill it.  I just worked up a 2 story, 24 by 28 ft, that is 3-2.5.  I think it would be quite nice, with the beds and baths upstairs, and one clean floor down.  If I ever get my scanner fixed, I'll scan it and put it here.

[Greenbank]

My first house was a 900 sq. ft. 2/1 which isn't tiny except by McMansion standards, but it was pretty comfortable. I think as long as you think about what you do in the house, you'd be fine in a small space. A lot of bigger house plans have a lot of wasted space.

I think Suskana's idea of an "away" space is a good one, but there's no reason this can't be outside the house proper. If one of the adults is a workshop-type of person, there's no reason that can't be an escape area. Lord knows I enjoy puttering in my garage. Likewise, a small building, like a 12' x 10' space, insulated, with a small stove, could be a studio haven for someone.

The biggest drawback to the really tiny house with several people living in it is that sometimes there's not a place to call your own, which is desperately needed on ocassion. John has advocated creating a complex of small buildings--having a freestanding shop (typically for "him") and a freestanding studio (typically for "her"--though it could go in any direction) would be in this vein.

In a family situation, where it's unlikely both parents would retreat at the same time, you could even just have a single retreat, with each staking out a corner for their stuff but leaving the floor space available for both.

My small house had one feature I would consider almost essential--a dry basement. It's amazing how much difference having a semi-spacious pace to stash the little-used stuff is. Maybe that could be a loft in the gable of the small studio?

[Jared Drake]

I'm building on the family farm, 50 acres. On my brother's ten acres is a 30x50 shop that we're setting up for wood working, since dad and my brother and I are all interested in it. There's a 3 acre pond stocked with fish and plenty of squirrels and rabbits to hunt and deer come to eat the grass that used to be for cattle. They love that stuff. There's plenty to do in way of recreation. Now, back to the house.
We're going in the opposite direction of the typical American thing. Every time I design a house plan on 3DHA my family sees the design, all I see is the empty spaces and try to think of a way to use it or lose it. We're using built in drawers in the closets and under the beds to eliminate dressers and allow for smaller bedrooms.

[Jared Drake]

Jared:
What is it about the Gambrel roof that is so appealing to you?  Is it that you feel that the constrution is so much easier or do the lines of the gambrel house please you above all other types of architecture?

If you could find a flow that you liked, you can alter and adapt it to any roof line.  www.coolhouseplans.com and www.dreamhomesource.com are two sites that have lots of plans to review.

Trish, I really like that "barn" look, especially out on our farm. I thin it'll look really nice. Plus, it prevents me from having to build upstairs walls. (I should also add that while I like the barn look, the wife LOVES it. So she gets it.)

[trish2]

Jared:
Being a wife myself I fully support your concept that if the wife LOVES it she gets it!!  

[rdzone]

Jared,

if you are really into the gambrel roof structures you should look at   http://www.barnplans.com/ .  I have a set of these plans.  They are pretty good and they explain how to make your own gambrel trusses.  I am working on a 16'x24' structure out in bush Alaska, for a friend.  Hopefully we will get it dried in this winter.

[Jimmy C.]

the wife LOVES it. So she gets it.

I, also have found this idea to be the single greatest thing I can do for the relationship with MY wife!

[Jared Drake]

Jared,

if you are really into the gambrel roof structures you should look at   http://www.barnplans.com/ .  I have a set of these plans.  They are pretty good and they explain how to make your own gambrel trusses.  I am working on a 16'x24' structure out in bush Alaska, for a friend.  Hopefully we will get it dried in this winter.

That's where I'm going to get my truss plans at. It was at that site that I found out how much room a gambrel roof would provide and convinced me that it's what I wanted.

[Laura21]

I myself am not comfortable in a 600 sq ft for a family. I relish my own private space and these houses honestly have none (outside more like it). I am presently living in about 1200 sq ft interior which is a 2/2. It is large and spacious for me alone and I think I could have gone with something smaller. However when a family moves in (sometime   ) I think it will be adequate. I am on a quarter acre and have a lot of outdoor space and will have more quiet areas when I get around to doing the yard.  

For 3 kids I personally think you need mre than 600 sq ft. What I know people have done, is start with 600 sq ft and add on to the back and put in another room and a loft area upstairs.

Now, the average house here has increased in size as people are able to afford more.

Laura

[hobbiest]

Now, the average house here has increased in size as people are able to afford more.

Laura

Debt

[Amanda_931]

My house in Nashville was a bit under 900 SF but the dining room and one bedroom rarely got used, and there was a little hall that I suspect that good design would have eliminated, so I guess that I used around 550-600 SF.

That sounds about right.

But for four years now I've been living in a hair under 200 SF.

And another 200 in storage.

One human.

Three cats (one more occasional visitor), two dogs (ditto, although the dogs have changed).

[glenn-k]

The main part of our cabin which we used as a studio apartment, is about 502 square feet and could function as a small house permanently--- but then we collect too much junk. :-/

[Laura21]

Thats so true Hobbiest. As people earn more they have a meed to build a Mc Mansion.  

I only use one bedroom now, one bathroom and the kitchen. I think I would be comfortable in the Victoria's cottage with a full second floor. However, I don't know if I want to go throuh the hassle and sell this place to build that. I am thinking of a second property for rental income - close to the beach for those interested - and was going to use Victoria's.

Laura

[Jared]

I myself am not comfortable in a 600 sq ft for a family. I relish my own private space and these houses honestly have none (outside more like it). I am presently living in about 1200 sq ft interior which is a 2/2. It is large and spacious for me alone and I think I could have gone with something smaller. However when a family moves in (sometime   ) I think it will be adequate. I am on a quarter acre and have a lot of outdoor space and will have more quiet areas when I get around to doing the yard.  

For 3 kids I personally think you need mre than 600 sq ft. What I know people have done, is start with 600 sq ft and add on to the back and put in another room and a loft area upstairs.

Now, the average house here has increased in size as people are able to afford more.

Laura

The first floor is going to be 600 or so sf. Then there's going to be at least two bedrooms and a full bath upstairs. I think I've got my design and it's 32x22'8" and has 725 sf of living area on the main floor. I just need to find a way to make stairs like I want in 3DHA.

[hobbiest]

our house is 824, but we basically use only about 600 of it.  It is my personal belief that families that have a decent relationship with eachother don't need personal space, in fact I think that it takes away from familia.  That being said, if we were staying in this house, we would probably have either opened up to the attic and put a loft up there, or put walls to divide the kids bedroom into 3 very small "bed"rooms; just large enough for the beds.  Our bedroom would be up in the loft.  And the spare bedroom would be for guests, and toys (though our kids don't have much of them).  we have sold almost everything we own, and everything we are keeping can fit in the back of the truck easily.  If the kids get too much for us, we send them outside.  We have a TV, no stations, watch movies, but it usually doesn't come on until the evening wind down time.  I know it isn't for everybody to live in small spaces, but if I can in some small way effect the way people think about space in this country, then my goals are achieved.  Maybe I should write a book on families in small spaces in the U.S.  The biggest problem I think, is that small houses are most commonly associated with poverty.  Its a shame really, but the truth of our wasteful, workaholic, consumer-based, desire driven economy.  We are hoping that Argentina will be different, but I'll tell y'all about that in another thread.  Sorry for the hichjack Jared.

[Laura21]

Over 700 on the main floor is great. Your plans sound great. Keep us informed as you progress. I'd love to see your plans after you get the finishing touches on them.

Laura

[Chuckca]

We have 2014....4/2....we use kit, family room, master bedroom, and one bedroom as an office...we seem to collect STUFF...can't explain why or how....lookin at 20x30 single or loft plan....depending on....

Wouldn't it be nice if a comminity has a clause....HOMES NO LARGER THAN....

There is a new housing development across the street....being built as we talk...houses are 2800 sq ft to 5100...and price $695,000 to 975.00 plus heavy lot prems....

What a waste of building material and land...!