Let me give you a quick little plan – it’s not the tiniest of the plans. It is actually quite a decent size for this particular type of build. In the middle of the kitchen there is a small storage room that can be used as a boiler room if necessary (no, there’s no landline in that boiler room, it’s meant for heating).
An eco minihome offers a very limited space and basic (to say the least) quality of living. However, I am sure many people will find the experience of living in an eco tiny house extremely pleasant, especially if the setting is good. Middle of the forest, on a hillside, embraced by the Nature. I can almost see myself there…
But the problem is in the price. For example, a prefab tiny house produced by Tumbleweed costs from $16,000 upwards (a little short of $40,000 if you’re not willing to do any DIY). Fancy a beach-home in Bournemouth? You would need to wait in a queue for decades to get one, yet you can build a similar one for less than £1,000. Timber doesn’t cost much these days. Ok, a tiny house is a step upwards from beach homes but, having so little square footage for so much money is not necessarily eco-friendly. Remember that in many cases living sustainably also means being efficient with your money.
As far as the money is concerned, $40,000 will buy you this gas guzzling but full size home (3 proper bedrooms and garden) near Colorado Springs and leave a neat little fund permitting you to convert it into an eco-friendly home. And it’s not a one-off example – in the USA and Canada you can easily get your foot on the property ladder for $30,000 and less.
Please note that the purpose of this article is not to belittle the ideas behind purpose-built small livingspaces. There are people who will appreciate them tremendously. It’s just the case of leaving other options open for yourself and deciding what it is what you really want.
These tiny houses are very cute and interesting to look at. It is awesome. Thanks for the nice post.
Those tiny houses have a real appeal in their simplicity. Plus, I’ve heard that people who live in the homes save a bundle in utility bills.
oh yeah, you barely have any bills at all living in a tiny house 🙂
I’d love something like that to be honest, it would be great if you were saving up for something. You wouldn’t have too many bills, everything you needed would be in close proximity and you wouldn’t need to spend too much time cleaning!
I enjoyed the beginning of this article.
But in the 4th paragraph the information changed to the USA. What does it cost to build a tiny house in the UK? Is it even legal?
The cost to get on the property ladder is irrelevant to UK residents – I wish you had stayed on topic, as I would like to build and live in a UK tiny house.
Well, Scott, let me put it this way – small houses are not illegal in the UK. Mostly it is down to your local planning officer. But it is not a simple issue and you cannot just take any plot of land and plong a tiny house on it. Thanks for the comment, I see that this article needs a 2nd part 🙂