We just moved from a 2500 square foot home to a 1100 square foot home and call it our "Tiny House" because it sure feels that way.
I once had a 500 square foot house and ended up adding on to it after just a year. Back then I only had a wife and no children, have always been a minimalist, and yet 500 sq ft was just not enough.
Even in our current house, what we call our "Tiny House", ultimately we plan to add on. We just plain have too. This house has four bedrooms, but we also have four daughters, and not wanting to move here, we sweetened the pot by saying they could each have their own bedroom. But the math does not work right because it means Katie and I sleep in the living room. After being here almost a year now, I can say sounding relatively stupidly by looking back with hindsight, I never realized the impact it would have on our marriage. Not just in our sex life, or the lack thereof, but just privacy, conversations without our children hearing, etc. We just have no place of retreat. Katie and I have really drifted apart because of it.
At the same time we have no storage here. For stuff as simple as "where to put the trash until the trash collector comes", is an issue. And while we have immensly got rid of our stuff, and really have adopted an even more aggressive minimalist lifestyle that stems from clothing to tools, I still have to store what few tools I do have, and yet have no place to really put them.
My suggestion to any archetect designing a Tiny or even small house, is to design it so it can be added onto easily and seemlessly. If that sound self-defeating, I can only say by
experience, twice now I have had to abandon the Tiny House strategy, and I was pretty dedicated to it.
In drug rehabilitation they test "success" as being dru-free after 6 years. My thoughts on Tiny Houses are this; while the Tiny House shows always go back and reinterview the Tiny House Homeowners 3 months after moving in, my question is, how do those same people feel about Tiny Houses after six years? Are they still living in them? Now that Tiny Houses have been the rage for that amount of time, we can start getting some longevity answers, and considering there is a Tiny House used market, and I have seen on House Hunters people reverting back to larger houses, I belive I know
the answer. I am not the only Tiny House person to need more room.
But incidentally I do plan on building a Tiny House very soon. In my case it is for my in-Laws who live out of state. In our old house, there was room in which they could stay overnight, but not in our new house. This house has a trailer lot though with its own septic system and everything, so its perfect for a Tiny House where they can have a place to stay when they come over. So I am in no way opposed to Tiny Houses, but for specific purposes.