Tiny house on a foundation for retirement in the city

I recently reconsidered my urban plot of land.
I bought it to play on, but much of my play has been hampered by the location.
The powers that be want it to be like the lots that surround it, even though there isn't a house on this lot.

I thought that putting a house on this lot would be cost prohibitive.
I thought it could never pay off financially.
Both these things may be true, but two things have made me reconsider this option.

First, the cost of rent in my city.
$1200 for a two bedroom house  in my crappy neighborhood.
That may sound expensive or cheap depending where you come from, but it represents a huge increase around here.
My mortgage on a three bedroom is less than half that.

Second, disability.
I am related to people disabled by age, by stroke, by substance abuse, and mental abuse.

Someday, with luck, I may need a place to stay that doesn't require climbing stairs to get to the bathroom.
If I don't, someone certainly will, and many need it right now.

It's not really a tiny house I have in mind,  more like a right sized house.
The foot print is constrained to roughly 20'x30'.
Looking at the requirements of the city building code, that's enough for a two bedroom.
I would want a second floor ideally, just for the heat and domestic water.
It's in a bad spot for solar, so that's right off the table.

I would build it to be ada compliant or better.
I wonder if doing so could get me any grants?

I see this as a retirement dream.
I can't see doing the foundation or sewer tie in myself, but everything else seems...plausible?
I imagine dying with it incomplete, but that idea doesn't bother me to much, it would be a worthwhile and enjoyable thing to pursue.

William, you may be on to something with this concept.
20 x 30 is what we would call a 'granny' flat and it would be a good sized one.
\ With such an open plan you could do good stuff with it.
Wider doors, maybe a 1/2 depth basement to lower the living area into the ground to keep a stable temperature.
Provision for 2 story but dont complete it.
An elevator to the floors right from the start.
If it was prefabricated in the areas it can be, its erection time could be reduced vastly.
I have seen home in Germany assembled completely in 6 days, water, power etc.
Heat pump hot water will lower power costs.
Tall ceilings

Here is an interesting design
2-story-small-house-

I like your feedback!
I've been geeking out on foundations, trying to figure a balance between costs and sustainability.
A conditioned crawl space is a definite possibility, but a frost protected shallow foundation is seeming best.

Its not applicable in this case, but I've been thinking that a house without connection to city water could use a foundation that was very disconnected from the earth, something that worked like boat on water.

I think including a place for a lift is wise, but I wouldn't start with one installed.
The idea is to build very lean, stingy even, but with  growth and improvement in mind.
For example, the second floor would be roughed in for a kitchen and bath, but without any fixtures installed.

I've been watching videos on ada compliant bathrooms and kitchens from actual wheelchair users.
They reveal things I wouldn't otherwise have realized.

Speaking of awareness, many years ago, 1972,  I badly burnt my hands in a motorcycle racing incident.
I had boxing glove bandages and could not go to work, so I walked around my city everyday.
I discovered many issues,
- doors I had to pull instead of push
- handles I could not hook my elbow over
- doors with very strong return springs
- door handles that were like light bulbs and impossible to open.
I mentioned it to my architect mates and they took it on board in the limited way they could.
Years later we had "The year of the disabled", where a lot of these matters were raised again and more by others.

Since then I have found many things that you find no other way;
- wheelchair ramp that dumped you on the road or are so steep they looked like a ski jump ramp
- passageways in public buildings a w/chair just fitted though.
- steps in w/ cahir access toilets
- hills so steep I had to zig zag with crutches to get up.
- slippery surfaces
- bumps or holes in footpaths
- doorways too narrow
- sometimes you become invisible and people walk into you!!
- door knobs you cant open with wet hands

William Bronson wrote:I recently reconsidered my urban plot of land.
I bought it to play on, but much of my play has been hampered by the location.
The powers that be want it to be like the lots that surround it, even though there isn't a house on this lot.

I thought that putting a house on this lot would be cost prohibitive.
I thought it could never pay off financially.
Both these things may be true, but two things have made me reconsider this option.

First, the cost of rent in my city.
$1200 for a two bedroom house  in my crappy neighborhood.
That may sound expensive or cheap depending where you come from, but it represents a huge increase around here.
My mortgage on a three bedroom is less than half that.

Second, disability.
I am related to people disabled by age, by stroke, by substance abuse, and mental abuse.

Someday, with luck, I may need a place to stay that doesn't require climbing stairs to get to the bathroom.
If I don't, someone certainly will, and many need it right now.

It's not really a tiny house I have in mind,  more like a right sized house.
The foot print is constrained to roughly 20'x30'.
Looking at the requirements of the city building code, that's enough for a two bedroom.
I would want a second floor ideally, just for the heat and domestic water.
It's in a bad spot for solar, so that's right off the table.

I would build it to be ada compliant or better.
I wonder if doing so could get me any grants?

I see this as a retirement dream.
I can't see doing the foundation or sewer tie in myself, but everything else seems...plausible?
I imagine dying with it incomplete, but that idea doesn't bother me to much, it would be a worthwhile and enjoyable thing to pursue.

Hi William, where abouts are you? Knowing the location would go a long way to figuring out what is required code wise and would help sharpen the advice somewhat. Off the bat spend a little more when you build on insulation and better windows and doors then is required. Lowering utility bills in your later years will pay dividends down the road and the time is now to think about it. I would think zoned heat pumps so you can regulate the temperature in a portion of the building not all if times are lean. Stick to light fixtures that take standard light bulbs so you can just change a 2 dollar bulb not a 40 dollar fixture. Low maintenance exterior finishes...
Cheers, David Baillie

Can you post links for a few of the best YouTube’s please. I should be considering the same issues for my next house that am about to start.

My best advice is to build good bones. Many possible methods but don’t skimp on the quality of the foundation and exterior weatherproofing.

Here I go off on one of those, "instead of that, have you thought of this" tangents.  If I were doing it, rather than spend the money on a second floor, I would build a basement.  It would still house your heat source and water/plumbing.  Natural disasters being what they are, and since you are in an area that gets tornadoes, as I am, I would not want to live in a house without tornado protection.  A quick check showed Ohio gets an average of 3 or 4 a year.  The cost difference between a basement and a frost free foundation in our climate is there, but not terribly prohibitive.  If you really want a second floor, I would try to figure out if there was any way I could do both.  Having your furnace and water heater out of the living areas give you a great deal more useful space on any floor those would have been on otherwise.  Basements are also very useful storage areas for things that aren't used often, and for extra pantry space.  In an extended power outage, your basement will not get below freezing even without extra heat.  Our climate is more extreme in the winter than yours and our basement will hold a temperature above freezing basically forever without any form of heating other than the earth itself.  Just something else to consider.

I do love a basement.
I had long thought any house I built would basically be a walk out basement, built at grade and bermed.
But basements use a lot of materials and they require a lot of earth moving, and I'm trying to build affordable accessible housing.

I think a highly insulated home with a durable siding will offer most of what a basement does, for less money.
On the other hand, the rough quote I received for a slab foundation is $30-35 per square foot.
That includes footers down below 40 inches, so I don't know if it counts as  a frost protected shallow foundation, but I talking to the contractor, I don't think so.
I'm not sure if that kind of foundation is well known and adopted, I think it might just be a new fangled thing that green housing geeks are into.
They can half the effective frost line depth, which reduces excavation and materials needed, but if they are not well known, the specialization required will probably eliminate any cost savings.


Basements are the standard here in Cincinnati, so much so that I had never set foot in a home without one until I became a plumbing tech in my 40s.
My experience at that point was obviously biased, as no one calls a service plumber for stuff that's working.
Most of those calls ended with a referral, because its difficult to unclog drain that is completely collapsed.
I have framed, plumbed and run electric extensively, but concrete work and block laying are things I know little of.
The outbuildings I've made have little or nothing in the way of foundation, but that simply won't do in this case.
The realities of building make all the extensive remodeling I've witnessed make sense.
It is easier to keep a structure that has been declared a house in that category than it is to create new one and have it certified habitable.

I have more time than money, so I'm using it to research and find the best method for my situation.
I really would love to hijack attract  some of the affordable housing dollars that are being touted locally, but I seriously doubt my ability to pull that, or any of this, off.
I find it important to set financial goals like this one , in order to marshal my resources.
Without some kind of focus, all my time working for someone else will amount to little more than a hand to mouth existence.

I purchased my little urban 1950's house for a really good price.   I'm on a decent sized, pie shaped lot so plenty of garden space and room for dogs to run.  I pay way less than what someone would to rent 2 bedrooms.

It's on a slab foundation,  single story,  steps right out to the yard.    675sq ft with 2 bedrooms and a full bath.   Combined dining/living space,  and a small kitchen.   Utility room in the center of the home holds the heat/hot water/washer and dryer situation.

Super easy maintenance.   Super low utilities (comparatively).   I never use the 2nd bedroom, so I personally could do with another 100 feet taken off the footage pretty easily.   If I were building from the start it would be great to have more energy efficient and eco design options.  But as a basic layout,  it would lend itself really well to aging in place and if that is where I end up  it will be fine with me.