So, this new downsizing trend

[Bidin~Time]

People trading in their McMansions of a few thousand square feet, for tiny houses of a few hundred square feet. Have you ever thought about doing just that? I've tried to imagine a family of five living in one of those wee structures, and i wondered how that would work out.

 

[pointless]

i've seen that one dumb show about that and i gotta say that i think those people are morons. especially the ones with large dogs. clearly their parents never took them on a vacation in an rv or they would know that they were asking for trouble.

 

[lovetoread]

I wonder how quickly they go back to the larger houses?

 

[pink]

Nope, I have never ever considered downsizing. I have a 2 story house, I do not even use my upstairs but it's nice to know it's there.

 

[Bidin~Time]

I watched one of those tiny house shows a while back where Mom and Dad decided to go from a 3400 or so square foot house to one just under 5-600 square feet. With 3 pre-teen girls! All I could think was the parents HAD to have been only children, because soon those pre-teens will be teenagers. Hell...welcome to Hell.

 

[Hard_Rom]

Tiny homes are cheaper, use less energy to operate and build. Take up far less space and usual valuable farmland, tax rates are lower, contribute to a close family. We think we are entitled to a large multi-storey house. Sign of the times. Good chance in a generation you will have your parents in the same house too. Our lifestyles we think we are entitled to are non-sustainable. The Japanese do well with the limited living space their tiny island offers a massive population. Try buy a North American sized home in England and gag at the price.

And what is our concern? Too much contact with our unruly misbehaving children.

In NA we have huge open spaces and think we can expand for ever. Toronto and my town of London eat up some of the world's most productive farmlands and asphalt it over with malls and suburbanite homes.

We (you! who have children) are not doing them any favours. By the time your grandkids are old they may be cursing your/our names for being so selfish and stupid as to not see the writing on the wall.

 

[Bert Notorius]

used to be
the capital gains
would bite
your ass

 

[Bidin~Time]

Tiny homes are cheaper, use less energy to operate and build. Take up far less space and usual valuable farmland, tax rates are lower, contribute to a close family. We think we are entitled to a large multi-storey house. Sign of the times. Good chance in a generation you will have your parents in the same house too. Our lifestyles we think we are entitled to are non-sustainable. The Japanese do well with the limited living space their tiny island offers a massive population. Try buy a North American sized home in England and gag at the price.

And what is our concern? Too much contact with our unruly misbehaving children.

In NA we have huge open spaces and think we can expand for ever. Toronto and my town of London eat up some of the world's most productive farmlands and asphalt it over with malls and suburbanite homes.

We (you! who have children) are not doing them any favours. By the time your grandkids are old they may be cursing your/our names for being so selfish and stupid as to not see the writing on the wall.

Who ya preaching to? breathe honey, BREATHE!

 

[Bidin~Time]

i've seen that one dumb show about that and i gotta say that i think those people are morons. especially the ones with large dogs. clearly their parents never took them on a vacation in an rv or they would know that they were asking for trouble.

Why not just buy a camper? from what I've seen the cost would be about the same and most of those tiny houses are on wheels anyway.

 

[pete]

We think we are entitled to a large multi-storey house...Our lifestyles we think we are entitled to are non-sustainable.

where'd you get this 'entitled' bit ?

 

[pointless]

i actually don't see anything wrong with smaller houses, but those itty bitty little microhouses are not my bag. if i lived by myself maybe, but with another person? fuck that. i need at least a little space. also, cheap my ass. $150,000 for a shack on wheels isn't cheap.

 

[Bidin~Time]

i actually don't see anything wrong with smaller houses, but those itty bitty little microhouses are not my bag. if i lived by myself maybe, but with another person? fuck that. i need at least a little space. also, cheap my ass. $150,000 for a shack on wheels isn't cheap.

I'm with you on that. Hell, I can't keep up with my not even 1800 sq ft house, and have never had the desire for more house to clean. But neither do I want to have to trip over sleeping bodies to get out the door in the morning. Tiny houses are just another form of extremism in my opinion.

 

[eyerami]

Tiny homes are cheaper, use less energy to operate and build. Take up far less space and usual valuable farmland, tax rates are lower, contribute to a close family. We think we are entitled to a large multi-storey house. Sign of the times. Good chance in a generation you will have your parents in the same house too. Our lifestyles we think we are entitled to are non-sustainable. The Japanese do well with the limited living space their tiny island offers a massive population. Try buy a North American sized home in England and gag at the price.

And what is our concern? Too much contact with our unruly misbehaving children.

In NA we have huge open spaces and think we can expand for ever. Toronto and my town of London eat up some of the world's most productive farmlands and asphalt it over with malls and suburbanite homes.

We (you! who have children) are not doing them any favours. By the time your grandkids are old they may be cursing your/our names for being so selfish and stupid as to not see the writing on the wall.

You really do have a "we" problem.

Don't they have doctors up there who can give your pitiful ego something so that it can just try to speak for itself without having to pull out some non-existent "we" to use as such a pathetic crutch?

Or, you can always start a poll thread to actually read how many "we" even gives a fuck what you think, let alone agree with you.

Or, did you already try that on a Canadian forum and that's why you're here?

 

[barefootgirl69]

People trading in their McMansions of a few thousand square feet, for tiny houses of a few hundred square feet. Have you ever thought about doing just that? I've tried to imagine a family of five living in one of those wee structures, and i wondered how that would work out.

No!! Having to downsize because moving to different states with different costs of living has been a pain. If I can't have AT LEAST 1500sqft, I'm not crossing the threshold. I need the extra space for our school desks and books, a lot of books.

 

[eyerami]

My personal living/working cell is approximately 200 sq ft. It is not on wheels. It's bare concrete floor is so naturally cool and soothing during all these 100º + days, and the rare times it becomes too cool in the winter, small rugs are perfect to quell that minor issue. The walls and ceiling are adobe, with the roof holding a solar cell sky window, and one wall hosting another solar cell window and a door - both which face directly east.

I have neither water or electricity supplied from anywhere else but the sky and sun above. Other than power needed for air conditioning on these 100º + days, computers, a small cooler for food, and to recharge a cell phone, I use a enough electricity to burn a 15W shaded bulb for light perhaps an average of an hour a day. As long as I have collection and storage ability, I have no concern about electricity need as it's plain after 6 years now that I cannot ever possibly consume under normal wants the amount I easily collect and store.

My abode is perfectly cozy and efficient for its one denizen who am i, and the only want I could possibly have is that it resided on an isolated, very southern California beach instead of the glorious Chihuahuan Desert of Texas. However...

I'll take this massively energizing independent political climate and growing Texit spirit any day over that communist realm of left coasters.

Viva la República de Texas!​

 

[Saint Peter]

Texas.

Imagine that.

 

[eyerami]

Imagine that.

Nesting so far up Laurel's bunghole, you should tongue-tickle a few extra of her dingleberries in thanks you can even do that.

 

[Saint Peter]

Nesting so far up Laurel's bunghole, you should tongue-tickle a few extra of her dingleberries in thanks you can even do that.

I would never tickle you. Ever.

 

[eyerami]

I would never tickle you. Ever.

And the last time you promised to never project again. Your point?

 

[bronzeage]

Why not just buy a camper? from what I've seen the cost would be about the same and most of those tiny houses are on wheels anyway.

The micro-houses are campers, they just cost more. The real difference is the guy who built the camper understood the engineering of a portable toilet system.

 

[Conager]

The micro-houses are campers, they just cost more. The real difference is the guy who built the camper understood the engineering of a portable toilet system.

One would think that would be key.

 

[Bidin~Time]

The micro-houses are campers, they just cost more. The real difference is the guy who built the camper understood the engineering of a portable toilet system.

Those companies that build campers have spent years engineering limited floor plans for maximum return on everything including the toilet system. Go with a winning combination, I say.

 

[bronzeage]

Those companies that build campers have spent years engineering limited floor plans for maximum return on everything including the toilet system. Go with a winning combination, I say.

On the other hand, a micro-home probably has less formaldehyde.

 

[Bidin~Time]

On the other hand, a micro-home probably has less formaldehyde.

Just by virtue of size...

 

[Hard_Rom]

Make a list of everything you and your family 'need' to live and prosper.

Does a giant flat screen show up on the list? Does an 8-cylinder vehicle show up on the list? Does an 1800 sq. ft. home show up on the list? A home probably does but how big does it 'need' to be?

Big difference between what we 'need' to live and prosper and what we 'want'. Chances are what we 'want' are not rights as humans or citizens but privileges and luxuries.

If you never had certain things, you would not miss them.

Entropy is a natural law that says there is less and less energy to accomplish things. Or that more and more is required. There is an upper end to how far and fast things can progress. An example is drag racing. For the first while increases in speed and decreases in elapsed time are easy to come by. Just gaining experience is worth quite a bit. But once you start approaching speeds and times of the pros every 100th of a second will cost you hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

To increase speed requires 4x the HP to go twice as fast. I'm off the opinion that economies and lifestyles are not that much different.

Shrinking middle class, the poor getting poorer. While the 1% get richer. How do they do it. At great expense. Not to them personally but to all those below them.

Why is it that past generations could put kids through college on 200$ a week? And yet that is now barely above a poverty wage. Inflation is the economies version of the universal law of entropy.