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Show HN: Live Simple – Tiny homes

80 points| brendan_rempel | 10 years ago |livesimple.io | reply

52 comments

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[+] nailer|10 years ago|reply
Living a spartan existence is like travelling: it's a great way to broaden your mind and you really should do it when you're young and have few commitments.
[+] codingdave|10 years ago|reply
It works when you are older, too, otherwise your worldly possessions, in particular your home, can become your commitments.
[+] beatpanda|10 years ago|reply
As a person who recently had my house evicted from the land it was sitting on, I encourage you to read your local ordinances carefully, prepare for a legal fight, and don't talk to any curious reporters.
[+] bcook|10 years ago|reply
I am indifferent until I see the overcharging, but maybe overpaying is because of tiny wallet/bank.

Disclaimer: builder

[+] zer00eyz|10 years ago|reply
Its sort of crazy that this style of living isn't allowed by many local ordinances. There are tons of folks who could put these up as guest houses or detached offices and be super happy with them. Hell put one up and stick your obnoxious teen ager in it.

To your point they do seem pretty expensive. If you were building in your area what is the price per sq/ft. I understand that it is a terrible metric, but it is the only one that I can think of.

[+] sixQuarks|10 years ago|reply
The prices seem kinda ridiculous, or is it just me?
[+] ben_bai|10 years ago|reply
If you just measure in $/sq ft then sure.

It's about the total cost beeing affordable, an running costs beeing as low as possible.

Also this started out as a DIY movement, but now that professional builders are involved, prices go up.

[+] ilaksh|10 years ago|reply
I think the tiny house movement says something about the economy in the new era of sustainability.

The classic economy wants to grow infinitely to be happy. But a sustainable approach means people are now focusing on conservation of resources, leading to behavior that is the opposite of growth.

The real economy actually wants to shrink, in some cases literally. You see that with tiny houses. If people could wave a wand and shrink their house to reduce their cost of living and footprint, they would.

I think the focus on sustainability is great, but we need to adjust our economic and social structures to accomodate that.

Here is an idea I had related to tiny houses: http://runvnc.github.io/tinyvillage/

[+] dragon88|10 years ago|reply
Cool - some of these look like fancy motor homes for a five star road trip haha.

PS: The first listing is really just an ad for a small home custom builder? Savvy of him to get oodles of free promo for his business but may want to look into that?

[+] pcurve|10 years ago|reply
Is there's a way to hook up muni-sewer? If there's a way to avoid composting my own poop, this seems like a fun way to live.
[+] jscottmiller|10 years ago|reply
Anyone have experience living in one of these? Even at 20 grand, sleeping above a chemical toilet is bound to get old fast.
[+] Mz|10 years ago|reply
I have no experience living in one, but my understanding is they can be hooked up to services if you desire. The reason they are on trailers is because the person who invented the first tiny house (now runs Tumbleweed Tiny House Company http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/) was looking for a way to get around zoning laws. These houses are so small they are not allowable under most zoning laws. But if you put them on wheels, they qualify as "trailer homes" and, voila!, now you are legal.

From what I gather, the fact that they are too small to be legal in most (urban/within city bounds) areas creates all kinds of challenges. I have long been interested in the subject, and I sometimes fantasize about living in a tiny house, but I have not yet in earnest tried to make it happen.

[+] timmaah|10 years ago|reply
I've lived for 3+ years in a 25' Airstream with my wife. I feel our Airstream is much better laid out then most tiny houses I see. I wouldn't want to do the loft. We love living in a tiny space. We constantly travel though. It might be a different story if the view out my window wasn't constantly changing (feeling closed in..etc.).
[+] benbristow|10 years ago|reply
Looks fun. Wouldn't be surprised if AirBnB took this idea though and integrated into their platform.
[+] heipei|10 years ago|reply
Love it, been watching Tiny House Nation and Tiny House Hunting for a while and this is right on time ;)
[+] a8da6b0c91d|10 years ago|reply
Trailers and prefab houses have existed for many decades. Why is now the time?
[+] source99|10 years ago|reply
What do these things sell dollar / sq foot? Some quick calculation show about $240 / sq foot. Better then SF bay prices but probably not better than most of the rest of the country.
[+] declan|10 years ago|reply
In many parts of the bay area you're not paying for the house as much as the land. In fact if the house is older and in a desirable location it has negative value because of the demo and related permits; a vacant lot would sell for more.
[+] retlehs|10 years ago|reply
Tried to sign up with Facebook and got an error, FYI.
[+] Abundnce10|10 years ago|reply
Feature request: sort results by price (ASC/DESC). Looks great BTW.
[+] zupatol|10 years ago|reply
Shouldn't it say "meet people who believe less is more"?
[+] kossmoboleat|10 years ago|reply
Are there more tiny houses anywhere in or around Germany?
[+] lcnmrn|10 years ago|reply
"X for Y" type of services never succeed because Y will never be better than X. Describe your service for what it does, not what it can be.
[+] Hytosys|10 years ago|reply
I don't know exactly what your definition of success is, but products of hyper-specialization do indeed make money. Etsy is eBay for home crafts, Twitch.tv is Justin.tv/YouTube/Ustream for video games. And of course there are thousands of enterprise solutions that are simply domain specializations of Microsoft Office and Dropbox that are doing quite well.
[+] keehun|10 years ago|reply
This is AWESOME! Great listings already.
[+] fgtx|10 years ago|reply
IMHO: hipster overflow