Carrie contacted me the other day about her story and offered to share some pictures of her small home. Here on the Tiny House Blog I have a tendency to cover new homes and ideas and I would really like to include more small and tiny homes of yesteryear.
Hopefully Carrie’s home is the first of many more to come of this style and era home. If you have one or know someone who lives in one please contact me so I can share the home with our readers.
Quoting Carrie: I have been poking around on your website and absolutely love it! I have been attracted to small, cozy, yet functional spaces such I was a kid. So it made since that when it came time to buy our first home that we would choose a small 650 sq. foot cottage that was originally built in the early 1930’s. I share my space with my husband, 2 year old St. Bernard, chickens, and lots of gardens!
Our home was a fixture of the community back in the 40’s and 50’s with the original owner and builder being quite the social butterfly. It has been wonderful to have neighbors stop by and share their stories and memories of what it was like when they used to come over for BBQ’s and cocktail hour.
We purposely purchased an already exsisting small home and made upgrades such as windows, insulation (in the 30’s this was not that important) to make it more effecient as our thinking was the most “green” thing we could do was to utilize an exsisting structure since the raw materials had already been used…….not saying that buidlding a new place is bad, certaintly not, but re-using an exsisting place is the most effecient use of materials, we think! This may be a theme among people living in small old houses, also ways to improve them energy wise, etc.
We are located in the white mountains of New Hampshire, just outside Waterville Valley, or “ski country” as it is known around here! Thank you, thank you for this site, it is inspirational to see others ideas and dreams and to see that we are not the only “crazy” people who feel that living small is really living large!
I am curious about people with small homes and big dogs, seems to be quiet common…..
Please comment below if you have an answer to Carries question and dogs.
Tiny houses are not a new idea, but a trend that is returning. Most houses used to be smaller. I grew up in an 1100 sq ft house, with four people and one bathroom. It was an old farm house that had been added on several times before we got there. It was originally about half that size when first built. Small by today’s standards, but it had room enough for all we needed. It is nice to see small houses returning again.
Like Bill, I grew up in an 1100 sq ft Cape Cod style in the suburbs of Chicago. We also had one bathroom and there was 6 of us at one time (as well as dogs – German Shepherds and an Airedale).
I read an article somewhere not long ago that said homes should be designed at 500 sq ft per person. WHAT?!?
I don’t really remember us crawling over each other for lack of space, though our parents did send us outside a lot! 🙂
Small is the new big!
650 sq.ft. strikes me as a near-ideal size. My one bed, one bathroom apartment is about 600 sq.ft. plus balcony and detached 1-car garage. Small enough to be cozy and encourage minimalism, but spacious enough to avoid claustrophobia. It would be heaven to have a garden and a yard, of course so I could get a big dog. ;o
My personal theory on why so many small house people like big dogs: rural small house people like to be outdoors, and small house townies like to be busy around town. What better companion than a large, friendly dog?
So true! I think that is true of small home people anyway with or without the dog. We never feel boxed in because we have a huge natural addition that is millions of square feet out the front door, also known as the great outdoors. Small homes encourage you to get outside, enjoy nature, simple pleasures like dinner outside with friends, and also interact wth people in your community. I know if I am feeling a little closed in coffee shops, public libraries, etc are great places to go and you never know who you will meet!
I’ve got a big dog and my fiance and I have our eyes set on building a small cottage.
People often think that small dogs are better for small spaces, but most of the time the larger the dog the lazier their temperament…
At least that’s the case for my lazy American Bulldog. Love your home! We might use your porch idea!
Hi there. Yeah we love that little porch. At one point we had thought of closing it in to make a mudroom of some sort and I am so glad that we didn’t. It is a great cover from rain….when unloading groceries, etc, covering stacked firewood, and in the summer I love to sit under it even though it is small at 60 sq. feet (perfect for 2) and read that paper while the rest of the world is getting soaked in rain. Very relaxing!
What a cute little house. We (3 adults) live in an 800 sq.ft. log cabin built in the 1890’s. We have 4 Border Collies, 1 Anatolian Shepherd (100lbs) and 2 cats in and out of the house. Some days it feels more like a kennel than a house, but we love them all.
Great place, we also have approx. 650 sq.ft. of living. The Black Lab & Boston Terrier love it. Small house & dogs rules.
Yup, we lived in a 560sf cottage in SoCal that was built in 1930. Me, my 20something son, and two Australian Shepherds. The advantage of the little house was that the quarter acre lot became a big yard (by SoCal standards…). We, also, made major improvements for safety and comfort.
very cool little house… looks like a model that was in the old sears catalog.. there is a book in our library that has all the mail order plans from sears & roebuck in the 40’S and 50’s.. supposedly you can still get them… when i go back i will get the name of the book and post it
My house is bigger than most of the ones on this site, but was originally small (24×14?). It’s in a former Methodist Church camp in MD, outside DC. Someone took half another cottage, attached it to the side of this house to make a “T”. Various additions over the years moved it to 1100 or so sq ft. Very small in this area. There are 2 or 3 in town still close to the original. Town is laid out nice – homes face a gravel walkway, cars go in alleyways behind. Free range cats & children. 7 min walk to the commuter train.
We always had large dogs. Akitas. Tough with kids, now just a Corgi, 2 cats, and iguana.
Love your house! Your fireplace is awesome!
We have no pets, although we do have two children, ages 2 and 4, living in our approx. 800 square foot house. Most of the time, this house doesn’t even feel small. (Although the ENORMOUS Xmas tree in the living room certainly has shrunk it.) Our house is old, too, which I love, although it’s not as nice as your house, and since we just rent, we can’t make it more efficient. But I completely agree with your sentiments!
Lovely cottage, Carrie. Justin could be right, many from this era were Sears houses. They have an archival site of them:
http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/
What a beautiful home!
Remodeling older small homes would be all you can do in my area as something this small would NEVER get a permit to build!
Recycling older homes is the way to go!
I’ve done 23 of them in 30 years and I’m trying to figure out how I can build a new one now; got to get around a lot of red tape!!!!
Randy
What a cozy fireplace…….and a St Bernard and chickens too!Looks very livable and comfortable.