Last weekend my wife and went south to visit our daughter who lives in Claremont, California. This is a college town in Southern California with lots of old class charm. One afternoon we went for a walk and I grabbed my little camera just in case we should pass some small homes.
These three homes are ones we passed along our two mile walk. Each is unique in its design and I am guessing they are one to two bedroom homes and around 700 square feet in size. This is a great size for a couple or someone with one or two small children to live in.
Photo credits: Kent Griswold
I would like to encourage you to check out the area you live in and look for the small or tiny homes. Take some pictures and share them with me. Once Spring sets in here in Healdsburg, I plan to take my bike out and shoot some of the local small homes to share with you. Have a great day!
Where I live there are lots of small homes – it’s called Britain!
(Sorry I couldn’t resist!)
Yes, we in America are the ones who went so crazy with “huge” so glad the rest of the world had more sense.
Except for the castles and things…. Just kidding. I really do love and admire the British and would live there if I could.
I love the little English-cottage one! And you’re right, there are several around here I need to photograph–an old tourist camp before it falls in, a cool little shotgun house and a few others…
There are lots of tiny houses on the island where my shack is, but what is the etiquette for taking pictures for online posting? Do you knock on the door and ask permission first?
Ask permission if you can, though it is not always possible.
Wow, Alice, I read that and thought I’d written it! What island?
These are just perfect little houses! I’m curious if you’ve sold any tiny houses to people in Minnesota?
Yes, there are tiny house home owners in Minnesota.
The Omaha/Council Bluffs area has a lot of homes this size in its older neighborhoods. They range from a few cozy, updated properties to a majority that look like seized meth labs or the former estates of passed-away serial killers. 600-800 square feet with a basement seems to have been typical for small family residences built here between 1900 and 1940.
I’ll pick the first small house. I like the glass window in front and the landscape.
http://www.TinyHousePaintings.com
Many of the small houses in ‘old’ Claremont have ‘back’ houses, i.e. backyard rental houses. I lived in a 900 sf ‘front’ house with a 450 sf rental out back during the 70’s. There was a regular turn-over in the back house, but the people who lived there enjoyed the place and were ever so happy to have a little free standing house rather than a dorm or apartment. And we made a number of friends; we are still in touch with a couple of them.
We have some small homes in our area, but they are not nearly as cute as the ones you’ve shown us.
Around here, the small homes are in the most crime-ridden areas. Sad.
Thanks for sharing. Those are nice! I’m curious what these small houses in Claremont sell for? I have a feeling it’s probably the same as a 2,000+ SF home where I live (north Dallas suburbs). I wouldn’t mind paying more for LESS if it were the right circumstances, but the trend seems to be out of California and not in. But Claremont is a nice place, no doubt.
Mike –
I’m in Dallas too – 4 miles east of downtown. I think I want to build a tiny house; am contemplating the May workshop in Santa Fe. I own a regular house, but…
Are you thinking of taking the tiny house plunge?
There are tons of these all over the south. They’re the old shotgun houses. No one thinks they are cute however. They are the remains of all that could not afford ‘bigger and better’. I once rented one with tiny pine board ceiling and a tin roof. I adored the place but the owners would constantly apologize for charging me rent!
Homes will be getting smaller again. For example, during the energy crisis of the early nineteen seventies there were some very large mansions located in the upscale oceanfront community of Newport, Rhode Island that sold for as little as twenty-five thousand dollars because they were absolute barns to heat. They were cut up into much smaller condos and sold quickly. We will soon be facing a similar situation here again in the freezing windy winters of the north east as the heating oil and gasoline prices rise to over five dollars a gallon in the next two years.
Like it or not, homes will be getting smaller again, just like in the nineteen thirties. You can also look for a major shift in the population of New England to the south because the already dying economies, combined with the insanely high property taxes, and total mismanagement of the cities and towns of Southern New England, especially, are driving people out of their homes, and out of New England. The elderly are really taking it on the chin as they are forced to sell their homes when they retire. Also, what manufacturer in his right mind would build a new manufacturing plant in such a terrible weather and business climate as the North East? The jobs are all going south too. That trend has been obvious for many years.
Look for more smaller homes and micro apartments in the cold climates for those who stick it out, and thousands of people will be fleeing to the south and southwest as the people of New England and similar climates either downsize or flee. Also, property values will be dropping like a rock.
The size and value of most homes,and the economy is directly linked to the cost of fuel. High taxes do not help either, and definitely effect the local economies.
Good call, Kent!
Speaking as an aging middle-roader (tiny is too small, large is cost-prohibitive and a waste to boot), the 400-700 sq. ft. cottage-rather-than-apartment is exactly right. More, please, with floor plans, designers, builders & sellers where possible. Odds are this will be a burgeoning market, regardless of region.
As the first comment says, its fascinating what you guys (America mostly) seem to call a small house. They are pretty standard sized homes here. Sure we get our mansions, and our teeny tiny homes. But these are pretty standard. My flat is a tiny home by standards here. And four people live in it.
I would love to take photos for you but that would be a photo of half of New Zealand…..
If you go into the older tree lined homes in most areas of the USA you will find small homes that were built right after WW2, it really is not a new concept here, it’s just one that is coming to the fore again due to many smaller families, the economy, retired folks, etc.
Yes, I am sorry to say that we here in the south are being inundated with people/businesses from the north. Soon we will have the high taxes, over-crowding, and high crime rates… 🙁
If you go into the older tree lined neighborhoods in most areas of the USA you will find small homes that were built right after WW2, it really is not a new concept here, it’s just one that is coming to the fore again due to many smaller families, the economy, retired folks, etc.
Yes, I am sorry to say that we here in the south are being inundated with people/businesses from the north. Soon we will have the high taxes, over-crowding, and high crime rates… 🙁