Tiny Houses are Big Bad Ideas
This is a tiny house built on a trailer frame. It’s nearly identical to any common travel camper. Think about that. Copyright 2024 Tim Carter
Why Tiny Houses are Big Bad Ideas
By: Tim Carter
I live in central New Hampshire (NH) on the west shore of Lake Winnisquam. This is the third-largest lake in NH. I kayak on the crystal-clear blue water as often as possible. The state of NH owns the 7.2 square miles of water but citizens own any islands that dot the lake.
Due east of my boat dock is a very small island that is less than 2,000 square feet in size. It’s about 50 feet in diameter. On this island is a tiny house. Several years ago I was kayaking on a glorious summer day and saw the owners outside eating lunch sitting at a picnic table near their dock.
“Hello! I’m Tim Carter. I live just across the lake from you. In the winter I often see a glow coming from your window that faces my house. Do you live here year-round?” The older couple invited me to come sit with them. They were like teenage sweethearts and had a strong glow about them. We chatted about how they do live on the island year-round. I was astonished, to say the least.
Their tiny house measured only 12 feet by 20 feet as best as I could estimate. That’s 240 square feet. It was smaller than a two-story shed I had built the previous year up above my leach field. I built my shed so it could be converted into a tiny house. I sell the Deluxe Two-Story Shed plans to folks on a regular basis. CLICK HERE to order my EXACT SHED plans.
This is but one of the MANY PAGES of my Tiny House plans. Look at the winder steps going to the second floor! Copyright 2024 Tim Carter
After sharing a drink with them, I departed and kayaked around the other two larger islands. I couldn’t get my mind off how two people could live 365 days year in a nothing more than a very small cabin. As I paddled back to my dock, I decided to research how big the average log cabin was that settlers constructed in the 1700s.
It turns out the average size of a log cabin built in the Northeast was 16 feet long by 14 feet wide. That’s 224 square feet of living area.
Casting a Spell on You
Are you entranced with the concept of downsizing and moving into a tiny house? Think of how small your heating and cooling bills would be. Imagine how fast you could clean your entire house! Ponder how long it might be before you’d strangle your significant other unless you were constantly bumping beaks like the lovebirds that live across the lake from me.
There are all sorts of advantages to living in a tiny house. We already know it’s possible as our ancestors did it. There are also many disadvantages of compacting your lifestyle into a space not much bigger than a motel room.
The best way, in my opinion, to test your ability to survive in a tiny house is to rent a travel camper for a week. Take it to a local campground and hook it up to the on-site utilities allowing you all the comforts of electricity, running water, and sewer. Keep in mind not all campgrounds have a sewer connection. Without this important convenience, you’ll be stunned by how fast you’ll fill up your onboard sewage holding tank.
The Tiny House Experiment
My guess is you’ll discover the first day is somewhat fun and interesting. You’ll marvel at how the camper designers have made use of every cubic inch of storage space. This is very important to do in tiny houses as well.
If you conduct this test solo, you’ll have a much better chance of survival. If you have a partner, I predict by the late afternoon of the second day thoughts will cross your mind about what excuse you can make to take a hike or make your sixth trip of the day to the campground general store.
Google Search: How to Poison Someone
By midweek a large tear will develop in the social fabric of your relationship. The smallest character flaw will balloon into grounds for a divorce. Your mood will darken like the black clouds that barrel towards you just before a violent severe storm strikes.
My guess is that on the fifth day, you’ll be calling the camper rental office to see if you can get a discount for returning the camper two days early. Your nerves will be as raw as a fresh trout you snagged from the campground lake.
What are you going to do with all your stuff? Do you park your car and pickup truck outside because your garage looks like a hoarder’s Paradise? When you make the decision to live in a tiny house, all your stuff becomes flotsam and jetsam as you hand the keys of your large traditional home to the new owner. Think long and hard about how you can live without all your books, memorabilia, countless clothes, shoes, Christmas decorations, etc.
The Dream Crusher
You now know why my moniker around the Carter home is the Dream Crusher. I didn’t come up with the nickname, my kids did. Every time they’d float some idea at the dinner table, I’d start to ask questions. It was the realist in me.
I’m also old enough to remember the craze about geodesic dome houses, A-frames, and several other housing fads. If you notice, you don’t see many of those around where you live. There’s a reason. I believe the tiny house fad has also floundered on the reef of silly ideas. If I’ve crushed your dream of living in one, trust me, you’ll thank me at some point.
Here’s an eye-catching A-frame house on Mt. Desert Island, Maine. (C) Copyright 2024 Tim Carter
Column 1545
Hilarious Tim! A tiny house? Maybe for my dog!
I too thought about living in a tiny house but i know i have items I truly treasure and are greatly inheritable that would have to go. And as i get older, climbing a tiny staircase to a loft bed gets a more challenging and i don’t Want to have to fold away my bed every day. By the way, I counted 10 ads in this article
Hi Tim,
I found this column interesting and very readable. Like you, my wife and I are realists and have found that outlook very useful in life. No tiny house in our future for all of the reasons you outlined. Thanks for the interesting and amusing article!
Tim, I believe you have hit the nail directly on the head and driven it in with one blow. Wonderful and funny yet so true. We live in 1450 Square ft and that's tough. Stay healthy.
I know this is not the place for this comment but I live in the Columbus, OH metropolitan area and wanted to brief you on the loss of your column in The Dispatch. Your column was the highlight of my Sunday morning read. I can’t begin to tell you the valuable information I have learned and shared with others. Contractors are often surprised that I even know things “the little woman” ordinarily wouldn’t know! I have emailed The Columbus Dispatch requesting the return of your column and sadly have heard crickets. I will continue to pester them.
Loved the Tiny House story Tim. Gave me a good laugh! Reminded me of the story of the guy that moves to the country and is enamored with the "beautiful" snow until it piles up so high and fast that he loses it and wants to kill the plow guy a few weeks in. Concerning the ads, there was a ton of them that kept popping up obscuring the print. But I guess at this stage, I'm conditioned to live with it.
You completely nailed it Tim. Stacy and I are working on 53 years together. We wouldn’t have made 53 days with the Tiny concept.
Enjoyed!
Please keep’m coming.
Travel in a cabin on an Amtrak train for 18 hours. I believe that should answer the question also. That is why we rented a car for the return trip...we could stop every two hours, get out and walk around. Like the article, just enjoy humor and facts.
Haha! Well written. Anyone who has lived in a camper for a week would know better than to take up residence in a tiny house. I've noticed how, on these glowing shows they never address the idea of septic systems or for that matter, plumbing or electrical.
Tim: Very good article about tiny houses. I enjoyed the ad-free reading experience. In general, I don't mind small ads. What I hate are pop-ups, and ads that feature motion to get the reader's attention. I understand that ads pay for the articles' production costs. I'll read your articles with or without ads.
Hi Tim,
I'm sitting here eating a Hershey bar and reading your newsletter. I went to your website and read about the Tiny Home Craze. My house is small but a tiny house would have me Googling "How to Poison Someone" as my evil sister lives with me.
I really like your website improvement without all the advertisements. It makes reading the articles so much easier without the distractions. I'm an old DIY gal so I reference your website frequently.
I see different tiny homes with additions and sheds.
Supposedly the young people of today want experiences and not things. Wonder how long that lasts?
A tiny house might beat an apartment. Many seem to be stick built travel trailers. Might have some value if one moves quite often.
It reinforced my feelings about the space I need. However, we are at the age of needing to down-size so we will face the idea of how much space we can happily live in compared to the rooms we have.
Just spent a week near Quartzite AZ....saw lots of nomad campers, was very happy to return to my hotel room, with flush toilet, strong hot shower, and reliable heat....when I was 20 it might. have been fun, now at 74....not so much. But was amazed by the number of RVs and camp sites of folks that perhaps had no other alternative.
My sister was involved in the HAM fest at Quartzite, called Quartzfest....be on the lookout for a small package from me.
Tim,I love your stories because there is always a lesson to be learned from them.Always a fan and love your very informative newsletter in whatever format it arrives.These dissenters should realize that it's not all about the look of the newsletter,but the knowledge and wisdom it provides.
Tim, I think a tiny house may be okay for some people, but I plan to build a new shop that will be bigger than that! With all my wife and my hobbies, we cannot exist in that small a space, at least the way we live now. However, i hear of people putting up very large homes, and often its just 2 people, maybe they put up a bigger house than they need. But its a free country and we are free to do what we want, or maybe what we can get by with. I have to admit a tiny house is not in my future. We live in a 1,440 square foot home, and if we got rid of our kid's stuff they left when they moved out we could definitely live in a smaller home, but we do like our home size, Before COVID my job required me to work from my home and I have a dedicated office, and we will always need more space than a tiny home. But I applaud anyone who can make it work.
I BELIEVE THERE IS A PLACE FOR VERY SMALL HOUSES. IT IS UP TO INDIVIDUALS. WHAT YOU SAY I FEEL IS TRUE FOR SOME PEOPLE. I WOULD LOVE TO PART WITH MY 30 X 80 DOUBLE WIDE ON PRIVATE LOT. TOO BIG FOR JUST MY WIFE AND I. KIDS GROWN AND GONE. I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A HOUSE ABOUT DOUBLE THE SIZE YOU SHOW. JUST CANNOT MOVE NOW. THANK YOU. OLDEST DAUGHTER LIVES NEXT DOOR AND IS A GODSEND TO US. WIFE IS INVALID AND ALL WORK IS DONE BY ME, INSIDE AND OUTSIDE. TOO MUCH FOR AN 82 YEAR OLD CODGER. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK.
We have a 496 sq foot condo in ocean city Maryland that we rented out to a couple and theidog for 10 years? They finally had to leave in 2019 when my wife watt renovate the place and use it for vacations etc. when we first went in after they left we were amazed that a lot of stuff like nic nacs etc were still in the same place just with a layer of dust on them. The way some people live is crazy.