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Humble living

J

john in la

Well-known Member
Location
What part of in La do you not understand
Saw this house today. Wish there was a car in the driveway for scale but I guess you will have to use the garbage cans.

On one hand it looks to be a well kept house with a clean yard.

On the other hand it sure is small. Im guessing 500 sq ft max. Heck Ive seen houses with a living room bigger than this house.

Still people out there getting by without all that keep up with the neighbors things.



cvphoto136396.jpg
 
Think about the amount of space you actually use in a house. Then think about rooms/space you almost never use. When I retired we build a new house, 900 square feet total in size. The two car garage is almost bigger than the living space. We love the smaller house. Easier in all ways to keep care of and the utility cost are much less too.
 
I grew up in a mill town where there were quite a few houses that size in the area closest to the paper mill.

Tiny houses may be back in style, but they are not a new thing.
 
I said to a guy that I would never buy a house without a basement. His reply was that people carry stuff down into the basement and it stays there. When you stay small you have what's necessary, and when you go bigger you accumulate more junk.
 
Our first house was 950sq ft. 3 bedroom, full basement, 2 1/2 bathrooms. Very comfortable for the 5 of us. A single person or a couple just starting out or retired couple could live very comfortably in the house in the photo. And the utility bills would be very manageable too.
 
Our first house was 1100 sq ft heated with wood in a home built airtight stove. Electric bill 35.00 month including a window shaker for cooling. Mortgage payment was 119,00 month.We still have it.
 
We have a rental house that's not much bigger than that, about 700 square feet. It's minimal aggravation to maintain and we have no problems renting it out. Our last tenant, who was supposedly alone when he moved in, subsequently brought in his girlfriend, two kids and two small dogs. Then proceeded to have a baby. The seven of them managed to get by crammed in that house for almost a year after the baby was born. They bought a larger house, and it only took us a couple of weeks after they moved out to get it ready to rent again.
 
There is a housing development here that is all small houses about that size but much more stylish and an attached garage.

They are geared to retirees and seniors. Minimal upkeep, minimal utility costs, tiny yards, but are priced in the $200,000 range!

One other advantage, your grown kids won't be coming back to freeload!
 
We have lived both large and small

Retired from 4000 square ft house to 900 square ft apartment.

Took us 6 months to buy a 4400 square ft home.

We live on the main floor 2000 square ft

Plenty of storage.

We have our space. Our secret to 53 years of wedded bliss!

Not your topical downsizing story but it works for us
 
A basement is a nice place to go if you have a tornado.
Easier to work on the plumbing.

I won't live in a house without a basement..

If you have a dry basement it's like having twice the sq footage at little additional cost.. Some people finish off their basements.
 
John,
The farther south I travel the more I see homes elevated off the ground resting on blocks.
Why?
Does it have something to do with termites?
Flooding?
Do they have cold floors in the winter?

I don't see Humble living, I just see a tiny home that could use a little landscaping.
 
(quoted from post at 19:40:39 09/21/22) I grew up in a mill town where there were quite a few houses that size in the area closest to the paper mill.

Tiny houses may be back in style, but they are not a new thing.
Click to expand...

My first thought was mill cottage. Theres several around here that are similar. Many towns were owned by the mills. Looks about like what I want.
 

This is a typical pioneer house from the 1880's. It is being repaired for display.
You can imagine the labor involved and the careful fitting of the logs.
The size was probably limited by the size of trees available. This one looks like
about 800 sq ft. Over the years, additions would have been built up around the original
house until you wouldn't know there was a log homesteader's cabin inside it. In this
case the original window appears to have been changed to a door connecting to a later
added-on bedroom, etc.

In the traditional farms of my childhood, the son and his bride would move into the big
house and the mother/father would move into a small shack across the yard, essentially a
kitchen/living room and a bedroom. The daughter-in-law would be expected to help out with
what was needed.





cvphoto136438.jpg
 
When my neighbor built his house he didn't put in a basement. His reason,,,if you don't have a basement you never get water in the basement.
 
I would call it efficient living. Once my youngest goes to college my house is going to feel empty and really boring. I guess Ill have to get to know my wife again.

Vito
 
Frost goes 5+ feet deep here, if you have a 6 foot foundation in the ground might as well make it useful and have a basement.

I can see the advantages of a small house, depends if you have no kids, 3 kids, or 7+ kids Im sure! :)

Paul
 
> The farther south I travel the more I see homes elevated off the ground resting on blocks.
> Does it have something to do with termites?

Termites are one reason. Flooding is another. And in warmer climates, freezing plumbing isn't such a problem.

> Do they have cold floors in the winter?

Yeah, they do. Usually insulation in placed between floor joists and sheathing is installed under the joists, but that only does so much.

My NC beach cottage was raised up eight feet on pilings. Freezing pipes were a problem every winter.

You may have noticed that pretty much all new construction in Florida uses concrete blocks on a slab for the first floor, while upper floors may be stick construction. Makes it hard for termites to get a decent meal.
 
My parents bought a new house in 1942. It was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, living room and kitchen, crawl space, no basement. It was 20x24 or 480 square feet, smaller than my garage today. By 1947 there were 5 of us living there.
We moved to the farm in March 1950. An old 2 story farmhouse. 5 bedrooms and a path. By that summer dad had built in a bathroom by dividing the old wood range kitchen in half.
Make your house your home, not a keeping up with the neighbors place.
 
Yup. No water in my basement. We built a new house in 1985. The builder wanted to know how deep in the ground I wanted my basement. While standing in the middle of a soybean field, I said I wanted my basement floor 12 HIGHER than where we are standing.
He asked why so high. I said that I grew up in a swamp (not really but very wet ground) and I do not want any water in my basement.
Building code required a sump pit even for a full walkout basement. The sump pit is there but in 37 years there has never been a pump installed. For a while I had a cover over it and floor tile on top.
 
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