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| The Tiny House movement is real |
I myself am considering jumping on #teamtinyhouse for a bunch of reasons. For one, TinyHouses are
innovative - but not only in size. They innovate on economics, design and life. Scroll down and see what I mean.
Why Tiny Houses ooze innovation
1. Economic Innovation
At 24 years old I purchased a home with my now, wife. I was pretty proud to be that age and have done this given that over 30% of people in this age group still live at home with their parents. That being said, in exchange for this "life event", I also acquired what is lovingly referred to as a "Mortgage". Mortgages are not terms of endearment - no. Rather they are terms of 30 years of debt. Debt does a lot of things but rarely does it help your savings account. Owning a home is a good thing in many cases. At times though, I do feel the burden of homeownership, especially financially. I found this infographic (click to go to their website to see the much larger version) that sums up my point perfectly:
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| http://thetinylife.com/tiny-house-infographic/ |
As you can see - It is an economic innovation in the sense - you have a roof over your head for hell of a lot less - yet are able to save more - because, no mortgage! Not to mention, if you are even remotely handy, you can build most of one yourself for even less money. This really puts things into perspective for me - If I did not have to pay 36% of my net take home to a mortgage company ... oh, the possibilities...
2. Design Innovation
Look around on pinterest or just google "tiny house" images... It's incredible what you'll see. The size of the structure is one thing but the amount of precision and creativity that is poured into a lot of these homes, to me, is a form of art. Think about your typical living room (18'x18'). Now cut it into about a 1/4th of that size... but make it comfortable, functional, and aesthetically pleasing... That is innovation - make the impossible, possible.
Another thing I noticed is that you can actually design and build GREEN when you create your tiny home. Have you ever tried to purchase "green" products or materials for your normal sized home? It is unbelievably more expensive. Tiny Homes range from 150 to 350 SF and you can use all 100% sustainable and green materials that look really awesome, and still come in well under $100,000. Here are some of my favorite design layouts I've seen as of late:
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| This is a 15'x24' layout |
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| There's actually three bedrooms here. |
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| Innovation is truly everywhere |
3. Life Innovation
Think about the creative process of designing your own tiny house or even building it with your friends or family. You can design what you want for how you live. It's a pretty cool thought process to consider your current living situation and how it really impacts your life. I can't imagine not having a mortgage or spending hours on home improvement projects - I'd probably have a better blog and website :)
The thing that I really like about tiny houses is that it makes you take a new perspective on how you are living and makes you actually evaluate what's going on in your world. Do I really need 2100 SF? Do I really need to be in debt for 30 years? I want a second home but how can I afford that? I want to travel more but we can't afford it... Maybe tiny houses are the answer, maybe they are not but they have forced me to generate new thought lines that could ultimately carry over into other avenues of my life to improve it.
Full disclosure - I laughed in my friend's face when he first told me about tiny houses. But then I started thinking about it - the cost, the creative design process, the ability to build green, the FREEDOM! There's definitely more to it then the tiny structure. Hopefully, this tiny house post will get your mind thinking differently and more creatively.
What do you think? Are you on #teamtinyhouse? Ask me about my plans to build one! Let me know your thoughts and opinions!
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