I just finished reading a book on Tiny Houses, which I find so interesting. Several years ago, with the start of accumulating all of the “stuff” that comes with having a child, I became overwhelmed with it. I participated in an online support group with phone calls each week for a month in an effort to help us shed the unnecessary things that no longer serve us. It was really helpful for me – I even “released” my wedding dress during that time!
What was also clarified in that process is that the nearly 2000 sf home we were living in was too big for our family of 3. Sure, it was easy to fit in a bunch of people for a party, but most of the time it was just us – and a big house to heat and maintain. We both at some point in our lives wanted to build a house, and we wanted to live in home that reflected our ideals. As I mentioned at the start – we visited the Newenhouse home, which is a beautiful blend of this idea of living simply with the Passive House movement. That really focused our efforts.
I wouldn’t consider our 1,200 sf home to be even close to a “tiny house,” or even a small house. But, it is smaller than the 2,000 sf we were living in previously. I wonder now how much of the house we could have made even smaller, if we could do a do-over. I think our open office upstairs looks great, and makes the house feel bigger with the view from the first floor to the second floor. But, we really don’t use it. Sure, I use the desk there to do bills, etc., but hubby’s beloved chair is likely feeling unloved at the moment. I think our “office needs” could have been met with a built-in 5′ wide desk. I saw a picture in the book I read recently that showed just such an idea.
I think the dining to living room length of 25′ could have been reduced by a couple feet, but I don’t think I’d want to do that – it feels really comfortable with the layout as it is. Built-ins are a big space saver for tiny houses, and that is something that eventually we’ll get to… (Hubby has officially started on our garage, so few indoor projects will be done for a while!).
Hubby had insisted on the downstairs bathroom, but I still wonder if that was really needed. It’s definitely used a ton, and is a perk for visitors that don’t want to navigate stairs, but I think we could have done just fine with one bathroom.
Our bedrooms are about 10’x11′, with a small 2′ deep closet x ~5′ long in each bedroom. I have all of my clothes in the closet, as well as an under-bed rolling tote. Hubby also has his clothes in that shared closet, as well as some overflow into the office closet. I think having smaller closets forces you to go thru your clothes more often and get rid of those not needed.
I actually love our small bedrooms- they fit us perfectly. Hubby and I have a queen size bed, and it’s just big enough. I’m not sure how a king size bed would fit though. Our room has a notch cut out of it for the wood stove chimney, so if that wasn’t there, I bet it’d be just fine. When we thought about the bedrooms, one of the things that Sonya Newenhouse had said stuck with us – something about what do you really use your bedrooms for? How much space do you really need? For us, this really made a lot of sense – we spend the majority of our time together downstairs.
A smaller kids bedroom also makes it easier to show the child that they really do need to “release” some items for other kids, because there isn’t room for all of the toys! This is a constant struggle, as so many “treasures” end up on her dresser and throughout the room. It forces us to go through her stuff more often, as it gets to a point that I can’t handle the clutter any more!
One of the points in the book I read recently was that in small/tiny houses, clutter becomes more apparent when in a smaller space. This is definitely true. As hubby had anticipated (as well as me…), the raised countertop in the kitchen is the landing zone for all miscellaneous crap that we need to deal with at some point. Books checked out from the library, my notes about various things I’m researching, paint cans for things that I need to finish painting – all of that is so much more obvious in a smaller house. I’m not complaining though, because it’s all the more motivation to keep it clean and tidy, since it’s smaller.
And it is smaller, but not tiny! It’s still a bit of cleaning, especially 2 bathrooms (I HATE cleaning bathrooms!). Especially with a dog and cat, pet fur is a constant battle.
I also think that we could have eliminated the basement. It’s nice to have the mechanicals (and all of hubby’s tools at the moment) down there, but it seems kind of like a waste of space. Eventually it’ll be hubby’s man-cave of sorts, but it’s technically not needed. It’s also nice for shelter for tornado season, and excess tomato jars that (hopefully) we won’t be able to store in the kitchen.
But, overall, I love coming home to our home. I often say to hubby “I just love it here!” We’ve been here 4 months now, and it’s so fun to see it come together, and experience how comfortable it is throughout the different seasons. It’s cheap to heat/cool, is water efficient, compact and, just, comfortable. It fits our lifestyle. I feel so lucky!
My Passive House Inspired Home 