Tiny houses are hardly a new idea. Henry David Thoreau lived in one on the banks of Walden Pond. And Thomas Jefferson lived in an 18-foot-by-18-foot, two-story, 648-square-foot box with his new wife while building his grand Monticello. Today's tiny-house advocates extol their virtues, including:
• Time for what you love. Johnson says he started the Small House Society after seeing that if people bought and lived in smaller, less expensive spaces, they'd have more time to get out in their communities and do the things they love to help affect society. "I'm looking at ways to empower activists," he explains. A smaller home "saves incredible amounts of time. It saves incredible dollars."
• Less of … everything. Fukai, a former Fulbright scholar with a Ph.D. in architecture and author of "Living Small: The Life of Small Houses" focuses on smaller building with his firm, Insitebuilders. "Almost all consumption becomes reduced" when you move to a very small house, Fukai explains -- even that extra pair of shoes gets tossed out. Fukai and his wife traded in a 3,000-square-foot home for an 800-square-foot house in Florida about 18 months ago -- and haven't looked back.
Besides paring down your own belongings, you can feel good about consuming less in other ways. In a small home, "automatically everything becomes less energy-demanding," Fukai says. Even pets and appliances such as computers suddenly heat the small spaces in winter. And since walls must be well insulated by general code today, heat doesn't penetrate the house in summer, Fukai has found. What's more, the rooms cool very quickly with just an open window.
• Little cleaning. A tiny space with less junk in it translates into less time spent cleaning and maintaining it, say owners.
• The rewards of intimacy. Humans gravitate toward small spaces if they're cozy and well-considered, says architect Chapin: "Benjamin Franklin used to say that the conversation around the table is much livelier when knees are touching, than at a formal dinner with proper distance."
Building Zoey's Tiny House
