Small Home Living

Just thought I would share an interesting info graphic, it is mostly aimed at the US, but some interesting ideas.



We are building small, I wonder if any other homeoners have made this decision and care to share their reasons they feel small is better!

I cant see the Image in full size even after clicking, can you repost?
Edit - My bad, ended up having to zoom in heaps to read it. Original link is here :

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifest ... -huge.html

I've personally always liked large open spaced houses, I could never imagine living in Villas with tiny rooms and compact
design. However after seeing some new houses that are only about 6 meters wide, it's actually pretty clever how well
things can be designed and still feel sort of spacious without taking much block space up.

If you are only living by yourself or with just one other and don't want kids then a small house makes a lot of sense. There are a lot of advantages. A lot less cleaning, less resources used it the construction, much less water and energy use to run the house etc etc.
You have to be clever with the design if you go down this route though. There is a fine line between compact and poky.

Stewie

Nope. If I could have built bigger I would have.

Building 163sqm house (just me), but not big enough.

Best move ever - went from a enormous 4 bed/2 bath etc etc to a 3 bed/2 bath on a 400m2 block. Now have time to do what we want rather than continually gardening, cleaning etc. and there's no wasted space.

Plus how small are you talking about Tristanium ? ( how many sq m )?

Stewie

Personally - I'm going 114m² (excl. single garage) for 3x2. I really admire those who live in the 'tiny houses' like this sort of thing (there was a docco released recently about a young guy building one in the states)

I work from home, so I can't escape - I think these caravan sized homes would be a little too claustrophobic if you spent your working and living hours there. I know my home is probably not considered small by world standards, but I just wanted to see if I could start a thread where people could share ideas about small homes.

Well a lot of people live in apartments that size so I think if you were able to come up with a decent floorplan you would be half way there. Most of the small houses I've seen have a large sliding door array that opens out the main living area to the outdoors similar to your image above. I think if you had that, given the temperate climate we enjoy here for a large part of the year, it would make these small spaces a lot less claustrophobic.

Stewie

The two of us are currently living in a 78sqm apartment and its great!

Big enough and easy to clean.

When we were first married (in the UK) our house was around 60sqm!

It's amazing how our priorities change over time when it comes to the size of our houses.
Our current house is a small 3 bedder with four living in it - small lounge, smaller kitchen/dining and miniscule bathroom. It is however easy to keep clean. When we build our new place it will be a lot bigger but with a teenager, us and possibly one or two aging parents we will need the space.
Horses for courses as they say. If I was by myself I wouldn't have a problem with building a one or two bedroom small house.
I should put up a link to the average house size here and overseas ( if I can find it ) I posted on these forums a while back.

Stewie

Peronslly I don't have too much of an issue living in a small space though, I've done the dorm thing and living with my gf in a room in her parents' place where our every worldly good was stored and stil managed to feel comfortable, so it's really what you make of it. I can only say one thing - get a self storage unit and declutter! Even the most spacious houses can seem claustrophobic if the mountains of posessions aren't managed properly. But from that perspective, get some good quality storage units and cabinets so that you can hide away your things and better still if the furniture pieces are dual-purpose. For example, benches that open up and have storage within, bed-storage units and the like...

Living in a small space can be a cost effective option but with today's current need for environmentally and socially conscious living, it can also be a choice that is absolutely on-trend with those following the latest and coolest in housing.

Building a living or working space out of disused shipping containers ticks all the boxes - cheap, reusing existing materials and an industrial-glam aesthetic that is bang-on trend for the environmentally conscious amongst us.

One of my favorite shows on TV is George Clark's Amazing Spaces on the lifestyle channel. Recently a couple on the show converted a 40ft shipping container into a holiday home of sorts - that slept 4 and had a really great rustic feel, all built for a fraction of the price of a traditional dwelling.

Get inspired by Google searching: shipping container homes.

Well I just love this one despite the fact that it looks like a roughly clad caravan...

Here is the article I was talking about before
House sizes

http://www.couriermail.com.au/life/home ... 6119251532

August 22, 2011

AUSTRALIANS still believe bigger is better, despite the international financial turmoil, with new data showing they are continuing to build the largest homes in the world.
The average floor area of new homes built in the nine months to March, including houses and apartments, was 214.1sq m, data commissioned from the Australian Bureau of Statistics by CommSec showed.
Despite that, more smaller apartments have been built during the past two years, a trend likely to continue as Generation Y starts to buy more real estate.
"They have a preference for smaller apartments close to the CBD. It is very different to their parents and grandparents who were looking for a quarter-acre block of land," CommSec chief economist Craig James said.
"Generation Y does not want the huge house to look after. They are more inclined to maximise lifestyle."
Australian houses, though, are now about 10 per cent bigger than in the US and 9 per cent bigger than New Zealand.
The UK has the "cosiest" castles in Europe, with an average floor area of just 76sq m, according to figures from the UK Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.
Home size has risen steadily in Australia in the past 25 years, with the 1985 average floor space around 150sq m.
Queensland residences were the third largest in the country, behind NSW and Victoria, with an average house size of 250.6sq m and an average apartment size of 137.4sq m. Tasmania has the smallest average homes in the country.
Mr James said it appeared the average house size had now peaked and was likely to plateau in the future, with rising energy prices making smaller dwellings more appealing.
Average house floor area in Australia (in sq m)
1. NSW 269.7
2. Queensland 250.6
3. Victoria 246.9
4. Western Australia 244.9
5. South Australia 185.4
6. Tasmania 188.7
7. Northern Territory 263.5
8. ACT 212.8
Australia 243.6
Average apartment floor area in Australia (in sq m)
1. Northern Territory 182.9
2. Western Australia 141.4
3. South Australia 140.9
4. NSW 137.9
5. Queensland 137.4
6. Victoria 126.2
7. Tasmania 115.2
8. ACT 109.6
Australia 133.7
Source: ABS, CommSec

Stewie

As a tiny home aspirant I have to say I initially thought to go the trued and true route of buying an established home. Yet even the smallest ones were just too big with at least 2 full sized rooms I would never step inside of.

So my reasons for tiny (50sqm) are these.

- I have very few possessions, just a bed, an ottoman, small fridge and washing machine. So buying any kind of established home would also require me to then furnish it at an extra expense.

-I currently live in 50sqm of heritage cottage and I love it. Perfect combination of useful floorplan and low maintenance. I cannot imagine ever living in anything larger. Hence why I am seeking to build (what is by Australian standards) a tiny home.

- The Australian climate really facilitates outdoor living almost all year round. It's not England where the sun only shines 3 weeks of the year! Lol. I am also a gardener and don't have the budget for a massive block. So the smaller the footprint of the house, the more usuable outdoor space I have.

- I am already midlife, I want to be able to live in this home as I age. Not have to sell out of my dream because it's too big to maintain.

For your situation that is entirely reasonable. You have obviously done your homework and by living in a similarly sized house to what you are hoping to build you know what your preferences are. If I was living by myself I'd probably go down the same route although I'd need a shed for all my tools.
One of my favourite articles was a segment that used to be in the Sydney Morning Herald on a saturday. The journo interviewed people that had interesting jobs and the subject for that week ( this was probably fifteen or more years ago ) was a sailor who was the chef on board a RAN submarine.
Apart from a decent sized pantry and cold store room his kitchen was approx 2m x 1.5m and he used to prepare three meals a day for a crew of 60+. One other crew member would help him serve at mealtimes.
When asked what he thought about some of the huge kitchens that get installed in new houses these days he laughed and said they look impressive but they would be very inefficient especially if you had a large number of people to feed. He felt they were very much designed to be form over function.
I have a feeling that same aspect would apply to the whole house in these days of large houses as per my article above.

Stewie

I quite agree. Of course I work in an confined space as well and my galley is less than 2sqm and I serve meals for 8 in that. Once you get used to seeing space in a certain configuration you find it much easier to think small. In fact, thinking big becomes a real problem for me because the more I expand a wall the more issues I have with filling that floorspace.

I don't deny anyone the pleasure of a large house if that is what they truly want or need. But I know for me my definition of spacious is considerably smaller than most people's. Once you get used to moving about in 90sqm with 180 other people in it with you, 50sqm per person borders on extravagant.

I do agree that there is often a lot of dead space in large floorplans. Because the walls can infinately expand with little impact on the footprint, there is no real incentive to create double duty spaces, and utilise dead space for storage. Walk in robes typically only hold the same capacity as a wall of storage, yet take up so much more room. Beds are another good example, they take up large space and if you elevate it a foot you could fit the storage capacity of an entire tallboy underneath and not need that piece of furniture. But then there has to be a reason and incentive to utilise space more efficiently otherwise we don't do it.

I also did up a floorplan for a gypsy caravan, internal space about 20sqm. I was still able to fit in a full sized kitchen, shower and toilet, double bed, dining table, bookcases and full height wardrobe. Maybe I should post it for fun. Because it was fun to create. I may one day build that yet.

Three things clients usually ask me when they get me around to discuss plans for a reno/addition/KDR is " we want more light. more space and more storage"
The first two are pretty easy but a lot of them opt for the second at the expense of the third despite the fact that some of these homes are pretty big. I know the floorplans of several largish project homes that went up recently in our area and they have expanses of foyer, attriums etc but they are very light on built-in storage capacity. I've been past them a few times and their garages are floor to ceiling of unopened, cardboard storage boxes. No room to unpack them.



I have an antique cast iron bed that is about 18" off the floor and underneath are several old computers, camping gear, boxes of video cables/USB connectors and a couple of boxes with most of my shoes etc. My teenage daughter said a while back that she never had to fear monsters under my bed when she was younger- there was no room !

Stewie

That inforgraphic is really quite inspiring I think! Although I may just be a bit too attached to having things in my reach to think about converting anytime soon. What kind of storage am I going to have to acquire in order to make sure I don't throw or give away too much of the necessities? And let me tell you, when you have a kid, you've got tonnes of stuff in the storage rooms that ALL seem necessary...

How's the small house going, Tristanium?

My husband and I are in the early stages of having a small house built (115sqm + 30sqm deck + shed + garage), and it's funny, everyone comments on how it's such a small house, but it will be by a good 20sqm the largest house we've lived in as a couple! And a far better layout than houses we've previously lived in.

Things we've really prioritised in our budget are storage (both built in and multi purpose furniture) and great living areas. We live in a fairly cold region, so centralised living is a big cost saver!

It's a great and inspiring infographic and I love the thought of living in a small space. Having kids though, I also worry about where all their stuff goes - and there is so much of it! I guess part of living this way is that you embrace a lifestyle that eschews excess material possessions and that's a really great lesson to pass onto your kids too.