Thread title may be trademarked, but check these out:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/re...html?th&emc=th

Some are pretty teeny. Minimalism appeals to me in some ways.

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Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Seriously, I'm looking at moving into an apartment in a month or so, and my preference would definitely be an efficiency or studio apartment. I dunno about 160 square feet, but 300 or so with a separate bathroom and changing room/walk in closet sounds real good.

Where would I put my books?

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Yea I couldn't do it. I mean, I like the idea of spending most of your time outside enjoying your acreage, but I like the creature comforts of my house too much. I would love a nice, single story, moderately sized (1500 square feet or so) luxury home with huge windows sitting on 160 acres instead.

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

Last year the wife & I went to Chama to ride the Cumbres-Toltec.We rented a "cabin",which turned out to be what's called a "Park Model" manufactured home (think miniaturized single-wide) that we found very comfortable.My guess would be about 400 sq ft,maybe less,but with a full bath & kitchen,living/dining room & bedroom.It had a set of built-in bunk beds,child sized,with those & the fold out sofa could accomodate a family of 6.
We only spent 2 nights in it,but decided it wouldn't be a hardship to spend a week.It'd be nice for a lake or mountain getaway place.

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"An armed man is a citizen
An unarmed man is a subject"

Robert A. Heinlein

I've long been interested in efficient housing design, so this was an interesting article. My wife and I are looking ahead to our retirement and a small, efficient home is something we're considering. If you build a new home, the price is proportional to the square footage. Done properly, a smaller home will cost less, take less maintenance, and use less energy than a larger home. One trick is to design in efficiency from the beginning. There are a lot of good lessons in efficient layout that can be learned from motorhomes and trailers, especially when it comes to maximizing storage.

The key is to figure out what you want to do with every room and design it to fit.

(And at the other end of the spectrum)

I know it looks like a typo when I post this but the largest single family dwelling I ever saw that wasn't a museum now was when I moved some folks into a 400,000 square foot house. Looked a private hotel. Four stories above ground, 3 below with a full sized orchestra pit. Marble exterior and a double grand staircase in front, the curved kind with a fountain between the stair cases. It made the home of the owner of Benehana's (He owns a positively huge Akita) look like a shed. and Mr. Benehana has a three wing mansion.

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Gimme a minute to read through Jay's latest observations...

...

How many generations under one roof?

Oh dude! Not counting household staff, a guy, his wife and two kids. It was still under construction when we moved seven tractor trailers full of furniture in. And I can fit 4 maybe 5 three bedroom households into one trailer. I talked to the contractor who was on-site and he said the construction cost were at twenty million and climbing.

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Gimme a minute to read through Jay's latest observations...

$20 million / 400,000 sq feet = $ 50 per square foot. Sounds like a bargain.

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There's room for all God's little creatures -
right next to the mashed potatoes

Overall, that is true, but there is probably a lower limit where the proportion does not apply. I'm only saying this from my experience with camping trailers. The footage is only a small portion of the cost of a camper...it mostly has to do with the amount of amenities that are included.

Every house needs a minimum amount of plumbing...

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

I'm with you on that one. After stuffing in my albums, books, & magazines I would HAVE to live outdoors. My packrat days would have to end.

Flotsam like wife, kids, pets, cooking utensils, clothing, appliances would have to go.

I had a friend that lived in a mobile and it took a while to notice, but all the furniture was slightly smaller than "normal." There was an illusion of slightly bigger space because everything was about 80% of the usual size.

Kinda like the perspective room in Willy Wonka. Well, maybe not quite.

An aside: Went to my daughter's parent teacher conference last night. There was only one adult chair in the room, and the teacher took it. So I'm sitting all cramped up in this mini-chair (I'm 6'2" 190), shifting about, really uncomfortable. I sensed her snickering at putting one of her "problem parents" in his place.

Next time I'm going to enter briskly when she's not looking and swoop the big chair.

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Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Hi, It's like living on a small boat. Of course, you have the advantage in that you can get out and walk. I should suggest that anyone considering this should get a back hoe and dig a severe storm shelter, and a leechfield as well.
You might even get a surface well several hundred feet away with the promise of water. Can solar and wind power supply a few comforts? Maybe.
It can be done. Planing ahead.....planning ahead. I hear Jim Crocket's voice
echo .
Good luck in your endeavours.
Dan

I prefer Pink Houses.

I live in a heavily latin neighborhood. I see a lot of them.

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Gimme a minute to read through Jay's latest observations...

The Shepards' looked like it had no insulation on that wall, but I guess that would make up 30% of the houses perimeter.

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Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the prospect is staggering!

On a slightly related tangent, which may vaguely amuse, quite a lot of non-Gaelic speaking people in the Scottish Highlands & Islands call their house "Tigh Beag", because (literally) it translates as "Small House". However, to a Gaelic speaker, the tigh beag is and always has been an outside toilet and nothing else.

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I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, was in no way fair comment and was motivated purely by malice. I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future.

Heh, the only way I'd ever volunteer to live in anything that small is if it came with a mains'l.

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

My bathroom is bigger than that... and I have two bathrooms.

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This is not an idea to be tossed aside lightly - it should be thrown with great force

Even if you don't like the idea of living in such a thing long-term...

If you're buying land and having a new house built on it, this could be a way to live on that land in the meantime instead of having to live in one place while having construction done on another. (Other ways to pull off the same trick would be tents, parked motorhomes, and simple quick-built shed/barn-type buildings.)

A lot of the subdivisions here have a clause that says you can do that while your house is bein' built,minimum of a year,but some won't allow it.

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"An armed man is a citizen
An unarmed man is a subject"

Robert A. Heinlein