Stylish cottage for Katrina country is a big hit

A model home in Ocean Springs, Miss., that gives Katrina's displaced an alternative to trailer living is starting to take the country by storm.

The Katrina cottage -- with living quarters about the size of a McMansion bathroom -- is now appealing to people well beyond the flood plain. Californians want to build one in their backyards to use for rental income to help with the mortgage payment. Modestly paid kayakers in Colorado see it as a way to finally afford a house. Elsewhere, people envision building one so a parent can live nearby.

Flying in the face of a "big house" trend, designers of these tiny abodes seem to have found a new housing niche. Some experts cite an interest by some Americans in downsizing their habitats, a reaction to the supersized home, and note the challenge of heating and cooling a big house at a time when family budgets are flat. Others note that changing demographics -- more empty nesters and single adults -- may mean a timely debut of the Lilliputian homes.

"It's resonating with people because it's a market that did not exist," says Marianne Cusato, a New York-based designer who drew up the plans for the Katrina cottage. "In the past, you had to go either to an apartment or a trailer

More, including a tiny floor plan, at: http://realestate.msn.com/buying/Article_CSM.aspx?cp-documentid=1209895>1=8800

Amazing that nobody friggin' thought of this before, huh?

:hi:

right now, especially the ones who got fast talked into refrigerated AC (dumb in the desert where evaporative cooling works). Energy costs are killing them, and their systems aren't set up so they can close off parts of the house as needed.

I've got a 900 square foot house with another 400 square feet of badly converted garage that can be closed off, and a 1946 floor heater with a woodstove to supplement. My heating bills during our 2 cold months rarely exceed $50 between wood and gas, plus hand knit sweaters.

And I don't care how far housing prices fall. There is NO WAY I'm going to pick up one of those white elephants. As I explained to the money guy, living in one of those monstrosities means CLEANING it, and no thanks.

I loved it. It didn't even have a thermostat but was easy to find a heating "sweet spot". It was in a very inconvenient place, though, in the middle of a very short hallway. Hopping over it got old as the decades went by. We used to like standing over it after coming in from the cold!

We now have forced air with an attic furnace. I'm delighted that our heating bills didn't take a huge jump. That may be because this house is not big and the ceilings are not standard 8' high. Good upgraded windows and doors are also factors.

We still have the old wall furnace that's in the living room and I won't remove it. No thermostat on it either. If we have a power outage, it's our backup heating for this house.

We've looked at bigger homes. Lovely ranch homes that have more storage. But I have a better idea for storage - donate to the charities to make space for what we really need to keep. I'm sentimental to a fault. But donating has been good mentally as well as creating needed space!

Here is some information about a young man in Iowa City who built his first small home several years ago. The Mobile Hermitage Open House Our first open house was in Iowa City on Wednesday, August 13, 2003. If I remember right he was still attending the University when he built his first small home.


From the Cedar Rapids Gazette, link on Hermitage page to this article and many others.

IOWA CITY — You’ll never hear Gregory Johnson complain about his tight living quarters that make even the tiniest of college dorm rooms look spacious.

Johnson, 42, has spent three years living in a house just 7 feet wide and 10 feet long.

He says he wouldn’t want to live any other way.

‘It’s the same experience of going on vacation and staying a motel. Your junk is all behind and you’re able to enjoy the moment,’’ said Johnson, who built his tiny home at 508 Melrose Ct. near the University of Iowa campus in 2003.

‘‘There is something about the minimalism that is so relaxing and freeing.’’

Resources for Life - Mobile Hermitage
Postal: P.O. Box 2717, Iowa City, IA 52244-2717 USA
E-Mail: mobilehermitage @ resourcesforlife.com (without spaces)
Internet: www.resourcesforlife.com/groups/mobilehermitage
Phone: (319) 621-4911
Copyright: © 1964-2007 Resources for Life. Click here to read our friendly copyright policy which ensures that this information remains within the creative commons for education and public use for the benefit of all - rather than being used for individual private ownership and profit.

About the Mobile Hermitage.

http://www.resourcesforlife.com/groups/mobilehermitage/about.htm

The Small House Bookstore.

http://astore.amazon.com/resourcesforlife/103-4512850-4925405?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=60

I'm about 80% done with reading Little House on a Small Planet, which I'd seriously recommend (in conjunction with "It's All too Much") to anyone who's thinking about moving into a new space. Read up on small spaces and less stuff before you commit to anything bigger than, or even the same size as, where you already are!

Glad to see this emerging as a hopeful alternative...

Let's say I'd like to build one as my home (I live in an apt now and would love to own something in the next year or two). I'd have to buy land, no? Land that would let me build something other than the only 4 cookie-cutter floor plans approved in that neighborhood? I don't see how to find a place to build it.

I'm not real estate savvy - am I missing an easy way to do this?

but to build one, I'd have to tear down the house I have now. :( Can you buy a vacant lot in an "established" neighborhood & put up a Katrina cottage there?

dg

It would probably have to be land in an older neighborhood. Otherwise, new land purchases are zoned for either commercial properties or sold in large pieces to developers to build their urban housing developments or condos.

Ahhh that is living.:)