Tiny Homes - 2016

[KristinaKarina]

Greetings Forum!

  At this writing, I am a newbie to this Forum. I am enjoying it alot so far!
I have been investigating not only RV living, but also other forms of alternative lifestyle/sustainable living.
I re-started this topic here because it seemed as if many of the discussions about Tiny Homes seemed to be older.

I would like to offer this post about Pure Salvage Living from Tiny Texas Houses. The photos are beautiful, and 
I like the guy's philosophy about re-use/recycle salvaged materials. His company also offers other
solutions to getting a tiny home built, from what I can see. Here's a quote from his blog:
"[font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]One of the things I intend to do this year is to offer internships to be able to teach more people how to build these so that we get this style of building going on around the country in other places where there is demand but no one doing it. The Carolinas, Montana/Wyoming, the Northeast, and the Northwest are places I get requests from but really are viable for shipping that far. If someone was building these organic toxin free sustainable houses there I would gladly refer clients to them rather than consider building them in Texas and spending $15,000 to ship them that far. We can ship a package of the materials needed for 1/5th of the price of shipping a house if we could find someone there to assemble them in the same quality that we have so far. One option is that we would provide free training for someone the client might like to see trained to build this way as part of the construction of a custom house for them. Once the special techniques I use to frame with, the Space Magic design methods, and the organic selection of materials for houses, they could have them building more in order to create compounds or tiny villages for their friends and other Baby Boomers to downsize to in the next decade".[/font]

I am not a representative of Pure Salvage, nor have I bought one of their homes, but I do admire the decor. The homes are made from salvaged materials, and they remind me of the houses in which my family lived in, and some of the homes that I have lived in Texas. Many of the materials come also from the Heartland from what I can tell, and are salvaged from buildings like churches, and other buildings that have interesting architecture. I think that this would be a great way to enjoy the decor and "feeling" that an old home gives, but with more updated and efficient construction additions. These homes are built for weather like you would find in Texas and other places in the south, so the codes might have to be different for areas where there is a lot of snow accumulation. 

Here are the links, but I am having trouble adding pictures, or attachments. Theyre really worth the view, they are
beautiful and home-y:

http://puresalvageliving.com/we-will-be-accepting-5-custom-house-orders-for-2016/

https://www.youtube.com/user/PureSalvageLiving

 

[sassypickins]

Fascinating endeavor, thanks for sharing.

 

[Sabatical]

I enjoy thier videos on youtube. They do make beautiful homes.

 

[eDJ_]

I was watching a TV program the other morning about housing for the less fortunate.   I have a friend who is very active in "Habitat for Humanity" and they are known for going around and building new homes for people. Often the property is donated to a Church who gives the lot to the family that "Habitat" will build for. 

But the TV show was showing something different.  They were taking condemned homes or homes where the back taxes left them to a Sheriff's sale, and they were doing a rehab on the structure to bring it up to viability.

This in many cases improves the neighborhood that is already there and is less expensive than building new.
It also provides volunteers with experience doing "destruct" and "construct" so that they can become employable. 

What I like most about this Tiny Home and alternate lifestyle living is it getting people thinking about possibilities.

When I first became interested in homes built out of recycled materials it was with the architect Michael Reynolds and his "Earthship" home.  His idea of being able to live in the middle of the desert using offgrid technologies I was fascinated.  Since then I've visited an Earthship home here in Ohio and I was sold.   So much of the stuff was purchased at auctions for pennies and the worn out car tires were donated.  Wood products were harvested on the 35 acre farmstead.  These can be built as a tiny home or a more expansive one.  With their modular nature, you can expand them as your needs or the family grows.  These stay at about 55 degrees F year around.  (so heating need only bring up the temps 15 degrees for heat or 5 degrees for A/C)  The owner told me that when it was -10 F out side the inside stayed at 70 degrees F  with only a very small fire burning in the heating system.

Youtube video  Earthship 101 part 1 of 3  (remember this was started in the 1960's and was in "The Last Whole Earth Catalog".

 

[Canine]

We are all going to be old and feeble one day.I would advise anyone to have a small parcel of land with water and septic to live on.If there are no structures on the land the taxes can be very low.

 

[Goshawk]

You can always place a HOME DEPOT shed on your property. Then build it out. Watched a YouTube video where someone did that yesterday. Came out nice and affordable.

 

[BradKW]

OK, I don't want to be negative, but it sure seems to me that the Pure Salvage website is an attempted money grab from just about every direction I click. Basically if I want to know, learn or see anything other than rather crummy exterior pics, I need to pay money.

I like the idea, I support the philosophy, and hats off to the fellow who has found a way to make some money off it. But if there's real information contained in that website, its well hidden...

 

[SoulRaven]

Please check codes in an area before purchasing land and just don't ask the realtor about what the land can be used for. I have seen people have major problems in this area. We thought in AZ desert, we would be able to do some sort of alternative housing. The limits were very strict and what they would allow, very costly. What was so ridiculous was what we had in mind would have looked so much better than what surrounded the land we looked at. Some allow an RV on the property for up to a year while a house is being completed that conforms to the housing code. There are places that allow just anything but you need to seek them out before purchasing. Also, over time, many of these places that allow you to use your land as you want make changes. I have had LONG discussions with county personnel in more than one state about this - lots of them versus me means I lost.

 

[eDJ_]

I was just watching the Today Show and Savannah Guthrie was reporting that Home Rental has surpassed
Home Ownership with the 70 and up age group.  Home Rental has been on the increase since 2013 in the
Great Recession and "Investors" are snapping up all the property they can leverage in order to rent it.

This is leading to a upward rise in rental rates where people pay more in rent than they would normally for
a mortgage payment.   The primary problem is the available homes have rising price tags that put them
beyond potential buyers reach.   This isn't only in the USA as it seems to be happening in Canada and the UK
as well. 

What I see happening where I live is out of state investors buying up property to rent.  They fix it up just
enough to be able to rent it and then try to "Sell" it on "Land Contract".   A substantial down payment is
required and then the interest rate that is offered is a fraction below prevailing interest rates.   The trick is that
if one monthly payment is missed,  the agreement goes into default and the Seller keeps the down payment
such that that would be escrowed over the months that the "Buyer" was on the premises.   So if one put down $20K on a $100,000 dollar home and was on the premises for two years 24 payments and defaulted or a 20 year agreement where they had agreed to pay $700 a month,  (where they had paid $16,800 the $20K that was kept would have made those monthly payments equal to $1,533.  You would have probably have had better odds in Las Vegas. )

It looks like we may be seeing a lot more Full Timers on the road.  So will this become an opportunity for some to build and develop private campgrounds outside of City Limits ?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/24/b...-paying-more-as-homeownership-falls.html?_r=0 

http://blog.credit.com/2015/08/leasing-the-american-dream-why-home-rentals-are-exploding-122484/

 

[Canine]

Paying rent or a mortgage at 70 years old would be extremely tough on most folks.I would advise getting your ducks in a row long before you get old.There are places you can buy land cheap.The last 5 acres I bought was $500 an acre.There are no codes for anything if you own 5 acres or more.The reason we bought here is because we like a little bit of the 4 seasons between travels.Best to buy land sooner,rather than later.It is going to be harder to find and more expensive later on.

 

[buckwilk]

I don't agree that because you are getting older you have to consider buying a piece of property for whatever reason. It seems to me that is an ingrained thought process like get an education, get a job, get married, have kids and give your life to the dream. How is it that the ideals rejected at one age have to be embraced when older. I understand people living in sticks and bricks may not be able to make the transition away from that lifestyle and could never imagine growing old in anything but some variation of that existence. Many here ( crvl forum ) don't concur. Whether you own the piece of ground under you when you pass is of no consequence. Never has been, never will be.

 

[mayble]

You can always place a HOME DEPOT shed on your property. Then build it out. Watched a YouTube video where someone did that yesterday. Came out nice and affordable.

Ironically, this was exactly my plan for a minute.  Then I thought "Why not buy a small motorhome or travel trailer first, for less $, and see how I like it before investing in property?"  
That led me to researching RVs, which led me back to my prior dreams of living a nomadic life after retirement, which led me to google "frugal rv living", which led me here.
And here we are talking about tiny houses

 

[Canine]

Buck,all the things that you mentioned are choices.Getting old and broken down isn't.The time will come when we don't want to get out of bed,let alone get out of town.Anyway,good luck with your non-plan.

 

[dhawktx]

Bob, lots of folks think their ducks ARE in a row but life intervenes...

 

[buckwilk]

Buck,all the things that you mentioned are choices.Getting old and broken down isn't.The time will come when we don't want to get out of bed,let alone get out of town.Anyway,good luck with your non-plan.

Non plan, you know nothing about my plan, I assure you it doesn't include buying S & B. Millions of people pass every year without owning a piece of property. I know for those of you who have never made the leap from owning and living in a house it is hard to fathom anything else. Now Bob, if you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans----W. O.

 

[Canine]

First,show me a god.

 

[Sabatical]

It takes all kinds to make the world go 'round and we're each entitled to our own oppinion. Diversity is what makes this forum such a great place.

 

[Canine]

That is true.

 

[akrvbob]

I think you all know my old age plan for a tiny house, a buried school bus in the desert.
Bob

 

[NomadMike]

I just hope to die in dignity, standing on my feet! Hopefully not in a rest home bed, with some stranger wiping my Axx! The best laid plans are never a sure thing, nothing in life is sure. Just live it to it's fullest!