patrick.net

Et tu, Patrick?

Don't worry -- I don't suspect Patrick's got his heart set on living in a sock drawer without any plumbing.

You may now explain how the couple afforded the land in this picture, near Boulder, CO...one of the most expensive markets in the US.

Also tell me if they are building water, sewer and electricity hookups, and what their neighbors think and if they are meeting all code requirements for the county.

I bet that house survives their relationship, and ends being used a ticket booth for a traveling carnival. Long after they broke up and considers each other the "2nd" biggest mistake they ever made in their life.
The first was believing that could achieve marital bliss confined to each other with in 124 sqft of living space.

Miraculously "Tiny houses" have been around for a long time. They're called "Campers".

edvard2, I'll try to set up a framework for discussion. In the hierarchy of "house on wheels" you have:
1. Camper (lowest rung)
2. Manufactured home (aka mobile home). Their construction must meet federal HUD standards.
3. Tiny House. Admittedly, where the tiny house falls in this hierarchy depends a lot on the care that went into it's construction. In theory, it's built to higher standards than 1. or 2. (insulation, finishes, etc).

The mobility matrix for these types of dwellings might look something like this:
1. Camper (most mobile)
2. Tiny House (built to be moved around to semi-permanent sites)
2. Manufactured home. Built to be taken to a site and then left there.

From what I've seen these are little more than the Garden sheds you buy at a big box home improvement store and then "doctor it up" with plumbing, interior finishes, and electricity. Why people make such a big deal out of these is a mystery to me.

As far as campers, well their construction quality is just as diverse as different car manufactures: An Airstream trailer is built to last a lifetime, is very well-made, and hence more costly. Any number of your run-of-the mill campers made of thin plywood and plastic outside sheet siding are good for maybe 10 years or so before they disintegrate.

There is also a lot of distinction between the different types of manufactured homes. Some of the pre-fabricated homes are hardly any different than their built on-site cousins: The houses are made in a factory, the walls and pieces then trucked in and put together on the job site. Others- known as trailer homes- are made out of nearly impossible to repair or refurbish materials and so they start to lose value like a car the minute they're bought.

Back when I did flooring, and South Florida was winter destination for Canadians.
I saw many mobile homes, where they ripped out the wall paneling, inserted metal studs, then sheet rock over the walls and ceiling. Even saw some that had concrete tile backing board laid down over the floor then floated out as smooth as a babies bottom.
Now for these Canadians, they were definitely the exception and not the norm, most of their handy work I witnessed gave them the King of the Gerryrig status.
These mobile homes felt like any block or wood structure, even if it felt more cramped as each dimension lost about 4 inches. The walls were 8 inches closer and the floor to the ceiling was 8 inches closer.