wow...what a terrific thread!
I'm a 'small house' veteran...I lived for three years in a ~510 s.f. rental house after I moved from the 3-floor city Victorian I'd spent 13 years renovating (long story, looong story.) Whenever I miss that Victorian, I pull out my copy of 'The Money Pit' and remind myself why I sold it.
When I moved, I found a tiny house in an area that had been home to a lot of factory workers. There were three other 'tiny houses' on my street, by mine was smallest by about 150 s.f. It was a true stick-built frame house, not a shotgun--the doorways were all offset. It may have been prefab or similar to the Sears kit houses from the late 30s; in any case they had all been built about the same time (late 30s), and were all on slabs. Mine was on a double lot, which made the lawn seem huge (and which was perfect for a single woman with three dogs.) I had a paved driveway that had space for three cars...almost as big a footprint as the slab for the house!
Near as I could tell, the original house had been closer to 250 s.f. before it was renovated by the owner before to the guy who was renting it to me. It had been completely redone inside and out with energy-smart and hypoallergenic materials--all electric, with baseboard heat independently controlled by thermostats in each room, an electric hot water heater, parquet floors in the front and back rooms and ceramic tile in the center kitchen/utility closet/bathroom area, skylights in the front room, new appliances, french doors to the outside lawn from the back room. One addition to the original house was a four foot deep x 12 foot wide walk-in closet along the back wall of the back room, and the other addition was a peaked roof 15' ceiling front room, with a small 4x6 foot entryway which was placed perpendicular to the main body of the 12' wide by 22' long original house. At least one of the dimensions in each of the three rooms was 12 feet--the back two rooms were 12' wide, and the front room was 12' long (or deep, from the front entry way.)
I could clean the whole house in a half an hour, handle all of the home repairs myself with a simple step laddar...and I DID have family and parties there, especially in the summer when the whole gathering could spill out into the yard. In the winter, the house 'load limit' was 13 people, which was more than enough! It did have a tiny crawl space and there was an 8x10 foot wooden shed in the backyard for extra storage.
I took pictures of the house, in order to get it reassessed for the guy who rented it to me...I will have to try to find them. From the right angle, it looked like one of those backyard sheds you can buy from Home Depot or Lowes. Tried to buy it from him, but he'd overpaid, and refused my offer as 'too low.' I ended up buying a 1000 s.f. townhouse condo instead, but I still miss my miniature house.
Six months after I moved out, we had a huge storm the insurance companies insisted wasn't really a tornado. A tree blew through the house from one end to the other, and I was the only person who knew how to contact the owner, so I was able to get inside and see the damage. The owner ended up defaulting on his mortgage. The home was sold by HUD to another single for about $17,000--I'd have paid the guy twice that, but oh, well. The new owner had to do a lot of interior and structural repair...but come to think about it, probably not more than rebuilding and restoring an older camper.
I still live about two miles from the house, and I've always kept my eye on it... if it ever goes on the market again, I will be one of the people taking another hard look at it.
it's the perfect single person's house, and I loved the yard.
by Gambam » Mon Dec 18, 2006 1:30 pm 
