• Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I actually don’t mind people who want to live in tiny homes. After all, it’s our societal fixation on mcmansions and suburban sprawl for all that has caused us to pass restrictive zoning laws and parking minimums and setback requirements and everything, which have created an artificial scarcity of housing. And it’s this artificial scarcity of housing that investors, speculators, landlords, and old homeowners use to extract ungodly amounts of wealth from the younger and working class. If we abolished those laws, built more housing, and solved the housing crisis, we wouldn’t be feeling nearly so much like peasants, working paycheck to paycheck and under mountains of debt.

    If there’s no housing scarcity, your landlord can’t extract nigh-unlimited amounts of money from you.

    • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I’m a bit of a minimalist and dream of a well designed tiny small home. You can cram all of the bells and whistles of modern living in 800-1100 square feet easily and be comfortable while you’re at it. It only gets tricky when kids come into the picture, id imagine. But I’m dreaming of a tiny small home so I don’t think kids are a reasonable decision financially lol

      • frickineh@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s not really a tiny home, that’s just a slightly smaller house. They have a tiny home show where I live, and the biggest ones are 350-ish sq ft. Most are under 200. I’d love to get really crazy and build one that’s like 400sq ft - when they’re really well designed, that feels massive, but it’s still small enough to clean in like, an hour.

        • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Yeah 1000/1100 is in the “small but normal” territory. 800/900 is fairly small if your household has more than one person though. But well designed I could see 400-500 being pretty cozy. Tbh, with 800 sq ft I’d have like 300 living and sleeping space and the rest for my kitchen and bathroom lol. I don’t have a dream house, I have a dream shower and kitchen

          • Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I currently live in a 550 sq ft 1-br apartment, and it’s actually quite comfortable. Adequately sized kitchen wirh a kitchen island (since I like to cook), bedroom big enough for a queen bed, a not-cramped bathroom, and a living room. Plus pretty decent closet space and in-unit laundry. Tbh, my only wish is that the living room were a bit bigger so I could have a proper sofa and a proper desk for days I work from home. Currently just rocking a desk and an armchair and a TV stand. For a family, I’d definitely want closer to 1000 sq ft.

            • RoquetteQueen@slrpnk.net
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              1 year ago

              I have a family of four in a 1000sq ft house and it’s honestly perfect. Any bigger would be too much work for me.

          • frickineh@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I finally got, if not the dream shower, then a more reasonable version of it, and it really is awesome. That’s a worthwhile goal for sure. My only wish for a kitchen in a smaller space would be to make it open. None of that claustrophobic galley kitchen stuff that’s always in smaller apartments. I don’t love to cook, but I’d at least want somewhere I could without it being miserable.

            • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              Kudos on the shower! I envy you lol. And hard agree on the kitchen. How hard is it to design a kitchen with a reasonable amount of counter space and elbow room??? For fucks sake! I don’t need a huge kitchen either, just room for two people to comfortably work. My current kitchen is “acceptable” but barely. If the revolution doesn’t include reasonable housing built around humans instead of cramming as many people into as little space as possible for profitability I will revolt again

          • Blastasaurus@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            I renovate apartments/condos for a living. The average single person unit here is 620-650sq ft in my experience. 800-900 is waaay above average for a single person.

            We are having a child in 2 weeks and the 3 of us will live in a 650 for a year or two until we buy. It’s going to be cramped.

        • Bo7a@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Ours is basically around 420sqft. It started as a 12x30 amish shed that we insulated and put in power/woodstove/12v water pump(from the creek). But then I added a 10x12 bath and washing room.

          It is pretty comfy for two people.

      • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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        1 year ago

        800-1100

        75 m² is pretty big for any European city. I have lived a very happy single life in a well optimized 24 m² city appartement.

      • Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        If everyone is there because of some shared interest in the project then sure, it might work. But if you ever lived in a building owned by the very people that live there, like it happens all the time in Europe, you know people often act very much against the shared interest.

      • Bo7a@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I started with my tiny home. And hope to gather some like-minded folks to turn it into a commune once I have basic infra to support more than just myself and my wife.

        We are getting there! Maybe next year we will be able to invite one more family/couple/group.

      • frickineh@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I would actually love that. They’re building something that’s sort of in that vein where I live, where each family/individual has their own house of sorts, but there’s a big communal building with a giant kitchen and dining space, library, living room, gardens, etc, instead of trying to pack all of that in each house. Everyone has to commit to contributing somehow, whether it’s lawn maintenance or helping cook communal meals or whatever. Unfortunately, it would make my commute about an hour, so that’s a no go, but it sounds nice.