Little Pink Houses

For my money, the LA Times consistently has the finest little slideshow things - very interesting topics and cute pictures [they also feature cute animals in their paper on a daily basis]. The one for today is particularly good - it is on the subject of tiny houses, featuring photos from the book of the same name. Here we go. The concept of the book is simple - it's all homes that are less than 1000 square feet. The photography is lovely, and even if it seems that many of the designs are too whimsical to actually live in...I'm interested to learn more. I would love to live in a tiny, tiny house like this - mostly because it would be a huge step up space wise from how I'm currently living and it would just be this great space just for me. Also, I won't lie - most of these photos just scream "silence!" [that's silence en francais] and that has obvious appeal to me.

One thing that bugs though [and seriously, there's always something] is that it seems that many of these tiny, tiny houses are impractical. You can't tell me that all of those homes are equipped with full bathrooms [yes, a bathtub is a dealbreaker], washer/dryers [not a dealbreaker for an apartment that is near enough to a laundromat, but for a home it would be] and functioning kitchens. And yet, here I sit in my tiny, tiny apartment and I have all of those things. I've never done a measurement in square feet for this unit, but I'm positive that it's well under 500 square feet. I think it's our smallest apartment [we have lived in four previous apartments to this one]. So, to me it seems a bit elitist to be all "hee hee tiny, tiny houses - look, how quirky!" when it seems to me that so many people [especially city dwellers] live in even smaller dwellings...not out of concern for the environment, but this is what people can afford [and, space is always @ a premium in a big city]. Also, I wish I could see more of the interior of these tiny, tiny houses...but I guess one would have to purchase the book for that [that's how they get you].

On a more positive note - my personal favourites of this collection are photo #2 [i actually like the outdoorsy-ness of this one...even as a gal who does not like to be outdoors too much], the houseboat [i've always liked houseboats, but i get dreadfully seasick just looking @ open water], the Nomad Home [you can definitely learn more about this one online - they have a website, it's not in english, but you can see videos and photos], the Lucky Drops narrow underground house [solves my problem of liking light, but not direct sun...and I bet it's quiet], the M-House [looks like the future] and the Box House [it really does look like a "real house"]. *sigh* Wouldn't it be great to be able to build your own home? Unfortunately a degree in fine art [and architecture] and Joseph's one-year study of architecture don't qualify us to do this in a satisfactory manner. I think it would be quite something if people did reimagine the way we think about housing...knocking down the plague of McMansions would be a start...but, living smaller and simpler. It's just so appealing to me.