It was through AirBnB that I discovered the so-called tiny house movement after someone in Seattle listed his hand-built gyspy wagon was available for rent in his backyard for just $40 a night.
Tiny houses are usually under 200 square feet in size, but generally have all the amenities of a home — kitchens, baths, bedrooms, etc. — just less of them. An enterprising person can buy a 20-foot trailer from a local big box store and build a house on it for $30,000 or less. There’s actually nothing illegal about such buildings, or even parking them in your driveway, because they’re considered a temporary structure. They only run afoul of local zoning laws when they’re declared as your legal residence.
Still they’re proliferating across the country as people opt to not burden themselves with a mortgage and reject the trend toward building McMansions with all the attendant resource waste they represent. Tiny houses also offer a low-cost housing solution that’s allowing several Oregon communities to meet the needs of the homeless…
