What comes to mind when you hear “tiny houses”?
A few years ago we went to an Orlando Home & Garden show and this was the first time I was introduced to the concept of a tiny home. Before this; I thought they were a 1 or 2 bedroom home that is under 1,000 sq ft. A cottage. A bungalow. Something small. Now I know what they mean by Tiny. A home that is somewhere between 140 SqFt and 720 SqFt. More than just a small house; they are tiny.
Here in Brevard County; there aren’t any tiny home communities YET. There is one that is in the works near city hall in Rockledge. They even have a facebook page The Rockledge Tiny House Community that has almost 6,000 members! A tract of land had been found and they were working with the owner and the city to make this a reality. Unfortunately, it is 2017 and they are still trying to make this community a reality. The owner of the land had passed away. They are now dealing with the estate. There are things that still need to be worked out. The link below will take you to their Facebook page about section with all of the details they are working through. Kudos to Rene’ Hardy and Kenny Lohr and all of the work they have done to get to this point. Hopefully it can be a reality some day. The link below will take you to the pinned information on their facebook group so you can learn more about their journey here in Brevard County.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/909633985742545?view=permalink&id=1031513750221234
Since there is a possibility of having a Tiny House Community here in Brevard; I thought it made a lot of sense to go the the Tiny Home festival that was happening outside of St Augustine and learn a little more about this concept. It was going to be a fun road trip because this festival was also a dog friendly event. We got to bring the “kids”.
This was the second annual event at the St Johns fairgrounds & the weather was ideal. Light breeze, sunny and about 80 degrees. There was a variety of tiny houses, vintage RV’s and a section of converted school buses. There was a mix of full time owner occupied, temporary living and builders/developers showing off what they had to offer.
The one converted school bus owner I spoke with travels the state with his dog. He is an online teacher and really only needs to have access to the internet to work. The beauty of his story was he sold his home in September and became a full time resident just a couple of weeks before. His journey is really just beginning.
The vintage trailers on display were like taking a step back in time. Olive green highlights. Crank style windows. Our favorite had bold colors throughout and was decorated with vintage luggage.
We finally make it over to the tiny house section and something neither of us really realized was the tiny homes are actually built on a trailer platform. They had water hookups, sewer hookups and electric hook ups similar to an RV. They were towed from town to town by their pick up trucks. I never really paid attention to the fact they still had wheels when looking at any videos or pictures online. I presumed the ones at the shows were on the trailer to get them from each festival. I also presumed the ones people were living in year round were on a concrete slab. They had a meter for electric. They had running water. They had a sewer line or would be on septic.
This explains why they are Tiny. They need to fit on the roadway to get them from town to town. A trailer platform makes perfect sense for this. The homes themselves had a lot of similarities, the tongue of the trailer was the back of the home and the back of the trailer was the front porch.
The super tiny homes were more like efficiencies. They were labeled “gypsy homes” and were being marketed towards short term rentals. Most were only the sleeping quarters that had the kitchen built on the outside of the home that can be covered or enclosed when not in use or traveling. One of these gyspsy homes was set up to be a mini mobile store.
The ones that were set up with a kitchen and bathroom usually contained a loft. You came in the front door into the living room/dining area. The kitchen was next and the bathroom was on the back end. There was a loft set up above the kitchen and bath that was the bedroom. There was either a removable ladder like you would see in a library or there were stairs built on one of the side walls that were actually stacked cabinets (you have to be smart with your storage space when you have limited space)
So what do you think? Can you see yourself purging a lot of your “stuff” and going Tiny? I personally could see using one for a vacation; maybe an AirBnB…I don’t think I am ready to for a 7/24/365 tiny home experience just yet.
I have more photos on my Facebook Page The Tiny Houses Photo Album
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