Tiny And Small Houses Can Be Found All Around Europe

The tiny house movement is making its way around the world, and tiny houses in Europe has started to make its mark. The recent housing bubble burst and the desire to go “green”, are among the reasons European home buyers are looking to go small.

As this type of housing is just starting to become popular in Europe, there aren’t a lot of companies building them. I’ve only found two sources so far:

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The homes built in Europe are already much smaller than those built in countries like Australia and the US. How much smaller can they get? With the average size house being built in the UK at about 15.8 square meters, or 30 square meters in France, it seems that Europeans have already gone small. But there are other areas of Europe that are just now beginning to embrace the tiny lifestyle.

Economic Downturn

As with the US, many parts of Europe have recently been facing an economic downturn that has caused issues in the housing market. European homes prices were had increased substantially before the economic crisis, and then dropped more after the housing bubble burst than they did in the US. Many people can’t find housing, or can’t afford the housing that is available. Many of those people are looking to other alternatives.

For some, they have started to look towards very small houses; hence Tiny Houses Europe becomes more and more popular. They have found that these smaller homes have a much smaller price tag and can give them everything they need.

Designing with Tiny in Mind

Depending on what you need from your tiny home, the design of your house will be critical. Using every inch of space becomes more important the lower the square footage in your home.

You could have your little house plans designed by an architect who specializes in smaller spaces. They will be able to recommend a great design that will best fit all of your needs using less square footage.

Using design ideas like lofts, drop down tables and toilet/shower combos are great ways to get the most out of your small space.

The furniture used inside a tiny home is as important as the design of the home itself. Using furniture that can serve multiple purposes, like a pull out bed will be ideal in the design of the inside of your home.

Uses for Tiny Homes

Also referred to as a “micro home”, these small homes can serve many functions. Not everyone can live the tiny life on a full-time basis. They work well when placed in the back yard as a guest house or even a separate space for a student still living at home but desiring their own home to call their own. They also are ideal for an elderly parent who you want living close by that still prefers a private living quarters.

These smaller, less costly homes are ideal if you often travel to a specific location for work. One of these small homes will save you money over the cost of hotel or apartment rental during your short but frequent visits. Or for those who need a weekend getaway, you could build one in the country and use it as a vacation home.

Whether you want to hire someone to build your tiny house or build one yourself, you can be sure to get just want you want out of your design. You can build your house from the ground up, or you can buy kits that allow you to put the pieces together.

Green Houses

A popular trend these days, whether building a house big or small, is building environmentally friendly houses. Using recycled materials, solar panels, compost toilets among many other “green” options is a great way to minimize your ecological footprint.

Benefits of Living Small

Most people that move into a smaller home do so to free themselves from the much larger mortgage payment that comes with owning a bigger home. Some are even able to pay cash so there is no mortgage to weigh you down. Sometimes you can find a previously lived in tiny home for $10,000 or less. When it comes to building one yourself, you will find that many can be built new for under $20,000.

Whether you choose to build your home “green” or not, your small home will leave a smaller ecological footprint simply because it is smaller. The reason being is that there will be less energy needed and fewer materials needed to build the home.

Less square footage means less cleaning. For example, less floor space means that you would use less time and energy to mop and vacuum.

Limited space to store items will mean you will end up with fewer things in your home. You will have no choice but to keep your tiny space free from clutter if you want room to sit down and room to get around.

Maintenance costs for a house with less square footage will naturally cost much less than a house with more square footage. Your tiny residence will use less paint when it needs to be refreshed and less carpet or flooring when it requires replacement. Fewer supplies will mean less money, more savings, and more for you to do what you really prefer.

Energy costs will be considerably less for a smaller home.  You will find they are cut drastically when you cut the size of your home in half or more.  This is a huge benefit of living tiny.

Due to the housing crisis that has recently impacted parts of Europe, and the desire for many to “go green” or at least go smaller, tiny houses Europe has started to grow in popularity. Europeans are realizing that they can get everything they want from a small house with a small price tag.

Tiny Houses In Canada

Tiny Houses are becoming more and more popular around the world and in Canada. Many people are realizing that a big house isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

What Has Brought Us Here

Tiny houses are gaining popularity all across Canada. With the recent economic downturn, more and more people are trying to avoid being tied down by a home mortgage. Being debt free is much more appealing. For many that is easily achievable without a monthly mortgage payment.

Tiny Canadian Houses

Even though the size of the average family in Canada has decreased over the past 50-60 years, the average size of a Canadian house has increased almost three times. The average house was 800 square feet in 1945 and is now over 2,200 square feet, and generally most of that space is not used on a regular basis.

We are now seeing a shift in the other direction. Many people are realizing that they don’t need all the “stuff” that ends up filling up a bigger house. They can be perfectly happy living in a smaller space that has only what is needed instead of all the extras.

When most people think of a small house, they think of a cabin in the woods or a cottage by the lake. Few people think of these homes as a permanent place of residence; they’re thinking more like a second home used only in the summer or a few other times of year.

More recently, with the financial problems that Canadians are facing, the uncertain job security, and the increasing living expenses – they are looking towards these smaller sized homes as their main living space.

Your Footprint on the Environment

As the environment gets more attention, we begin to look at our . When talking about a house, the ecological footprint is mainly determined by the size and the location of the house.

Size becomes a factor simply because the larger the house, the more materials it takes to build it. Most of those materials are coming from are existing, but not infinite, resources of Earth.

A larger home also uses more energy to keep it warm, to keep it cool, and to keep it well lit.

Location in terms of ecological footprints typically includes the location from sun (meaning using less or more energy to keep the home warm or cool) and the location from where you need to go on a regular basis (gas cost when using the car to and from that place).

How Small Can you go in Canada?

When looking at building a smaller house in Canada, you will need to be aware of existing building codes depending on how tiny you want to go and where you want to live.  Generally, these codes are or would be similar to:

• Living areas within dwelling units, either as separate rooms or in combination with other spaces, shall have an area not less than 13.5m² (145.312 ft²).
• Minimum kitchen – 3.7m² (39.83 ft²).
• Minimum bedroom – 9.8m² (105.49 ft²).
• Minimum dining room – 7 m² (75.35 ft²).
• Space must be made for a toilet and shower and/or bathtub.

DIY Construction of your Tiny Home

Many people dream of building their own home. Of being able to design each room to best fit your needs. Mini houses can make this a reality and with the option of DIY construction not only are you designing your own home, but you can literally build your own home – exactly as you dreamed it.

You would be surprised to find out that you can build your entire home with about 14 tools – tools that you probably already have laying around your house.

You can build your home from scratch or you can buy a prefab kit that will make construction even quicker.

With “green” being such a popular color these days, another draw to a DIY tiny home is the fact that you have the ability to build it using recycled materials. Just be careful when choosing recycled materials. Some may have previously been treated with chemicals and should not be used in building your home.

Tiny Life Downsides

Not everyone is ready for living tiny. Obviously there is not a lot of room inside to do any sort of physical activity or a hobby that takes up a lot of space. A second building may be necessary but the good news is that it would still be less expensive than a larger house.

Storage space will be a minimum. If you are not already, you will need to become a minimalist in order to live small. There is no room for extras. There are many creative and practical storage ideas that can be built into your home.

Benefits of a Tiny House

A huge benefit to living small comes when you are able to free yourself from the expense of a larger home ownership. Many people can only dream of paying cash for their home or having the ability to pay off their mortgage much sooner than they could ever have imagined. The cost of a tiny house can make that a possibility.

The smaller the house, the less ecological footprint we put on the earth. Taking care of our environment is becoming more and more important every year we live on this Earth.

A house that is only a few hundred square feet is much easier to pick up and move if needed. This is especially true if you build yours on wheels, like many do with their tiny home.

Taking care of a house with less square footage doesn’t require the kind of time investment a larger house does. For example, less square footage means less time vacuuming and less mopping. One bathroom versus three takes a third of the time to clean.

Maintaining a small house will cost considerably less than a large home. Whether the exterior needs painting or the interior needs new carpeting, the lower size means the smaller the paint or carpet bill will be.

Energy bills will be considerably less.  In actuality, this cost will be cut drastically when cooling or heating 1,000 square feet or less.

If you are contemplating joining the tiny houses Canada movement, you’ll quickly realize that there are a lot of great benefits to going small. Before making a decision, you should learn more about these places. We’ve already gone over the general information and benefits – you can find more detailed information can be found in the tiny house books. Once you’ve learned all you can, you can effectively weigh the pros and cons and then make an informed decision.

Living In Tiny (Or Small) House In The USA

What are Tiny Houses?

They are houses that are very small in size. Much smaller than the average house in the U.S.

The cost of living is extremely low, maintenance costs are low, and they leave you with more time and money to enjoy life.

Four Tiny House Company Reviews

People are slowly beginning to realize that owning a huge home that will take 30 years to pay off, and that will require maintenance costs even longer than that, is not the way to go. Some people are even finding that you don’t even need to own land to have a place to call home.

How Tiny is Tiny?

Tiny houses are generally less than 300 square feet. Small houses can be classified as 1000 square feet or less.  Some of the houses that are really tiny are placed at a permanent location, whereas others are mounted on trailers so that they can be moved easily whenever the need arises.

The Trend Toward a Smaller Home

The recent housing crisis throughout the USA has caused many people to sit back and think about what they really want out of a home. Many people have lost their home due to the economic downturn and mortgage crisis.

Having a huge house is not the most important thing to a lot of people anymore. What they have come to realize is that is the financial freedom that is found when they no longer have a mortgage payment is much more important.

Build Your Own Home

Tiny house plans are simple enough that most people can build their house by themselves.  You don’t necessarily need to hire a contractor and pay someone to build the home of your dreams. You have choices; you can buy a do-yourself plan and build it yourself, you can buy a prefab small house and have it set on your property, or you can have someone build it for you. Most of these homes only require around 14 tools to build; many of which you may already have.

The prefab kits are meant to be built upon some kind of foundation. That foundation can be a cement slab, a wooden foundation, or a trailer. No matter what you choose as the foundation, your tiny home can be put together quickly and easily. Most prefabs already have finished exteriors and the windows preinstalled, so your house can be built in a matter of days. Your neighbors may be gone for a long weekend and come home to find your house is complete.

Many of the tiny house are built using structural insulated panels (SIP) construction. This type of construction is usually less costly than traditional construction. Insulation is already installed and the pieces are precut to fit the site, which means that there is less job site waste due to precut panels.

Housing you Can Afford

If affordable housing is your goal, you’ll be happy to know that the majority of tiny houses can be built for under $20,000 if you do some or all of the building yourself.

There are many plans from tiny house companies in the USA that you can choose from. Most people don’t even realize that living debt free really can happen at anytime in your life if you rid yourself of huge monthly housing payments.

Go “Green”

People who enjoy doing things “” will be happy to know that many of these homes can be built with recycled materials.

When choosing to use items had been preused, make sure that you know what it was used for. For example, items such as wood pallets are well known these days for being reused for all kinds of things. However, some of them have been treated with chemicals and should not be reused.  You need to be aware of the dangers that could come with previously used materials when planning your diy home.

Overall Downsides of Tiny Living

As with anything, there are a few downsides to living the tiny life. The most obvious is that there is not a lot of room inside. You need to organize and be organized. When building your home, you should incorporate storage space.

Having only the essentials will be important. If you have a hobby or require a place for extra curricular activities, you will need to decide if tiny or small is better for you.

The average American family size is four people. The general consensus is that a growing family would not be happy in a tiny house (although there are exceptions). They are better suited to single people, a couple, or a family of three. Anything larger would need careful consideration.

Overall Benefits of Tiny Living

One of the benefits of living the tiny life is the good that it is doing for the environment.  The average house in the US produces tons of construction waste, and takes almost an entire acre of forest to build. A smaller home uses considerably less.

Freeing yourself from debt, and the monthly expense of a large home ownership are huge benefits of tiny house living. Not only will you have less expense, you will have less stuff. The fact that there just isn’t room in your small home to fit more stuff will stop you from purchasing things that you don’t really need.

Learning how to live creatively in a small space can be fun and rewarding. Add to that the benefit of being self-contained and if it was built to be mobile – being able to move the house wherever you want at any time with little effort.

Maintenance of the house will be much less. Just the task of vacuuming or mopping a floor alone will take a lot less time.

Buying things like flooring and a counter top for a smaller area will mean that any renovation or upgrading costs will be a lot less than they would be in a large house. You can splurge on the nicer wood floor or a marble counter top.

Energy bills will be much less for a smaller home.  It doesn’t take much to heat or cool a home that is less than 1000 square feet.

The housing market trends are leading us into the tiny house movement.  People are realizing that they don’t need a huge house to be happy.  As long as they have a roof over their head and enough space for their family, they can be perfectly content. And most people living in tiny houses are not complaining about the task of making a monthly payment to the bank!

Are you interested in having a better quality of life? Take a look at some of the tiny house books where you can get a good idea of what is involved and the benefits of tiny houses.