http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2010-11-14-smaller-homes_N.htm
Obviously, smaller is greener also.....
Obviously, smaller is greener also.....
BeGreen said:Nice, folks are starting to wake up to the fact that you have to heat and maintain these places. Hopefully this trend will continue. Cathedral ceilings next.
Smaller is also Greener '''''''''''Webmaster said:http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2010-11-14-smaller-homes_N.htm
Obviously, smaller is greener also.....
btuser said:I want a 500 sqft house and a 3000 sqft garage.
jebatty said:Last weekend talked to our 3 adult children with families, all starting to look for larger houses, and suggested to them we seek a small house "compound" for them plus Mom and Dad, with shared large family and kitchen spaces, shared equipment, shared vehicles, etc. While I can't say they all were gung-ho, none laughed at me and all were open to talk more about it.
EatenByLimestone said:BeGreen said:Nice, folks are starting to wake up to the fact that you have to heat and maintain these places. Hopefully this trend will continue. Cathedral ceilings next.
High ceilings drive me crazy. There is a big craze in the ADK park for chateau type houses with big, high 2.5 story ceilings. I want to see their faces when they come up to a cold chateau and try to heat it in a reasonable amount of time.
Matt
benjamin said:I'm all for appropriate sized houses and energy efficient construction, but I wonder how far this movement is going to get before the disadvantages come out.
"Backyard wind turbines" for starters. How long till the "hip downtown feel" starts feeling like skid row and neighbors from heck. Small, cozy, overfinished, quaint "pukey" homes, that are more expensive to build and maintain than the base model mcmansion.
Susanka built a career off the mistakes of two story fow-yeahs and toilet to a-hole ratios over 2 to 1, but her simplistic, architect centric style is the same shallow cookie cutter consumerism as any taupe suburb out there.
If you think a mcmansion depreciates fast in this economy, how do you think think half the square footage with a custom window seat and the same price is going to hold up? Energy efficiency is a cheap label to add to an overpriced papered over pile of sticks.
I love looking at the dark wood rec rooms and shag carpet houses that have been preserved in all of their glory, they'll be classics soon. It will take a little longer for bamboo and stainless to come back. I'm afraid some of the cuteness we're seeing these days will curse it's owners for decades.
jharkin said:The "a large house can be efficient if built right" argument is ignoring the fact that a larger house takes more energy and raw materials to construct in the first place.
Unused space is still unused space, no matter how efficient it is to heat.
========daveswoodhauler said:Its funny....we have a fam of 5 and live in 1800/ft
All our friends have much larger homes, and since we bought them all at the same time for a while I was jealous that we didn't have a bigger home.
Over time, everytime we would go to a friends house, they always had a "room" that was never used....you know the one with the nice furniture that the kids weren't allowed in
Went to another friends house that is like 3500 ft, and they hate their big family room as its too costly to heat.
I have learned to love my little home.
If you have the money for a large home and thats what you want go for it. Whats the difference if you have a small house and then spend your extra money on cruises and travel,motorhomes,second homes,vacation homes, ect ect and other energy intensive endeavors anyway. Or if you have a large home and stay home and enjoy it.jharkin said:The "a large house can be efficient if built right" argument is ignoring the fact that a larger house takes more energy and raw materials to construct in the first place.
Unused space is still unused space, no matter how efficient it is to heat.
We use essential cookies to make this site work, and optional cookies to enhance your experience.