Woman content living in 84-sq. ft. dream home

[Joanne98]

http://www.katu.com/news/local/8499817.html
By John Sharify
Video OLYMPIA -- Talk about down-sizing! One woman is living in a house that you really have to see to believe.

"It's 84 square feet, so roughly the size of a parking spot. Actually, smaller than a parking spot," says Dee Williams, who decided it was time to move. She was living in a 1,500-square foot home in Portland, but decided the house wasn't small enough - yes, small enough!

Dee built the tiny cabin herself out of salvaged material. She picked the door out of a dumpster and retrieved the floors from a house fire. Dee's new tiny home sits in her friend's backyard.

"In exchange, I do work on their house," she says.

It takes Dee five steps, sometimes four, to get from one end of her house to the other.

"Two steps through the kitchen and you're in my living room. Two steps into the living room, you bang into the wall," Dee says, laughing.

Two solar panels provide electricity. A tiny propane tank allows Dee to cook in her $10,000 home on wheels. Do her friends think the 44-year-old hazardous waste inspector is crazy?

"My friends definitely thought, well, they had some questions for me!" she says.

The obvious question: Why?

The simple answer:

"A simpler life, time, more money. I don't have a mortgage. I don't have a big utility bill," Dee says.

Her monthly heating bill in the winter is $6, less in the summer.

"I'm able to offer money to my family if they need it, (and to) my friends if they need it," says Dee.

To get to her bedroom, she walks up a step ladder to her loft.

"Every night I look at the stars and watch it rain over and over again. So this is it. Not much to it," says Dee.

And that's the point. Not much to it. Simple. Small. A dream house tinier than a parking spot.

"Right now there's nowhere else I want to be!"
http://www.katu.com/news/local/8499817.html

Very cool!

[Redstone]

1. Her heating bill is less in the sumer than it is in the winter? No shit, really?

THERE's an intrepid reporter, bringing us that kind of startling insight.

Redstone

[mzmolly]

2. Be sure to catch the video. It's a great little place

for a cabin. Kidding.

I admire her for taking the initiative.

[MADem]

3. About the size of a parking space. On wheels. Sounds like a homemeade TRAILER to me. NT

[tridim]

4. Very very cool!

I know my house is about 3x too big for me. Unfortunately I can't sell it because of the housing bubble.

We had projects like this in Architecture school. They were very challenging and fun.

[AndyTiedye]

6. You Can Turn off the Heat (and A/C if you have it) in Unused Rooms

[tridim]

7. I only use one floor.

It's a long, skinny, 2 story/full basement townhouse. I probably use about 400sf and certainly only heat what I need. I'd rather have a garage and a yard than these extra two floors.

[mr_hat]

5. Luxury. When I were a lad...

we used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING!