small dwellings fill a niche

[Liberal_in_LA]

Small dwellings fill a niche

New York-style mini-apartments are catching on among renters who couldn't otherwise afford to live in choice neighborhoods.

Timm Freeman's Santa Monica apartment has 17-foot ceilings, granite countertops and collector guitars hanging on the wall. He's got a built-in microwave, dishwasher and central air conditioning.

All in 350 square feet.

Freeman's coffee table is also his dining table. His desk is three steps from his sitting room. And three paces from his stove.

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Southern California, meet the Manhattan-sized mini-apartment. In a region known for its sprawl, diminutive dwellings are finding a toehold among renters who couldn't otherwise afford to live in choice neighborhoods.

Freeman's apartment may be smaller than many suburban master bedrooms, but rents in his Olympic Studios complex are comparatively small too — $1,110 a month at the low end — and the beach is just a mile away.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-small-living-20100529,0,6386827.story

[Cleita]

1. $1,110 a month for a closet?

I'm glad I don't live in Santa Monica anymore. My two bedroom a mile from the beach was $350 a month.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. $350 wouldn't get you a garage these days

[MineralMan]

2. I believe we will see more of this,

and that's a very good thing. Most of use live in far more space than we need. That just leads to the accumulation of stuff. Living in a very small space means that whatever you possess is important to you. A very good thing, in my opinion.

[Cleita]

4. I don't object to the size. I live in a trailer today. It's the price for so

little space that I object to.

[Dappleganger]

5. Millions of people live like this in many major cities.

Tokyo, Bejing, Taipei, Singapore, etc. We Americans have lived too large for too long and need to reduce our living impact, period.

BTW, we do live in a smaller house for our area (2300 sf. for a large family of 6) and manage just fine (but I wish we could re-do our kitchen to fit everyone into it). I sincerely hope that the pattern of building McMansions is OVER.

[Cleita]

6. I always hated that trend of the McMansions. We have too many in our area still.

I prefer small homes with large yards, so you can plant a lot of stuff to help you towards being more self-sufficient and less dependent on big box stores as well as spend a lot of your living time outdoors when weather permits.

[sandnsea]

7. 2300 sq ft is a near McMansion in my book

Just about everyone I know grew up in a 1,000 sq ft suburban ranch home, with 5-6 per family and sometimes more. I don't care how big your house is, just don't kid yourself that there's any real excuse for the size. It's big.

[DesertFlower]

11. when my parents bought a house (1953) , it only

had 2 bedrooms and 1 bath. it was very small. my sisters and i shared 1 small bedroom. it was a helluva a lot better than the railroad room apartment we lived in before that.

my mom and her 6 siblings and mom and dad lived in a 6 railroad room apartment. they shared beds.

[Dappleganger]

29. That sounds like what I grew up in.

With my sister and I we shared a room (bunkbeds), we all shared a bathroom. No family room there, just one small living room and no tv. The kitchen was closed off w/a door and we had to keep it squeaky clean (my mother was a neat-freak, which is probably why I'm the opposite LOL).

We did move to a larger home when we were in high school and each got our own tiny bedroom. They added on a large family room after we left the house (of course). It was still a small home but the extra room really opened it up. That's the house we are about to put on the market in VA Beach.

My momma's daddy was a sharecropper and the youngest of 12--you don't even want to know the living conditions she grew up in in Mississippi. :(

[DesertFlower]

31. my parents divorced when i was 15. my mom

moved my 2 sisters into her bedroom so i could have a room to myself. they were ages 2 and 8. actually i think it was to make them feel more secure with our dad gone.

[proudohioan]

19. Thank you!

And I was beginning to think that I was the only one who felt that way!

[SheilaT]

8. One problem with the homes we call

McMansions is that many of them are very poorly designed. All that open, open, open space means there's no separation of the kind you need. Such as if someone wants to watch TV somewhere in that open space, everyone else has to hear it also.

And a room with a 17 foot ceiling is just calling out to be sub-divided vertically. Or would that be horizontally? I can't quite figure out which word is correct here.

[DesertFlower]

12. you're right. i hate those open floorplans.

most homes are open from the kitchen to the family room. if there was a wall you'd have more cabinet space in the kitchen and family room. our ceilings are vaulted. the highest point is 13 feet.

i would think it would be hard to heat and cool a place with 17 foot ceilings.

[proudohioan]

22. Not to mention the heating/cooling costs...

Or even the pain in the ass when you need to re-paint or wash windows!

Call me weird, but I like having private spaces, where all of your guests don't see what a huge slob you are in the kitchen, and no one else has to hear your TV choices (like you pointed out)!

Color me too practical to live in one of those things!

[Dappleganger]

28. Honey, we let it ALL hang out LOL!

I'm a bit of a mess but the girls do a decent job in cleaning up after me. That's one nice thing about still having kids at home. Their momma's a very messy cook, unfortunately!

[proudohioan]

30. I'll trade you your girls

for my teenaged boys. The don't do a very good job of cleaning up. In fact, they are bigger slobs than I in the kitchen....

:)

[Dappleganger]

27. You're exactly right about that.

We have those very high ceilings, a great room open to the kitchen, dinette and dining room (being used as an office now). A lot of people with tiny homes also have a basement which we no longer have (we lived in a 1050 sf house with a basement before moving down here in 2001, and I swear we had more room and privacy to 'go places' than we do here).

The only thing we do have which make sense is three 'wings' of bedrooms: the boys have their sections w/a bathroom (two small bedrooms), the girls have their section with a bathroom (another two small bedrooms) and then dh and I have our section w/a bathroom. The best thing about this house is we have our own bathrooms. :)

[proudohioan]

18. Oh you and me both, Dappleganger!

As far as the 'Mc Mansion' trend!

I look at the excesses that folks seemed to be absolutely ENTITLED TO over the last 10 years, and it just disgusts me! I occasionally watch HGTV, and couples with no kids INSISTING on at least 5 bedrooms and 3 and 1/2 baths and an outdoor kitchen for Christ's sake! And I think to myself," Is this the reason that the economy is jobless, and so am I? Is this the reason that my boyfriend can't get a loan for a $65,000 house? Because of this kind of unbridled greed?"

It boggles the mind.

And yes, folks in other countries can and DO live in much smaller living quarters. And find happiness and contentment regardless of the fact that they don't have a minimum of 1000 sq ft per person!

Oh, and BTW, PLEASE humor me and tell me that your ideal kitchen re-model does NOT include granite counter tops, travertine marble flooring and stainless steel appliances! Lie to me if you must, just restore my faith in sane humanity!



:hi:

[Dappleganger]

26. Oh, do NOT get me started on those damn granite countertops!!!

When we were looking to possibly sell and move, a realtor 'friend' told us that in order to compete with the other homes on the market that NOBODY would be a home w/out granite countertops. My husband said 'BUNK!' I just rolled my eyes, but you know there's no way I'm gonna waste that kind of money on a house that not even worth $240K right now (a hundred thousand less that what it was worth in 2008). Our cabinets are the laminated kind and it is all peeling off. But it all works, LOL!

We've got the same, exact peeling green formica countertops that went on when the house was built in 1998. The floors have exact same regular old tile from the original, the only thing we did was rip out all the carpets and put in laminates (dh did that himself) because of the dogs and allergies to dust mites (which was done over time). We are painting for the 2nd time we've been here (that's cheap), and dh built a couple of closets in our bedroom due to lack of storage--otherwise, no improvements!

Our kitchen is so small we bump butts when there is more than two people in there. The dinette is so small only 4 can eat in there at once, so we set up a table outside the back door for nice days for everyone to eat at. The dining is now being used as an office/living room since our oldest son needed the old office for a bedroom. We do have a very nice sized family room, however so that's a plus.

Don't get me started on those HGTV shows! I quit watching them almost two years ago because all it did was make me want things we could never have. It's amazing how those shows insist on poor people who really need the money to move spend money they don't have, too. Ugh.

[DesertFlower]

9. i don't know how many sq. ft. our apartment

in queens, new york was. it was a 2 bedroom, 1-1/2 bath, eat in kitchen, large foyer, large living room and bedroom. the other bedroom was small and had a balcony.

when we moved to phoenix our house was almost 2400 sq. ft., 4 bedrooms, loft, 3 bathrooms on a half acre lot with pool and spa. when i finished cleaning the 3rd bathroom i said to myself "self -- you needed a house with 9 rooms and 3 bathrooms? we had a living room and family room and we made we bedroom a den with a small sofa, chair and area for the computer and tv. when my friends came to visit (they lived in new york city) a studio apartment -- very small -- couldn't even fit a full size refrigerator, my friend said to me "you have 3 living rooms".

7 years ago we built our dream home -- 2700 sq. ft. living room, dining, kitchen, 4 bedrooms plus office and 3 baths. it's just 2 of us, but it works well. we have separate bedrooms due to hubby's sleep apnea and now instead of a living room and family room, we have an exercise room. we're on 2-1/2 acres -- most of it desert and hillside.

the house is not big by phoenix standards. many of the homes have over 3,000 sq. ft. some as much as 4700 sq. ft. i always wonder how much their utility bills run and how many days it takes them to clean it.

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. the problem with all that extra space - it still needs cleaning even if not used much

I feel for you about cleaning that extra bathroom.

[DesertFlower]

17. lol. the living room was useless. we

never sat in it. the loft was useless too.

the house we live in now was designed by me. every room gets used.

[CrispyQ]

15. A previous boss of mine lived in a house that was just over 10,000 square feet.

Her summer utility bill was just under $900. ~gasp!

[DesertFlower]

20. OMG. last year our july electric bill

was $360. it was a very hot month. it's not bad considering everything is electric including the well and septic system.

our last house had a water bill of about $150 a month and the water tasted lousy.

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. waste of money..IMHO

[CrispyQ]

23. This is a woman who spent $800 on a single piece of luggage

& $1000 on a wool blazer. :eyes:

[Liberal_in_LA]

24. omg n/t

[eShirl]

10. I love it - it forces you not to accumulate "stuff"

(as in George Carlin's "a place for my stuff")

[CrispyQ]

14. Check out this incredibly creative Hong Kong architect's small space!

24 rooms in one! Fascinating!

http://www.smartplanet.com/technology/blog/science-scope/gary-changs-small-apartment-becomes-24-rooms-video/1399/

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. amazing

[Melissa G]

25. Love it! n/t