Friday, November 3, 2017

Our Adventures at the Tiny House Expo

Tom and Rob at Tiny House Expo
As an architect, Tom has been fascinated with the new fad of "Tiny Houses." So, this past weekend we attended a Tiny House Expo in Maryland. In this blog, we'll take you through the expo and show you what some of the tiny houses looked like. 
Bed in container house
narrow kitchen counter

Counter and heater in container house













ladder to upstairs bed



The bed is in the peak and you climb upstairs to sleep
INTERESTING FACTS
Long line to get in the biggest "tiny house"
* We learned that to be considered a "Tiny House" the structure needs to be 800 square feet or less. Most of the houses were built by wood, but there was one that was built in a shipping container (and that one actually looked better than most of the others in my opinion). 
* They are often heated by propane or have electric wall heaters
* Hooking up running water is your responsibility.
* If you don't like where you live, most of these houses are mobile, so you can drive it to another state! 

One model from the outside
COST:  One of the houses was selling for $55,000. Others were from $40,000 and up... and that's "turnkey" so nothing is needed (except for land and utility hookups). 

OUR THOUGHTS:    1) For that cost, since it doesn't include buying the land, hooking up the water, electric, etc. it could be just as cost effective to buy a row house in Baltimore City!  
2) We couldn't figure out why families with 2 to 4 kids would be going there, when these are built for 1 or 2 people... unless the parents plan to put these in their backyard and put the kids in them to keep 'em out of their house! 

A FRIEND'S OBSERVATION: "Since the house is so small, where do you go when you're mad at each other, and it's winter time?" 

TINY CHAPEL ON WHEELS  Tiny Chapel Weddings offers small, intimate, and affordable weddings to people throughout Richmond, VA, but we learned they also travel. In fact, the man in the chapel said they once took it to Chicago. He said with the chapel, people can get married in any setting they want. Pretty clever idea. 
Tom checking out the tiny house
  From their website: "Tiny Chapel Weddings offers civil and non-denominational ceremonies at a reasonable cost. With several packages to choose from, you are sure to find the right fit for you and your budget. We provide officiant services and if needed, a unique event venue for "tiny" weddings. The best part is, our tiny chapel is mobile."  Their website:  http://tinychapelweddings.com/

SOLD OUT - There were so many people attending that there were literally lines of between 50 to 100 people to get into each house!
Closet and Bathroom














 

Who I am

I'm a simple guy who enjoys the simple things in life, especially our dogs. I volunteer for dog rescues, enjoy exercising, blogging, politics, helping friends and neighbors, participating in ghost investigations, coffee, weather, superheroes, comic books, mystery novels, traveling, 70s and 80s music, classic country music,writing books on ghosts and spirits, cooking simply and keeping in shape. You'll find tidbits of all of these things on this blog and more. EMAIL me at Rgutro@gmail.com - Rob

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