tiny houses getting big

The idea of the tiny house is catching on.  The homes as well as the trend itself are getting to be not-so-tiny.  There are a few shows on TV about people building their ideal tiny home.  Floyd saw something in the paper today about a website devoted to organizing and marketing tiny house plans called Tiny House Plans.  I found another called Tiny House Basics.  Pretty interesting if you ask me.

The face of neighbourhoods will change if this catches on more than it has.  Imagine a housing area where people just hook up their houses and drive them away.  If you don’t like the neighbourhood, move.  Suppose you move your house into a neighbourhood thinking the dynamics of your area will be a certain way – but within a few months it could change dramatically.

• Will there be communes of people who govern if you can move your house in?
• Will it be like a mobile home park where you have to apply to a board or association to move in?
• Will tiny lots be for sale?  For rent or lease?
• Will people have fences?  Street lights?  Sidewalks?  Or will it be more organic like a campground with individual campsites?
• Will each neighbourhood have grey or black water dumpsites like RV parks?
• Will something like KOA start up tiny house areas called THOA?
• Will mobile home parks, like Parkbridge Estates, Bridge Villa Estates, Parkview Estates, or or Westside Trailer Court accept tiny homes?  (These are all in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.)
• Should they have wheelchair access and comply to accessibility laws?  What about the concept of Universal Design?
• Will Alberta Building Code eventually get into it?  (Or whatever province, state, or country you’re in.)
• Should there be electrical, natural gas, water, and sewer hookups?
• Can you phone up Shaw to get a coaxial line into your house for TV & internet?  Will Telus lay some phone lines for you?
• Will you pay land tax?  Isn’t that what the tiny house movement is fighting against?  Or will gentrification happen happen to this movement?
• Is this a green movement, or does the lack of building code for these houses allow them to leak heat?
• Can this solve some of the issues with homelessness?
• Can a person have registration or insurance on a trailer without owning a tow vehicle?
• Will hippies take over the world?

These are all questions that might want to be talked about.  Like, where are all these tiny home people putting their newly-acquired tiny homes?

This is what the website of the City of Lethbridge says about tiny homes.  It states:

• “A tiny home on a permanent foundation is considered a single detached dwelling,” and
• “A tiny home on a chassis and placed on a temporary foundation with connections to utlity services is considered a manufactured home.” (Funny that they misspelled “utility”.)