
Show HN: Live Simple – Tiny homes - brendan_rempel
https://www.livesimple.io
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nailer
Living a spartan existence is like travelling: it's a great way to broaden
your mind and you really should do it when you're young and have few
commitments.

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codingdave
It works when you are older, too, otherwise your worldly possessions, in
particular your home, can become your commitments.

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a8da6b0c91d
This is why I live in a van down by the river.

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an_ko
Really? Tell us more! Why? How big a van? Is having no permanent address
problem-free?

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spking
See:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Foley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Foley)

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beatpanda
As a person who recently had my house evicted from the land it was sitting on,
I encourage you to read your local ordinances carefully, prepare for a legal
fight, and don't talk to any curious reporters.

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bcook
I am indifferent until I see the overcharging, but maybe overpaying is because
of tiny wallet/bank.

Disclaimer: builder

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zer00eyz
Its sort of crazy that this style of living isn't allowed by many local
ordinances. There are tons of folks who could put these up as guest houses or
detached offices and be super happy with them. Hell put one up and stick your
obnoxious teen ager in it.

To your point they do seem pretty expensive. If you were building in your area
what is the price per sq/ft. I understand that it is a terrible metric, but it
is the only one that I can think of.

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jonhohle
My wife and I are kicking around the idea of building one as a detached
office. haven't looked into local laws yet, but it seems like it shouldn't be
regulated as more than a shed (if no one is sleeping in it).

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sixQuarks
The prices seem kinda ridiculous, or is it just me?

~~~
ben_bai
If you just measure in $/sq ft then sure.

It's about the total cost beeing affordable, an running costs beeing as low as
possible.

Also this started out as a DIY movement, but now that professional builders
are involved, prices go up.

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bpicolo
You can live for a loooooong time in a suburb for these costs.

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ilaksh
I think the tiny house movement says something about the economy in the new
era of sustainability.

The classic economy wants to grow infinitely to be happy. But a sustainable
approach means people are now focusing on conservation of resources, leading
to behavior that is the opposite of growth.

The real economy actually wants to shrink, in some cases literally. You see
that with tiny houses. If people could wave a wand and shrink their house to
reduce their cost of living and footprint, they would.

I think the focus on sustainability is great, but we need to adjust our
economic and social structures to accomodate that.

Here is an idea I had related to tiny houses:
[http://runvnc.github.io/tinyvillage/](http://runvnc.github.io/tinyvillage/)

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dragon88
Cool - some of these look like fancy motor homes for a five star road trip
haha.

PS: The first listing is really just an ad for a small home custom builder?
Savvy of him to get oodles of free promo for his business but may want to look
into that?

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pcurve
Is there's a way to hook up muni-sewer? If there's a way to avoid composting
my own poop, this seems like a fun way to live.

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jscottmiller
Anyone have experience living in one of these? Even at 20 grand, sleeping
above a chemical toilet is bound to get old fast.

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Mz
I have no experience living in one, but my understanding is they can be hooked
up to services if you desire. The reason they are on trailers is because the
person who invented the first tiny house (now runs Tumbleweed Tiny House
Company [http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/](http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/))
was looking for a way to get around zoning laws. These houses are so small
they are not allowable under most zoning laws. But if you put them on wheels,
they qualify as "trailer homes" and, voila!, now you are legal.

From what I gather, the fact that they are too small to be legal in most
(urban/within city bounds) areas creates all kinds of challenges. I have long
been interested in the subject, and I sometimes fantasize about living in a
tiny house, but I have not yet in earnest tried to make it happen.

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benbristow
Looks fun. Wouldn't be surprised if AirBnB took this idea though and
integrated into their platform.

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heipei
Love it, been watching Tiny House Nation and Tiny House Hunting for a while
and this is right on time ;)

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a8da6b0c91d
Trailers and prefab houses have existed for many decades. Why is now the time?

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Shivetya
marketing.

Having watched some of the shows I still don't catch the full appeal. Perhaps
so you can claim you don't live in a trailer? Modern campers are at times
better finished and likely to pass more stringent inspections. Throw in that
trend towards slide outs on campers/trailers and they have space on demand.

Custom workmanship might be the real key, still it is a trailer by any other
name.

~~~
timmaah
Most modern campers can't do winter though. I live in a 25' Airstream. The
windows and insulation are crap. Living in an Airstream in a Vermont winter
would be painful and miserable. But it has wheels, so I head south.

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source99
What do these things sell dollar / sq foot? Some quick calculation show about
$240 / sq foot. Better then SF bay prices but probably not better than most of
the rest of the country.

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declan
In many parts of the bay area you're not paying for the house as much as the
_land_. In fact if the house is older and in a desirable location it has
negative value because of the demo and related permits; a vacant lot would
sell for more.

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retlehs
Tried to sign up with Facebook and got an error, FYI.

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Abundnce10
Feature request: sort results by price (ASC/DESC). Looks great BTW.

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zupatol
Shouldn't it say "meet people who believe less is more"?

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kossmoboleat
Are there more tiny houses anywhere in or around Germany?

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lcnmrn
"X for Y" type of services never succeed because Y will never be better than
X. Describe your service for what it does, not what it can be.

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Hytosys
I don't know exactly what your definition of success is, but products of
hyper-specialization do indeed make money. Etsy is eBay for home crafts,
Twitch.tv is Justin.tv/YouTube/Ustream for video games. And of course there
are thousands of enterprise solutions that are simply domain specializations
of Microsoft Office and Dropbox that are doing quite well.

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keehun
This is AWESOME! Great listings already.

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fgtx
IMHO: hipster overflow

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rsp1984
Nice site and cool listings but I don't quite understand. AirBnb is for short
term rentals / sharing places. This seems to be a site to buy houses. Or am I
missing something?

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noobermin
Click on the "rentals" category.
[https://www.livesimple.io/en?category=rentals](https://www.livesimple.io/en?category=rentals)

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twcooper
What do startups have against adverbs?

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tedmiston
Maybe we all read Strunk and White:

> "Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs" [0]

0: [http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-
Grammar/2549...](http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-
Grammar/25497)

~~~
DanBC
[http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0521431468/](http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0521431468/)

£188

Strunk and White is about £5

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aw3c2
How is this anything Airbnb like?

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dang
We've changed the title from "Show HN: Live Simple – Airbnb for extremely tiny
homes" since you and others found the Airbnb part misleading.

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