

Sheds For Living: Small Practical Prefab Living Space  - peter123
http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/06/16/sheds-for-living-small-practical-prefab-living-space/

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profgubler
Is it me or are these things insanely expensive. Maybe if you live in the bay
area this is cheap, but I live in Indiana and in some places you could by a
house way bigger than one of these for the same price. And that includes the
price of a 1/8 to 1/4 acre lot.

The other problem is where do you put it? I am not going to live in my parents
back yard.

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ellyagg
Yeah, from the post title here and the opening of the article, I thought this
going to be alternative housing on a budget, but instead it was more vanity
guest house for the stuffwhitepeoplelike.com set.

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Xichekolas
While I mostly agree, in their defense, the material/feature quality is
significantly higher than your average home. LED lighting, high efficiency
appliances, radiant heat, and solar aren't cheap features... nor are they easy
to find in houses of comparable price.

Also it's hard to compare the price of something made for the British housing
market to prices here in America. It could be the case that housing in general
is just much more expensive there.

That said, it does seem way too expensive for the average case, although it
might be worth it to me if I could stick it on a green roof somewhere.

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electromagnetic
Actually these are astonishingly cheap compared to a poor quality house in the
UK. My parents bought an ex-rental unit to renovate at ~£100,000; it was
single story (in the UK basements are virtually non-existent outside of
cities) semi-detached and probably hung around 1,000 square feet of floor
space. It was quite literally the cheapest house on the market in the area and
it had nicotine stained walls, ceilings that seeped tar, had plumbing, gas and
electrical problems. Not to mention one of the clauses for sale was that my
parents dispose of all the junk in the house, which not only included bedrooms
crammed full, but also a garage and a shed.

If you can get property in the UK and get the rights to put one of these sheds
on, you'll probably save yourself anywhere between £25,000 and £100,000 on
your lower end priced home.

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profgubler
The large versions of these homes are a quarter of the size of that apartment.
It is only like 258 square feet.

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jrockway
This shed is significantly nicer than any studio apartment I've ever lived in.
So the answer for many people would be, "yes".

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russell
I found this site devoted to buildings made from containers. <http://www.isbu-
info.org/>

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lallysingh
Are you kidding me? I live in Manhattan. The shed's bigger than what I live in
now.

And in grad school, I lived for a while in a bedroom that measured 81 sq ft.

Bachelors (especially) need almost zero space to actually operate. Hacker-
bachelors (hackelors?) just need power, network, and a project (+ atop the
standard amenities) to keep themselves pretty satisfied.

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tdavis
That's generalizing a bit. As a "hackelor" myself, I can tell you I don't
function well at all in small spaces and can't productively live anywhere that
lacks copious empty space. I live in a three-bedroom apartment with one other
person, expressly because we couldn't find a two-bedroom place with enough
open space.

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randallsquared
Yes, empty space is important. One personal trick I've found for doing with
less actual space is to sit next to a window so that almost half my peripheral
vision is into a much larger area. This is especially helpful if that window
also has long lines of sight available.

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jsz0
I would not live in a nearly $60,000 shed. That doesn't even include the land
you need to put it on. Say in many places you can find a cheap apartment for
$500-$800/month and just do the math. The shed makes absolutely no sense.
You'd honestly be better off with a trailer since there's a bigger existing
market for them including used & rental options.

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pistoriusp
I lived in a shed on my parents farm for more than a year. it definitely
wasn't anything like the ones they are selling here: It was incredibly hot in
summer and the pipes froze once in winter, I did what I could to insulate it
and enjoyed it very much. (After I air-conditioned it).

The total cost of construction for my shed was R50,000 (~$6 145.35) complete
with bathroom and kitchen. I now live in a 140 square meter (2x bed, 2x bath,
loft) apartment which almost costs as much as these sheds.

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kamme
I've always been very interested in this kind of housing. To be honest, I have
the feeling I will build myself a house like this one day. I can probably find
a small patch of land at a reasonable price about an hour driving and take a
small loan to build it. I lived in a 12 square meter studio for 3 years, this
seems heaven in contrast to that. Mix it with solar panels and you have a very
nice place to call home...

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rdl
I think it would be even more fun to get a big farm/orchard/ranch with an old
farmhouse, sheds, etc., and then bring in high speed fiber, cheap/sustainable
utilities, and then put a bunch of 200-1200 square foot cabins in the less-
productive, more-scenic parts of the property. Walkable community, private
housing, cheap, and then big common areas for workspaces.

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pmikal
$30-50k is a rip. If you are going to live in a shed to save money, you can
get a perfectly fine shed for much less. ~$10k

<http://www.panelconcepts.com/priceitOR.htm>

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kqr2
If you like small homes, check out:

<http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/houses/>

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rmason
I knew an entrepreneur during the nineties who started his company with an
office in a 10 by 20 foot rental storage unit. He went onto raise millions in
venture capital, turned down a big time exit and then lost it all after the
crash. Last time I talked with him he was living in the storage unit. I lost
track of him after that but have no doubt he eventually succeeded. He was
smart, fearless and had amazing drive.

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rbanffy
This is not sustainable at all - they require lots of space, materials, they
are expensive... Dense cities and tall buildings are, surprisingly, much more
material and energy efficient than this.

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dazzawazza
Your correct. The Urban density of London for example is so low compared to
New York. Because of shoddy building in the sixties and poor maintenance from
the 60's on the British are not fans of high rise.

A lot of Brits are obsessed with owning a small house with two gardens and a
drive only to leave the gardens to go over grown!

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motoko
Many people already live in sheds to save money. They are called "trailers."

+1 to ellyagg for the "stuffwhitepeoplelike.com" call

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pie
There was an entertaining exhibit of fabricated housing at MOMA last year,
including some "working prototypes." The "micro compact home" was incredibly
cool. The attention to detail and slick, functional design was really
inspiring. I left with an "I want one of those" feeling, a little like you'd
experience after seeing an exciting new gadget.

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sketerpot
If the prices come down, I would love to have one of these. But only if they
can get some economy of scale and mass produce parts for them cheaply.

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olefoo
On a similar note a very nice Yurt can be built for under $10K, as always the
real trick is finding a place to put it that has services.

Check out <http://www.yurts.com/> (if you want to see what they are like
several Oregon state parks have them for rent)

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arebop
somewhat cheaper ($110/ft^2)
[<http://www.cusatocottages.com/buildingyourcottage.php>] and more beautiful:
<http://www.katrinacottagehousing.org/original.html>,
<http://www.cusatocottages.com/photogallery.php>

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menloparkbum
I haven't seen one of these Dwell-Magazine-Modern-Prefab inspired cottages,
but an old girlfriend of mine lived in a studio cottage in the Bay Area. I
also checked a couple of them out when I was looking for an apartment a few
years back. So I guess the answer is "yes."

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travisjeffery
That's cool and is about the perfect (if not more) amount of space I need.
However that is ridiculously expensive for just that alone. You could build
one of those for next to nothing compared to their prices fairly easily.

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s3graham
A mite pricier than the original: <http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden00.html>

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bitwize
This is all highly Hiro Protagonist, don'tcha think?

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Nwallins
Who needs a bookshelf when you've got the Street?

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whatusername
umm.. it's a fancy looking Granny flat? Perhaps with some more eco-
friendlyness thrown in. What's the big deal?

Do they not exist or something over there?

// currently living in a converted garage/shed.

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kirubakaran
May be they can have these floating around like in _Up_ movie.

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Nwallins
FYI, multiply by 10 to roughly convert sq.m to sq.f

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socratees
Yes. I would definitely live there.

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keltecp11
Curious what they do with sewer/water/electricity... must be an easy hookup I
assume?

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kamme
They explain it here:

<http://www.shedsforliving.co.uk/>

Choose options => FAQs => 05 How do we connect to the services

Basically they say it's easy + for a cost you can make it independent of any
services.

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kingkongrevenge
I have an idea: let's build solid houses out of classical materials like stone
and brick that will last over 100 years. Let's also build them with time
tested architectural aesthetics and in traditional neighborhood designs that
have been proven over the decades. Slightly higher upfront cost, dramatically
lower cost long term.

The last thing we need is more ticky-tacky garbage that will look like shit
and be worthless in 10 years.

