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It ended up costing ~$50k (not counting labor) and took a year to build, and they sold it for $115k. The cabin looks phenomenal. I wonder how a tinyhome would c

It ended up costing ~$50k (not counting labor) and took a year to build, and they sold it for $115k. The cabin looks phenomenal. I wonder how a tinyhome would compare in cost and features?

082349872349872 6y ago
Late, over budget, and surrounded by other half-done projects made me think that it could be a builders' equivalent of Microserfs.
eternalban 6y ago
Your Q reminded me of Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leighey House. The client, Pope, had challenged the famous architect, who to date had built mansions for the super wealthy, to design an affordable house for the everyday American: "Dear Mr. Wright, There are certain things a man wants during life, and of life. Material things and things of the spirit. The writer has one fervent wish that includes both. It is a house created by you." Wright delivered. It's a beautiful and simple design, initially estimated to cost $5,000 but ended up costing $7,000 (1941) dollars. https://franklloydwright.org/site/pope-leighey-house/ https://franklloydwright.org/site/pope-leighey-house/
- crooked-v 6y ago
  That works out to about $123,000 after inflation, for anyone else wondering.
  - eternalban 6y ago
    Thanks, was wondering about that. (I think one should factor in the war effort and impact, if any, on construction material cost.)
- brandonscott 6y ago
  Usonia! 99% Invisible did an excellent episode about this: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/usonia-1/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/usonia-1/
nekochanwork 6y ago
I built a tiny house on wheels. My house totaled about $55K, due to my preference for premium materials and contracting out work that I did not feel comfortable doing myself (e.g. wiring a 50amp power box). My house was built to be on grid and could be parked in any trailer park. I could connect to city power, water, natural gas, and sewage. Off-grid homes are more expensive due to the need to install solar panels, drill wells, bury a giant propane tank, and purchase land. $50K is honestly one of the cheapest builds I've seen for an off-grid cabin. Their house looks amazing.
- petargyurov 6y ago
  > I could connect to city power, water, natural gas, and sewage How?
  - crooked-v 6y ago
    Through hookups built into the side of the tiny house.
  - nekochanwork 6y ago
    I planned to park my house in a trailer park, and purposefully built my house to have the same kind of hookups as an RV or manufactured home. For power, I installed a 50amp RV-style power inlet to my house. I ran a 50-amp cable from from the power pole to my house. For water, I was able to connect a standard drinking-water hose from the water line to the inlet into my house. For natural gas, I ran copper flex tubing from the gas meter to the gas inlet in my house. I ensured that all of my gas appliances had the correct orifices. For sewer, I drained all of my water fixtures (two sinks, shower, and toilet) through the floor, connected them to a common drain line, and through a sewer hookup below the house.
    - dencodev 6y ago
      I thought a lot of trailer parks wouldn't allow something that wasn't built by a certified builder?
jdminhbg 6y ago
$65k "profit" not including labor wouldn't seem so bad if they could have worked on it full time and gotten it done in 4-6 months, right? You could certainly live on $60k/yr (split proceeds from selling two of these), once you put in the initial capital to get off the ground. I guess on the pro side, you would assume they'd get better at it as they went along; on the con side, maybe they got lucky with the selling price for this one and it's not a repeatable business process.
cmrdporcupine 6y ago
I don't really get the tiny home fixation some people have. If it's a move towards minimalism, fine, but I don't think it's a practical cost cutting measure if we're talking about rural properties. The reason I say this most of the costs in rural homes have little to do with house size. My septic, well, electricity, tractor + attachments, mower, etc. and the piles of tools I need are all fixed costs that have little to nothing to do with my house size. Likewise my municipal taxes are based on assessment value which in large part is lot size and location. And many municipalities and townships have rather tight restrictions on what can be built and where, and many of the ad-hoc tiny homes may not meet them. Living in the country looks simpler to people in the city than it is. It is often very very expensive no matter how low the actual land value cost is.
- R0b0t1 6y ago
  There's a lot of "tiny houses" that technically don't qualify as an accommodation in various ways, like not having a foundation. What you're currently seeing is the evolution of the movement to be more photogenic. The OG tiny homes were a (successful) attempt at running around laws about home construction in previously extremely rural areas that now have zealous code enforcement. If it's not technically a house you save a load of money not just in taxes but also permit, inspection, utility, and insurance costs. As a bonus sometimes you can move your living space. There are often plots of land for sale that will fit just under an RV and may or may not have utilities running to them. The kind of person to buy a lot like that, maybe $1000 total, was the person originally looking at building a tiny house.
- spanhandler 6y ago
  Best I can tell, tiny homes are mostly just very expensive, more-instragrammable Mobile homes, kit-prefabs (A-frames, say), or RVs (depending on how they're built) for people whose class-self-image would be threatened by living in a Mobile home, RV, or prefab. It's not about cost-cutting.
  - dencodev 6y ago
    There's a lot of sanity saving aspects of living in a tiny house versus a travel trailer. However a lot of people would in fact be better served living in a fifth wheel trailer, both in terms of space, cost, time investment, and ability to transport/park it places.
look_lookatme 6y ago
The did a seller finance. I suspect the 115k includes "interest" so to speak and that an actual cash buyer would have been lower, maybe closer to their all in cost than the final sales "price".

It ended up costing ~$50k (not counting labor) and took a year to build, and they sold it for $115k. The cabin looks phenomenal. I wonder how a tinyhome would compare in cost and features?

082349872349872 6y ago

Late, over budget, and surrounded by other half-done projects made me think that it could be a builders' equivalent of Microserfs.

eternalban 6y ago

Your Q reminded me of Frank Lloyd Wright's Pope-Leighey House. The client, Pope, had challenged the famous architect, who to date had built mansions for the super wealthy, to design an affordable house for the everyday American: "Dear Mr. Wright, There are certain things a man wants during life, and of life. Material things and things of the spirit. The writer has one fervent wish that includes both. It is a house created by you." Wright delivered. It's a beautiful and simple design, initially estimated to cost $5,000 but ended up costing $7,000 (1941) dollars. https://franklloydwright.org/site/pope-leighey-house/ https://franklloydwright.org/site/pope-leighey-house/

crooked-v 6y ago
That works out to about $123,000 after inflation, for anyone else wondering.
- eternalban 6y ago
  Thanks, was wondering about that. (I think one should factor in the war effort and impact, if any, on construction material cost.)
brandonscott 6y ago
Usonia! 99% Invisible did an excellent episode about this: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/usonia-1/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/usonia-1/

nekochanwork 6y ago

I built a tiny house on wheels. My house totaled about $55K, due to my preference for premium materials and contracting out work that I did not feel comfortable doing myself (e.g. wiring a 50amp power box). My house was built to be on grid and could be parked in any trailer park. I could connect to city power, water, natural gas, and sewage. Off-grid homes are more expensive due to the need to install solar panels, drill wells, bury a giant propane tank, and purchase land. $50K is honestly one of the cheapest builds I've seen for an off-grid cabin. Their house looks amazing.

petargyurov 6y ago
> I could connect to city power, water, natural gas, and sewage How?
- crooked-v 6y ago
  Through hookups built into the side of the tiny house.
- nekochanwork 6y ago
  I planned to park my house in a trailer park, and purposefully built my house to have the same kind of hookups as an RV or manufactured home. For power, I installed a 50amp RV-style power inlet to my house. I ran a 50-amp cable from from the power pole to my house. For water, I was able to connect a standard drinking-water hose from the water line to the inlet into my house. For natural gas, I ran copper flex tubing from the gas meter to the gas inlet in my house. I ensured that all of my gas appliances had the correct orifices. For sewer, I drained all of my water fixtures (two sinks, shower, and toilet) through the floor, connected them to a common drain line, and through a sewer hookup below the house.
  - dencodev 6y ago
    I thought a lot of trailer parks wouldn't allow something that wasn't built by a certified builder?

jdminhbg 6y ago

$65k "profit" not including labor wouldn't seem so bad if they could have worked on it full time and gotten it done in 4-6 months, right? You could certainly live on $60k/yr (split proceeds from selling two of these), once you put in the initial capital to get off the ground. I guess on the pro side, you would assume they'd get better at it as they went along; on the con side, maybe they got lucky with the selling price for this one and it's not a repeatable business process.

cmrdporcupine 6y ago

I don't really get the tiny home fixation some people have. If it's a move towards minimalism, fine, but I don't think it's a practical cost cutting measure if we're talking about rural properties. The reason I say this most of the costs in rural homes have little to do with house size. My septic, well, electricity, tractor + attachments, mower, etc. and the piles of tools I need are all fixed costs that have little to nothing to do with my house size. Likewise my municipal taxes are based on assessment value which in large part is lot size and location. And many municipalities and townships have rather tight restrictions on what can be built and where, and many of the ad-hoc tiny homes may not meet them. Living in the country looks simpler to people in the city than it is. It is often very very expensive no matter how low the actual land value cost is.

R0b0t1 6y ago
There's a lot of "tiny houses" that technically don't qualify as an accommodation in various ways, like not having a foundation. What you're currently seeing is the evolution of the movement to be more photogenic. The OG tiny homes were a (successful) attempt at running around laws about home construction in previously extremely rural areas that now have zealous code enforcement. If it's not technically a house you save a load of money not just in taxes but also permit, inspection, utility, and insurance costs. As a bonus sometimes you can move your living space. There are often plots of land for sale that will fit just under an RV and may or may not have utilities running to them. The kind of person to buy a lot like that, maybe $1000 total, was the person originally looking at building a tiny house.
spanhandler 6y ago
Best I can tell, tiny homes are mostly just very expensive, more-instragrammable Mobile homes, kit-prefabs (A-frames, say), or RVs (depending on how they're built) for people whose class-self-image would be threatened by living in a Mobile home, RV, or prefab. It's not about cost-cutting.
- dencodev 6y ago
  There's a lot of sanity saving aspects of living in a tiny house versus a travel trailer. However a lot of people would in fact be better served living in a fifth wheel trailer, both in terms of space, cost, time investment, and ability to transport/park it places.

look_lookatme 6y ago

The did a seller finance. I suspect the 115k includes "interest" so to speak and that an actual cash buyer would have been lower, maybe closer to their all in cost than the final sales "price".