Answers to tiny house questions to inform others about your new tiny life.
Highlights:
- Nuts and bolts inquiries about size, travel, and locations require facts
- Potential tiny house neighbors will want to learn from you
- Clarify the difference between a tiny house, a trailer, an RV, and more
- Expect challenges to your motives and the tiny house movement
- Don’t hesitate to ignore nosy inquiries, but educate yourself
You’re looking to build a tiny house. And people have questions!
Your concerned parents ask, “Where will you put it?” Your competitive colleague wonders, “Will your new place be smaller than mine?” Your best friend hints, “Can I visit to see if I should build one, too?”
While you may not think of yourself as a spokesperson for the tiny house movement, you may become one at your next party.
Read on to sort the inevitable questions into those that welcome a straightforward answer, ones with potentially questionable intent, and others to dodge completely.
First Up: Informational Tiny House Questions
Think of these as nuts and bolts inquiries. Time to geek out on blueprints, heating sources, kitchen design, and the practicalities of everyday life.
How big is a tiny house?
An easy one to start – tiny houses are between 100 and 400 square feet.
Why build a tiny house? Or buy one from a builder?
If you haven’t already, clarify this question for yourself. You may be choosing a tiny home for a simpler life, the freedom of downsizing your belongings, and a smaller environmental footprint.
Alternatively, you may be motivated by the hope of eliminating monthly rental payments by finding something you can afford to buy, or buy the materials for, outright. Or it may be a combination.
Where are you gonna put your tiny house?
Changes in housing codes, tiny home communities, and information sharing continue to improve options for locating your house. You may consider buying a small plot of land, piggybacking on a family member’s lot, or renting in a community. Discuss your plans with others for some new ideas.
Can you travel in your tiny house?
Planning to live in a thoughtfully designed house located on a trailer base means endless questions. You’ll be asked to talk about truck sizes, viable destinations, the cost of gas, and aerodynamics.
Could I Build a Tiny House, Too? Questions
Some will wonder whether they should at least consider following in your footsteps.
How long will it take you to build your tiny house?
According to Bankrate, professionals take about three months on average to build a tiny house. Those doing it themselves? A year or more, depending on how much time they have to spare.
Can you have friends over in your tiny house?
People who live in tiny houses have guests, it’s just cozier. Outdoor entertaining spaces during warm months, or when augmented with a space heater, help for larger gatherings.
What will you do with all of your stuff?
Some people hold garage sales and others do estate sales, where you sell the contents of any entire house all at once. Check out online sales platforms like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.
What’s the Difference Between A Tiny House And…?
Questions in this category appear to be mere information requests, and often are just that. Keep your answers factual to avoid a status contest.
I have a pretty small apartment. What’s the difference between that and a tiny house?
If you rent your apartment and you’re looking to buy or build a tiny house, that’s a difference.
Apartments share walls with the neighbors.
Designers often plan tiny homes with more space-saving features like built-in storage in the stairs, drawers below beds and couches, or beds above living spaces in the form of a loft.
What’s the difference between a tiny house and a trailer?
Camping trailers or travel trailers come in sizes similar to tiny houses. Like a tiny house on wheels (THOW), camping trailers’ eight-foot width fits on a roadway but come pre-built from a manufacturer.
By contrast you, or a tiny house construction company, will build a tiny house out of materials and approaches similar to a traditional house. Both a travel trailer and a tiny home on wheels can be towed behind a truck, though travel trailers are more aerodynamic.
What’s the difference between a tiny house and an RV?
Unlike a camping trailer, an RV has a vehicle built-in, so you don’t need a truck to haul it. Other similarities and differences hold.
What’s the difference between a tiny house and a mobile home?
Manufactured homes were called mobile homes before 1976 and are larger and made less expensively than tiny houses. They’re double or triple the largest tiny homes, and the Manufactured Housing Institute states an average cost per square foot of $72 compared to $144 for a traditional home. Tiny homes average $300 per square foot.
My grandparents lived in a small place. Was that a tiny house?
Your grandparents may indeed have grown up in a tiny house, though then it was just called a house. The size of homes ballooned during the past century, from an average of 945 square feet in 1910 to 2496 square feet in 2019.
Tiny House Questions that Challenge Your Choice
These questions give you an opportunity to burnish your debate skills.
Prefer to deflect? Studies of politicians show the most effective approach: first broaden the topic, and then shift your answer to something different, though related.
Can I tell you why you shouldn’t buy a tiny house?
The coming warnings may include problems with zoning restrictions, entertaining, or substandard building companies. If your challenger gives you sources, such as a friend or an article, pay attention and follow up. You may learn something the easy way.
Nothing substantive? Channel your inner politician.
I’ve heard the tiny house movement is over.
You didn’t decide to put your time and money into simply following a trend. Use this conversation to separate out the cultural moment from your own values and choices. You’ll not only inform the other person, but clarify your own sense of purpose.
Nosy Tiny House Questions
Questions in this category would put most people on the defensive. Feel free to ignore the inquiry, change the subject, or excuse yourself to go get another drink and a new group of people to chat with.
Are you going to raise kids in your tiny house?
Your future child-rearing really isn’t anyone’s business. Consider gathering information for your own planning, though. For example, while infants depend on togetherness, teens crave more privacy, which may encourage you to prioritize a larger tiny home.
I’ve always wanted the biggest house possible – doesn’t everyone?
Regardless of the reasons you’re building a tiny house, tread carefully.
If environmental concerns fuel some of your reasons for moving, according to the Pew Research Center, “Climate change remains a lower priority for some Americans, and a subset of the public rejects that it’s happening at all.”
Are you some kind of raving hippie liberal?
Perhaps you eat tofu, wear Birkenstocks, and can’t wait to use your new composting toilet.
Maybe you’re looking into a Tiny House community. Regardless, this question seems designed to ruffle feathers.
Houses don’t have to be political or subculture statements, so you may want to change the subject.
Or perhaps just excuse yourself, go grab a mushroom hemp burger, and talk about something else with that friendly-looking guy in the corner – the one in the fringed, tie-dyed Grateful Dead shirt.
