For Sooth, it rained overnight, and when I woke up the dishes were all magically done. That was a really great gift.
Another was that the last couple days have been blessedly circadian. Still ragged toward the end of the checklist of daily ritual, and still without the kind of young energy I could wish for, but damn good by the recent rough standard.
It’s been a Joint Research Task Force effort mostly. The two primates, the singular virtual cat and three in meatspace plus five strays–I think five, three of which need homes. At last count.
I need to dump the produce of the research here now to keep my desktop in some semblance of working order.
REPORT OF THE JRTF FOR TRASH DAY
In theory, the house transfer could be accomplished for as little as USD $25000, not counting site prep, utility hookups, et cetera.
That would mean starting here, at Home Depot.
You probably think that’s unrealistic, and maybe so. But there is a credible proof of concept thanks to Mr. Louisiana Man.
For reference, he will go on to get millions of views for building a much larger home for his own family, using similar base concepts and strategies, and that will result in 1500 square feet on an investment of less than $90K.
For getting it past the Finicky Code People, it would probably make sense to spend another 5-10-20K on a better shed than what the Depot offers. Those exist.
Old Hickory. Let’s call it $4000 more. Keep in mind that everything we’re talking about so far is officially speaking 399 square feet or less, and thus qualifies as a tiny home under the zoning rules.
Graceland Portable Buildings: about $6000 above the depot price, i.e. 18K or so.
United Portable Buildings: hard to say, but at least double the depot price
Stor-Mor …
There’s a continuum here. We started with just “sheds” for cheap. Then we get “portable buildings” for a little more. Above this there is widespread talk of a “Shed To House” and some of them are really nice (i.e., the Zen). Way above, you get: Cabins. For more than is reasonable to spend. For me.
Essentially, this whole complex of ideas ends up on the shelf in my world, as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency kind of thing. For the day when I find myself without the expected amount of equity and it ends up being this, at 399 sq. ft., or nothing.
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Because: two better options theoretically exist over on the other side of fifty thousand dollars base.
First, the semi-mythical beast known as the Compact Doublewide. Thanks, Lumo.
The biggest advantage here would be more square feet, like 8-900 instead of 399, which would be amazing.
Some messy pointers:
Clayton Homes: The “Tiffany” is shown to be a doublewide, 20×40 and “740 square feet”.
jacobsen homes imperial and TNR models
champion homes “starting at $40900”
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Lastly. Maybe bestly. Dropping back down to 399, and specifically to 10′ wide x 39′ long because they are capable of rolling down the highway, we have the true wheeled tiny homes (to plant them, say in Silver, you’re supposed to take the wheels off and skirt the place so zoning can pretend to themselves it’s a tiny house and not a singlewide Mobile home).
There’s an email inquiry in to Havenity which is really Brooks Tiny Home Builders, to find out the true status of their inventory present and future, in the wake of their alleged bankruptcy earlier this year.
In a perfect world they have quite a few models listed between 35-40K, but whether that is sooth or marketing fiction is yet to be determined.
Regardless, that brings me to my current favorite page from all the pages researched today (um yesterday).
A large rolling shell, 340 square feet is listed as costing $29-43k, depending on customization. 43 tops though, and that’s pretty great. I think I might prefer having such a shell to an allegedly fully furnished beast for the same price from the sketchy folk over at Havenity/Brooks.
This guy, dba as Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses, is south of Durango on the NM border, and to me he seems really savvy and sane, in touch with the practical questions that actually matter in the real world.
Certain turns of his phrasing (“$6000-14,000 Cost of a real good trailer”) make me wonder if he might not be interested in constructing a true travel trailer, in addition to the fixed Home we’re primarily looking for here.
Tentatively, there are plans to visit him on the 9th.
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Sooth: I am tired of the sound of my own voice right now and it’s not even sunup.