Perhaps the most famous man to live in a dimunitive house was Thoreau, who famously lived in a wood cabin for a while. I went on a trip today discovering small houses of all shapes and kinds.
No list of small houses will be complete without these exemplary examples….
1. Yurts

You have US yurts and Russian yurts
..Which are smaller than some folks’ bathrooms
3. The Mobile Hermitage

Which seems to owe some of its design and inspiration to the Tumbleweed house dude, Jay Shafer
Completed for less than $45K. Cheaper than your car - Hummer Lover!
5. Custom-built Gypsy Caravans
More caravans.
It’s like living in the clouds. Not for the agoraphobic. Also see: glass house, and the house that hovers.
The one pictured above is just 140 sq.ft. Living in it might just be like living in a 2-D world!
They hang from trees, look like a sphere - what more do you want? I want one, just so I can say, “I live in a ball. Yes, the ball hangs from a tree.”
Quite in the rage in the 30’s and 40’s I hear.
and of course… the very popular…
I’ve always wanted to go inside one and see if it is actually warmer.
There’s also this story on the SF Gate about small homes for the homeless:
.
Small homes are environmentally conscious and sustainable as they quite literally reduce your “footprint”.
For more lists of small houses, check out tinyhouses.net - the Tiny Home Page (pun intended, and not original, thank you very much!), and this list of the tiny house hunter who was at least as interested in them as I am.
I wish I could collect small houses and put them all in my backyard, but for now I will have to refer to Home and Living and plan on visiting Home Depot to get more power tools!






6 responses so far ↓
Nigel // Apr 15, 2007 at 7:30 am
Nice list! Thank you for spending the time to make this up. How long did it take to write this?
Nigel // Apr 15, 2007 at 7:31 am
I just wrote a comment, but it is not visible, why?
Ray Dotson // Apr 16, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Brilliant! I’m in the process of downsizing a bit myself and the idea of having a tiny house is kind of tempting. Cool post!
Orderer // Apr 25, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Nigel, it is visible - just that sometimes comments are held for moderation and you can’t see them immediately.
Ray, cool
Wendy // Oct 2, 2007 at 12:58 am
Great list. You missed good old fashioned Mongolian gers though (similar to yurts in construction.)
brian // Oct 2, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Where is the Unabomber’s house in this list?
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