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Video: Family Lives in 320-Square-Foot 'Shotgun Shack' (vid and story)
realestate.aol.com ^ | 6-1-11 | Stefanos Chen

Posted on 06/03/2011 6:46:49 PM PDT by dynachrome

Having trouble qualifying for a home loan? Then consider what this inventive family of three did and buy yourself a Mississippi-style "shotgun shack."

Sick of working two jobs apiece to pay the mortgage on their 2,000-square-foot home, Debra and her husband Gary decided to give it all up and start over – by purchasing a 320-square-foot shack for $15,000 cash.

The video below, first submitted to the blog faircompanies.com on an open call for videos of tiny homes, shows the couple and their teenage son living mortgage-free in their surprisingly spacious abode.

The home includes a walk-in closet, conventional-sized appliances and even a lofted bedroom for their son that, the family boasts, is big enough to host sleepovers. Watch the video below to see just how far a little ingenuity can take you, even in today's prohibitive mortgage market.

(Excerpt) Read more at realestate.aol.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: downsizing; mississippi; tinyhome
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To: dynachrome

Hey DC, Thanks for posting. The lady didn’t annoy me at all. She chose it. It wouldn’t work for all of us, but it works for them. She and her husband have made it very cute. I showed my husband because I knew he would come up with all sorts of other neat videos he has run across on the web. Here are some that may be of interest to you and others. BTW, thanks for the link on the camping cabin homes. My husband had the idea one time after coming back from a trip down Alamosa way of all places, that we should make a house of camping cabins—each cabin would be a separate room. I liked the idea. We will probably never be able to do it, but it doesn’t hurt to dream and think outside the box.

Here are the videos/link he has run across:

Lego-style apartment transforms into infinite spaces
http://wimp.com/infinitespaces/

A tiny Hong Kong apartment transforms into 24 rooms
http://wimp.com/apartmenttransforms/

The Cube House (This is from a greenie/lefitst type group, but still neat to me):
http://wimp.com/cubehouse/

And then this link for Shipping Container homes.
http://www.shippingcontainerhousedesign.com/
If you do a search on Google you can pull up all kinds of neat shipping container houses:

And the last one is one I saw on TV and posted about on FR:
Solving Haiti’s Housing Problems with Old Tires, Bottles
(Pictures of these houses on FR thread)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2571096/posts

And last but not least, one my husband showed me awhile ago—The Garbage Truck Camper:
http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=60;t=001461;p=1


61 posted on 06/03/2011 8:44:41 PM PDT by beaversmom
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To: dynachrome

This is a common living space known as Katrina Cottages that sprang up after the storm. Basically a small house built on a camper trailer size frame. I have seen few in Ms and La over the last few years. Its better than an RV but only marginally. And better than a FEMA trailer for sure.


62 posted on 06/03/2011 8:52:08 PM PDT by rightly_dividing (1 Cor. 15:1-4 Believe it!)
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To: dynachrome

A look in the past can give you a peek into the future with Obama's "change"

63 posted on 06/03/2011 8:58:23 PM PDT by Brandonmark (News Coverage)
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To: martin_fierro

“My garage is bigger’n that.”

My KITCHEN is bigger than that. I would have to go outside to change my mind.


64 posted on 06/03/2011 8:59:19 PM PDT by Syntyr (Happiness is two at low eight!)
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To: RichInOC
This has been updated:

“And you may find yourself

“In a beautiful house

“With a beautiful wife

“And you may ask yourself

“Well

“How did I get here?”

And you may ask yourself

How did I lose that beautiful house

How did I lose that beautiful wife

Well

Obamanomics

65 posted on 06/03/2011 9:04:20 PM PDT by 444Flyer ("...Rather the scorned- the rejected -the men hemmed in with the spears..." from 'A Consecration')
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To: dynachrome

Just a suggestion, but when a video is posted in which the subject is living quarters, a photo would be nice for those poor deprived and depraved Freepers such as the OldPossum who have dial-up connections and cannot bring up videos.


66 posted on 06/03/2011 9:13:30 PM PDT by OldPossum
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To: OldPossum

67 posted on 06/03/2011 9:16:55 PM PDT by beaversmom
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To: rightly_dividing

Found a link for Katrina cottages:

http://katrinacottagehousing.org/


68 posted on 06/03/2011 9:18:11 PM PDT by beaversmom
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To: beaversmom

Why, thank you, ma’am. That was quick.

From what I see there, it’s gotta be unpleasant living.

I am quite familiar with “shotgun house.” It’s a common term in the South to describe a house that has rooms attached in a straight line, from front porch to back porch.


69 posted on 06/03/2011 9:22:24 PM PDT by OldPossum
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To: OldPossum

There are still a lot of shotgun houses around. I know a place on a busy highway where there are 4 in a row. My best friend in high school lived in one also.


70 posted on 06/03/2011 9:29:14 PM PDT by rightly_dividing (1 Cor. 15:1-4 Believe it!)
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To: Joe 6-pack

Under their pillows.


71 posted on 06/03/2011 9:51:37 PM PDT by fini
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To: dynachrome

what I didn’t figure out was, if they own the cottage free and clear, why on earth park it in a mobile home lot at $145/mo? why not plunk down another grand or so and buy an acre- free and clear? and then build out from the original 320 sqft - all free and clear?


72 posted on 06/03/2011 11:43:41 PM PDT by blueplum
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To: dynachrome

small post for a small house for a ‘little’ reading later.


73 posted on 06/04/2011 5:24:03 AM PDT by maine yankee
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To: tbw2
Construction pic of Buckminster Fuller's post WWII home to be built using aircraft fabrication materials and techniques.

Dymaxion house

It's sorta a cross between a yurt and an Airstream.

74 posted on 06/04/2011 6:31:32 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: blueplum
"...why not plunk down another grand or so and buy an acre..."

I agree with the additional well known observation that the governments will still extract "rent" from you and try like heck to control your use.

75 posted on 06/04/2011 6:34:09 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: dynachrome
IKEA has showroom that has 400 + sq foot complete house furnishing .

It actually looked livable

76 posted on 06/04/2011 6:43:23 AM PDT by Popman (Obama. First Marxist to turn a five year Marxist plan into a 4 year administration.)
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To: Popman

Obamavilles.


77 posted on 06/04/2011 6:48:32 AM PDT by GlockThe Vote (F U B O ! ! !)
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To: Paladin2

It looked a lot like a UFO house I’d seen, but wasn’t sure if it was a Great Depression re-purposing of something, like street cars ripped out of civic transport systems and turned into churches.


78 posted on 06/04/2011 7:20:24 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: cableguymn

The only thing better is to own your own lot. My double wide sits on its own lot. My yard is a garden. My septic tank makes the poppy go away. I do have to pay for electric, water, and just over $100 year taxes. Lived here for 10 years think I got a good deal for my 12K plus the repairs I did 1254 sq ft each of my kids had their own bedroom not a loft.


79 posted on 08/03/2013 6:53:40 AM PDT by scottteng (Tax government employees til they quit and find something useful to do)
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To: La Lydia

“Who wants to live like that? “

Would you rather pay, say, $2000-$6000 in real estate taxes, work 4 jobs between you and your wife, pay higher income taxes?

These people made a rational decision: less work, more time, smaller house.

I suspect it’s going to be a decision more and more people make - both by choice and by necessity.

Tax avoidance IS an American tradition. In many older cities, taxation was a factor of how many doors, how many windows, how much road frontage....the architecture in these cities reflects the taxation regime in place at the time.

Having a smaller house makes you much more mobile - and able to avoid the schemes of government at all levels to take your money.


80 posted on 08/03/2013 7:11:48 AM PDT by RFEngineer
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