What the heck is a tiny house? Is it a home at all? Will the tiny house be part of the aftermath recovery of Harvey and Irma as well as replacement cottages in parts of the Northwest that are being ravaged by wildfires?
When states look at tiny houses will they just see glorified RV’s that can’t be parked permanently unless it is done illegally? When the IRC standards are implemented for tiny houses will they need third party inspections before they can be built like all other housing?
Or will they continue to be built by factories and in people’s back yards without code? Will cities and towns amend their zoning to allow tiny houses if they have the third party IRC seal or will they continue to ban them or overlook their dangers?
Will it take a couple of tragic deaths from tiny house fires or carbon monoxide poisonings before the Federal Government begins taking a tough stand against non-IRC approved homes?
From all indications the tiny house movement is mostly Millennial driven but at some point reality has to set in that these homes cost two or three times as must as a travel trailer of approximately the same size that are built to RV standards. And if tiny houses on wheels are allowed within city limits, why not travel trailers?
This is not a slam of tiny houses but there are still too many questions that need addressed before tiny houses can be considered a real housing alternative. There are way too many shed manufacturers pushing their products as a way to live off the grid or placed in someone’s back yard as an acceptable living space.
Just because you can cook a meal and take a nap in it doesn’t make it a legal dwelling unit any more than a duck stopping in a patch of wet grass makes it a wetland.
I personally love well made tiny houses but there are just entirely too many types of cardboard boxes, dumpsters, garden shed and pallet built tiny houses out there.
