Smaller might be better...

I was reading this article via the Nissan Innovations for Endurance blog, Nano Houses: Big Living in Small Places, which outlined these extreme mini houses that are eco-friendly and green. Now, I had thought before that in this time of economic downturn what we would do if we had to sell off our house to make ends meet. My basic response is that we would sell off our furniture (or give them to our kids) and pack up the canine kids in our 13' travel trailer and just drive around the country. Doesn't sound like a bad plan actually, aside from the fact that we'd be living with 6 dogs in the trailer! It wouldn't be bad if it were just the little ones...after all we did travel for a month with 3 little ones, but when you add a 45 pound dog to the mix it would tend to get a bit crowded!

Anyway, just out of curiosity, I decided to visit the website of one of the manufacturers of an mini house outlined in the article. I went to the Tumbleweed Houses website and found a portable, trailer mini house that I love...the Fencl House. At only 130 square feet, it's just big enough for two of us. The added bonus is a loft area that could be converted to an area for all of the dogs to live in. Actually, some modification would have to be made since a ladder is the method of getting up into the loft, but I'm sure something could be arranged.

Another mini house I like are these Eco Pods which are made from recycled shipping containers. While the website doesn't have any real good interior pictures of this, I can imagine this in a backyard as a guest house that can be extremely securely locked up when not in use. If only they were truly portable like the Fencl House is..

There are other prefab modular eco-houses that can be designed, added to and re-arranged as needed such as the Clayton iHouse which I would seriously consider if our house was ever demolished by a tornado or whatnot...

We don't entertain almost at all so we have no need for huge amounts of space. We have too much stuff that we don't really need and could stand to get rid of. I mean really, how much room do we need? Since our living room has been out of service for the past 2+ years (that's another story) we've been living basically in the master bedroom and kitchen...that's it. To be able to get rid of all our excess stuff and just travel around with our own home...what could be better? Sounds like a plan to me...now, I only need to get the plan into action! lol!