Small house movement hits Central Texas

BASTROP COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) - The Latest

The recession driven tide of foreclosures in America is not about to let up any time soon. Five million homes, including condominiums are expected to eventually be foreclosed on over the next few years, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday. The newspaper quoted from two new studies conducted by John Burns Real Estate Consulting, Inc. Besides the expected foreclosure cases, according to the studies, owners of another 2.7 million houses and condos are behind on their mortgage payments. Both studies said the foreclosure activity will continue downward pressure on home prices in parts of the country.

But what if the homeowners had bought small houses instead, really small houses? Granted, they would have had to make do with less space, but their mortgage payments would have been only a fraction of the owners' current obligations and they would have saved big on energy costs and taxes, as well. If that realization spreads throughout the marketplace, America could be in for a "small revolution." So say proponents of the something called the "Small House Movement."

The Chicken Farm

Near the Bastrop County community of Paige, Texas, organic chicken farmer Jules Assata makes her daily rounds through the wide open pens her birds call home. She coos to the critters quietly, spreading feed in long narrow bins and collecting dozens of eggs. Chores done, she walks back across the Shade of Green Farm to the home she shares with her partner, Susan Beckwith. A lot of sharing goes on in that house because it brings with it in the neighborhood of only 250 square feet, including loft, bedroom, living area, bathroom and kitchen.

"We didn't want to have a large footprint on the Earth, literally and figuratively," said Assata. "So our farm is, 'Shades of Green,' and we attempt to be as green as possible. And part of it was, how much space do we need take up on land that's never had a building on it."

The house has a rough-hewn look with cedar siding.

"We had the shell built and we finished the inside," Assata said. "The builder who built the shell, they're used to building more like hunting [cabins] or even garages."

The couple is fine with that. If there are any regrets at all, said Assata, they have to do with an escape valve.

"The single thing that we really see the need for is a separate space, office, bedroom, something so that if one needs to focus and the other sleep or something, that option exists," she said.

So the pair is exploring options.

"We have been talking to a young man who is interested in doing aquaponics farming on our land with us," said Assata, "who has grain bins that are eighteen feet in diameter and that he has made into a studio. So we may just use one of those."

Even so, Assata and Beckwith would still occupy less than 600 square feet, a far cry from the homestead claimed by most Americans.

Texas Tiny Houses

Southeast of the Shade of Green Farm, near Luling, Brad Kittel, the King of Texas Tiny Houses holds court over a manufacturing operation that is anything but tiny. Inside huge shelters, a half dozen really small homes are under construction and another half-dozen completed projects stand outside, waiting to be delivered to customers. They range in size from a mere 100 square feet or so to well over 300 square feet and they are a cornucopia of reused and recycled materials, including antique woods like loblolly pine, along with period fixtures like hinges and door knobs.

"If we could get people to consider all the dilapidated buildings out there that could be taken down and salvaged, creating salvage mining jobs, and then turn around and use them for salvage building, we could build the next generation of housing on a scale that's comparable to other countries around the world, small, tiny housing, and do it out of nothing but what is considered trash," said Kittel. "We can have a zero carbon footprint, practically, by doing salvage building and making it energy efficient, so we don't have to redo it over and over and over again over the next hundred years. It's the best trees we ever grew, the best hardware we ever made, the best glass we ever made, and it's all out there for free if we just go out there and pick it up and reuse it."

Well, the materials may be virtually free, but the finished tiny houses are not. An average offering may command $50,000. That price, however, is for human energy, something in plentiful supply these days.

"Right now, we've got 5 million unemployed people in this country; human energy is getting cheap," said Kittel. "If we can make housing that will last for 150 years instead of making a house that basically dissolves in 30, we're way ahead of the game."

A health element shoves its way into Kittel's argument, as well.

"There's no formaldehyde," he said. No out gassing, no VOCs, no vinyls, no plasticizers. You're moving into a healthy environment that's not going to attack your immune system the moment you