Well, the time has come for me to stop being in denial and announce that my tiny house has sold! It left Newport Hardware on March 9th for its new home with some really great ladies up in PA. I believe eventually it’ll journey up to VT to add to their off-grid set-up.
The selling process was…interesting. I listed it in mid/late December on tinyhouselistings.com and received TONS of emails about it. Had a potential buyer early on but that didn’t work out. I believe it took about 2 months from listing to getting the final sale payment. After that it sat waiting for someone worthy enough to haul it up to them. I couldn’t be happier with who purchased it! I know everyone says that money talks, but I was still worried that I’d end up selling it to some rich folk in northern VA who thought it was “cute” and would just sit in the backyard as a playhouse. I may have gotten paid but it would defeat my purpose in building it.
For the new owner’s sake, I won’t disclose how much I put into it or how much it was purchased for. I will say that the final calculations put dad and me making between $4 and $5 and hour. For an educational venture, that’s not too shabby. If it was for an MBA, however, that’s a failing grade 😉
I have two new housing ventures on the horizon – the biggest being a “real” house. I’m in the process of buying a 950 square foot house to live in and renovate. Some will think that’s still too small, and others will think it’s too big. I think it’s just right as it’s a combination of the tiny house philosophy and what most of us consider “normal” in society (i.e. enormous). 950 square feet is about average for homes in the 1950s and I think it’s more about space planning and getting rid of your clutter than it is about needing thousands of square feet to yourself. The second venture is a new website! Less of a blog and more about getting information out there and highlighting some cool alternative living folks. It’s nowhere near done, so I’ll hold off on posting the url. Look out for it soon!
Congratulations, Sarah! I’ve been wondering how it was going, but knew the day would come. I just got into contract on 3 acres of land and am scouring tiny house plans myself… I had to really check my heirarchy over the past months of house/land/patience… 🙂 I am currently checking out gigacrete!
All the best, Kathryn Steger
My house is 940 heated square feet. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. There are so many great house plans for smaller houses.
when i broke into construction in1967 we built a lot 3 bdr 1 bath 900ish sq ft homes. i actually live in one now. not one that i worked on then.
peaceup raz
Curious, how much did you sell it for?
Hi Susan. I sold it for $30,000. $20kish was materials, and when you divide out the rest between the 3 main day laborers we made about $4/hour over the 9 months of part-time tiny house construction.
don’t beat yourself up here. you actually made more than your expenses. 4 bucks an hour is more than a lot make. don’t believe the house flippers that are on tv. martha watches them. they act like what the listed price on the house is the sale price. all of the flippers that i have worked for still live in their flipper. they are upside down.
move on to something that works for you. you know being in a small home that doesn’t work is as bad as being in a big one that doesn’t work. if it doesn’t work, well you know it doesn’t work.
ice cream raz