So yea… the title of this blog post isn’t anywhere near original but it makes for a great overview of this week’s topic. Among the many things I occupy my time with, one thing I enjoy very much is seeing people build for a better future. Solar and wind power, rain collection, composting or incinerating toilets… yea I sound like a hippy eh? But if you really stop to think about it, we have the power to change the world. Is it easy to do? No of course not, but if more people made the effort we’d be in a better place.
One of the big topics for years has been our reliance on oil. The thing is… we don’t need it really. With electric cars becoming more and more accessible and affordable, oil companies are dinosaurs on their last legs in my opinion. If it were me running those oil companies I’d be making ready to get out of the oil business and in to the renewable resource business because like it or not that is where we are heading. Eventually we won’t have gas stations, we’ll have charging stations. Natural resources like oil and natural gas just can’t and shouldn’t be relied on anymore.
Another thing that bugs me is that whole antiquated notion of “bigger is better”. In fact I believe the opposite is true. I’d rather have a small high quality home built to my taste than some massive Mc Mansion clone. It’s just extra space I’d have to clean and probably wouldn’t use much of. Did you know big companies lobbied to make sure we pay more than we have to for a home? The following is an excerpt from an article I read on the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company website on just that!
“Laws dictating how small our homes can be were introduced back in the 70’s and 80’s by lobbyists from the housing industry. It had become clear that, as the number of houses being sold by the industry leveled off, fiscal growth would remain possible only so long as the size of their product was increased. Size restrictions were thus written into building code at the federal level and adopted by municipalities throughout the US. Banks quickly followed suit by providing loans only for houses large enough to warrant the cost of the land on which they would sit. Local zoning, in turn, ensured exorbitant land costs by generally demanding that each little house sit on a parcel no smaller than one required for a large structure. It is now literally illegal to build a new small home in most populated areas of the United States. And, even if it weren’t, financing the construction of such a dwelling would still be all but impossible.”
Now tell me that isn’t a kick in the pants? You’re basically forced to pay for more house and/or land than you need just to pad the pockets of someone else. And people wonder why the housing industry went belly up. In any case, as I mentioned it before, the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company is this great company that makes tiny houses on trailers. That lets them sidestep all the bullshit laws we are currently governed by. Not only are these houses adorable, but they are environmentally friendly! Speaking of environmentally friendly… This is my dream house, the Zero House. The Zero House is an amazing structure that has 650 sq.ft. net usable interior area. 250 sq.ft. covered exterior decks and costs roughly $350,000. Now most people will tell you it’s not worth that price due to the square footage. RUBBISH I say! The Zero House is completely self contained and provides all its own utilities! Solar panels provide enough power that when fully charged you could go up to a week with no sunlight at all and it has its own cistern to collect rain water to filter and provide to the home. It even has a composting system for the toilet that only needs to be emptied once every 6 months. You would never have to pay for electricity, water or sewer ever again! I firmly believe ALL homes should be built to this standard! Check it out!
Some people have even taken plans bought from the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company and built it themselves from mostly recycled materials providing a home for themselves at a fraction of the cost of most homes today. And if you visit the site and see these homes you might say “I couldn’t live in something that small”. But you know what? It’s not about that. It’s about living in the space you need. Do you NEED to have all these rooms in your house when you probably spend most of your time in like two of those rooms? I know for me I spend the majority of my time in my bedroom. The bathroom and kitchen are the next most visited. I am almost NEVER in my living room or the front office in my current house but I still have to vacuum them sadly.
While the whole tiny house thing might be too tiny for most people, I firmly believe there are a lot of great ideas that could be adopted from them. Solar panels should be part of standard construction of EVERY home. Cisterns to handle your own water needs, not only saves on the cost of infrastructure, but it also saves you the owner money on a water bill. The whole composting thing? Well I am fairly sure most folk wouldn’t want to deal with that even twice a year but that’s an opportunity for a whole new business to arise for waste removal instead of tearing up land for sewer lines. Not every one of these ideas might be palatable but looking at the innovations of tiny and eco-friendly homes and adapting them to the mainstream will lead us to a brighter healthier future for our planet.
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