Monday, March 24, 2008

Thin houses or does size matter?


Richardson Place Townhomes
Originally uploaded by In Shaw
This is just a question, how many of you all have thin houses? I'm talking no wider than 16 feet? Some of the houses on Richardson Street (pictured) are about 12 feet wide. My own is 15 feet in the front part and 14 feet in the rear.
There are challenges with thin houses. It seems they come with thin doors and getting furniture in the house is a challenge. Someone might offer a dresser or table to me and I'd have to refuse, partially because there is no way to get it in the house. I got a new-to-me stove (a few decades newer than my old one) and if the doors weren't able to come off, it may have been a question if it would have been able to make it into the house.

4 Comments:

At 3/24/2008 9:10 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm not in Shaw, but I've a thin house- 14' on the outside, 13'2" on the inside. It's also tall- high ceilings on the 3 above ground stories and the one below.

IMO, the biggest challenge is room layout so to make the place seem as open and airy as possible, without making it feel like a tunnel.

 
At 3/24/2008 9:49 AM, Blogger Mari said...

Thanks for your story. But in the future please ID your posts in some way.
-M

 
At 3/24/2008 8:53 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

i have a house that is about 12 feet wide (on the inside). to be frank, i think it's a great size.

you can do searches and see that 700 sqare feet or so was the norm for family homes back at the turn of the century. most homes nowadays have way more space than they actually need. imho, it contributes to the degradation of the family unit. but hey, that's just me on my soapbox.

i have to buy items from compactappliance.com, i've had to install an instantaneous water heater (they are actually more efficient and "green"), buy a washer/dryer unit that cleans and then dries your clothes within one unit, etc. BUT, it's pretty rewarding, and there's definitely less to clean. :o)

they force you to be a bit more creative, but that's actually very rewarding, and much more innovative than trying to fill a big empty space.

but definitely, thin houses aren't for everyone. you have to be a trooper to get it right, but when you do.... WOW.

oh, and i'm in NE DC, not shaw. but the design of these circa 1900 houses are all pretty much the same. i totally dig 'em!

 
At 3/26/2008 10:56 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

We too have a hobbit house -- 12 feet on the outside, 11 on the inside. Unfortunately the back turns into an L so the back room is about 7 feet wide. Total sf, 930.
But it's doable. The biggest drag to me is having to have a 27 inch stove instead of the standard 32".
We like to think it makes us more efficient.
We also live in NE. Looked in Shaw, but I think the "thin" houses weren't as deep.

 

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