Room for One, Not Two

The first time I ever saw a SmartCar (in the year 2000-nd-nd), I was walking home from a pub near Covent Garden with my friend Stacy. She swung out her arm to stop me, pointed to the tiny gray vehicle tucked neatly between two compacts that looked enormous in comparison, and half-screamed, "It's so cute! I just want to hug it!"

Today's article about tiny houses on nytimes.com discusses a burgeoning movement of building little dwellings whose floor plans range from 75 to 750 square feet. A slide show accompanies the text, and the itty bitty houses it depicts gave me, for the first time in eight years, the urge to exclaim, "I want to hug it!"

Jay Shafer, founder of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, lives in a 96-sq. ft. house, and he gives a virtual tour of the space here. His house is designed more compactly than a boat, with such design elements as a miniature electric fire, built-in bookshelves, and a cabinet containing a mini-fridge and-- the clincher for me-- toaster oven! Like many of the tiny houses I found online, Shafer's resembles a fairy tale cottage. No seven dwarves could fit in here, however, and the sharp slant of the walls in the sleeping loft make me itchy just looking at them.

I thought living in my 400-sq. ft. apartment was tight. Still, I find his and the other tiny houses highly appealing-- they're just so cute.

Above: Jay Shafer's tiny house (courtesy of Telstar Logistics).