Tumbledown Farm .9 Acres (give or take an acre or two)

In one of those moments of pure serendipity, I was reading Joel Salatin's Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front and had just come to the chapter on "Housing" in which he laments that "It's illegal to build a house less than 900 square feet" (quoting a building inspector's response to Daniel Salatin's desire to build an inexpensive house on the family property to preserve the family farm in a seamless transition between the generations) at the same time that our local ABC affiliate ran one of the network's human interest stories about a new breed of tiny houses.

If you are going to "micro-farm" you may as well do it while living in a "micro-home"! This one has the ambiance down to a "T"--barn red paint and all.

Here's a video link from ABC's Good Morning America coverage of one such mini house. This house is a mere 84 square feet! So, who says it's illegal to build a house of less than 900 square feet?! The 6$ utility bill sounds like a dream.

There is a company that will make and ship your micro home, Tortoise Shell Home, which has several models at 8X16 (by my calculation, 128 square feet), with propane heat and solar electricity, for $18,000-$20,000. Yes, you can have a house of under 900 square feet. But is it legal? I don't know. But just think! The micro farm might just be within financial reach with a micro house!

Check out the options at the Tiny House Blog and Resources for Life.

A little pipe dreaming never hurts.