Small House Opportunity

There's a small house movement encouraging people all over the world to live simply, consume fewer resources, and make a smaller carbon footprint. A big factor in how efficiently and lightly we live is in the size of our houses. A bigger house takes more energy to heat, more resources to build, and occupies more landfill when it is eventually dismantled.

We haven't always craved large homes. The rise of the bigger scale homes is a post World War II phenomenon that exploded in the 1970's and 80's. Today, lots of people spend extra time cleaning and paying for heat and cooling inside homes built for many more occupants and a different lifestyle. Downsizing is in and many are opting for smaller homes.

One of my clients is fixing a 600 square foot dollhouse on a little over half an acre in Santa Rosa. His goal is to correct flaws like an absent foundation, poor room layout, and windows with headers that are too low. He's going to clean up the weeds, cultivate around the small orchard, and do a major enhancement to the energy conservation in the house. The upgraded house will offer efficient insulation in the walls, floors, and ceiling, new double glazed windows, and an efficient heating system. All these upgradew will make this a very small-footprint house from a resource and energy point of view.

Because of the great yard, if an avid gardener wants to plant vegetables to go along with the small orchard, it should be possible to grow almost all the fresh fruits and vegetables a small family would need. Add in a dozen chickens to cluck around eating bugs in the garden and the perfect picture of a bucolic lifestyle begins to emerge.

He hasn't set a price on this small dream of a house, but it will probably be in the mid $200's. In the meantime, he's looking for potential buyers who want to provide input about what they would like to see in the house for extra energy efficiency, resource-sensitive cabinets, environmentally sound floor coverings and window treatments, etc. For my part, I'm looking for suggestions on what should get put into a garden for marketing the house. Corn? Pumpkins? Wildflowers?

I'd love your feedback on small homes in your area and what environmentally conscious buyers are asking for.