">HomeOwnerNut

I’ve blogged several times now about the surprising trend among Americans—known more for excess—to fall in love with small homes and cottages. By our standards, many of today’s cabins and portable homes are miniatures, akin to dollhouses. But now, of all places, I’ve found that paragon of West Coast taste, Sunset Magazine, trumpeting the virtues of vacation mini-homes.

Snug as a Snowbug

Sunset Magazine features the 850-square-foot mini-lodge in Winthrop, Washington in its latest issue. It’s located in the Methow Valley, summer home to the state’s apple growing industry.

Extra Twispy

Ray and Mary Johnston of Johnston Architects designed and built this 1,200-square-foot cabin for their family in Twisp, overlooking the Washington Cascades.

Nighty Niche

Sunset editors marveled at the “bed cabinet” that the Johnston’s built into the heart of their Twisp getaway. I love the affect of the sliding barn doors.

Wallowa the Day Away

In the same issue this month, Sunset Magazine featured the diminutive, 130 square-foot cabin built on Wallawa Lake by Mariah Morrow and Ryan Lingard for $57,000, including the acreage.  The couple constructed their tiny getaway six hours from Portland at Joseph, Oregon. The cabin uses wood heat, has no electricity or water. (That’s off the grid!) Ryan, an architect, designed the cabin with its metal roof and cedar siding. The entire project was completed in two weeks.

Small IS Beautiful

If you want a small cabin getaway, or small permanent home, Thoreau devotee Jim Wilkins of White Bear Lake, MN, is here to help with plans. He creates designs for Tiny Green Cabins, which you can take with you, or for permanent small dwellings like the wildflower (pictured).

You gotta love it when Jim says, “There are trade-offs in everything, from owning a big home to a small compact tiny house or cabin; from a long commute wearing expensive suits to a short bicycle ride to a low stressful job; to living green in an earth friendly environment or living in a high rise condo that spills energy into the night. These are all choices, and we are each investing in our thoughts that will produce the life of our choice. Let’s make a smart choice, and rethink our bigness to one of living in harmony in earth-friendly products.”

I recently had a roofing contractor suggest that because I was considering painting my house a dark blue, that I may want to consider blue shingles. Blue. Shingles. On my roof.

Really?

Blue?

And okay, speaking of blue, I once also tiled my kitchen counters in a 2″ blue tile– which looked fabulous, by the way, and just like the Arts & Crafts style I was going for. In the process, however, the contractor who was working on my house at the time suggested that I use a rounded black tile on the lip instead. Blue tile on the top, black tile on the side… no other black in the house mind you, just on the lip, because that’s what he’d seen on special at the Big Box store.

I suggested he remove himself from making any more design decisions about my house and did the lip in matching blue tile, as it should be. But I’m thinking that people who are stressed out with the house building process occasionally listen to people who are best suited for building houses and not picking out paint colors. Which in turn led me to question, how do those truly hideous houses come into existence.

1.) You listened to a contractor who thinks they are a designer. I mean, they build houses all the time so they must know what they are talking about. Right. Right?

You, my friend, are sentenced to the blue roof for 30 to life for that decision. Good luck to you.

2.) You think you are a designer, or know you are not a designer and are just testing out “being creative”. The truth is, there is nothing creative about painting your house purple and orange. You are not on to the next big thing. Its just that no one else does it because it looks horrible.

This isn’t an accidental ugly. This definitely qualifies as an on purpose, and if you live here, you have to take full credit for it.

Side note: These are definitely people who thought they were being creative and failed, as evidenced by the house number placement. I think there is an equal chance that the house number is 5625, or 5265. Not creative. Not functional. Just no.

3.) You just don’t know any better. That color looked so fresh and beachy on the two-inch square paint swatch…

I sympathize. Really, I do. I’ve been stressing over roof colors, trim colors, siding colors, what to color and what not to color, and the end result is anyone’s guess. Here’s the good news for those of you us that just don’t know any better… paint can be painted over.

Bad news… roof shingles can not.