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Video: Family Lives in 320-Square-Foot 'Shotgun Shack' (vid and story)
realestate.aol.com ^ | 6-1-11 | Stefanos Chen

Posted on 06/03/2011 6:46:49 PM PDT by dynachrome

Having trouble qualifying for a home loan? Then consider what this inventive family of three did and buy yourself a Mississippi-style "shotgun shack."

Sick of working two jobs apiece to pay the mortgage on their 2,000-square-foot home, Debra and her husband Gary decided to give it all up and start over – by purchasing a 320-square-foot shack for $15,000 cash.

The video below, first submitted to the blog faircompanies.com on an open call for videos of tiny homes, shows the couple and their teenage son living mortgage-free in their surprisingly spacious abode.

The home includes a walk-in closet, conventional-sized appliances and even a lofted bedroom for their son that, the family boasts, is big enough to host sleepovers. Watch the video below to see just how far a little ingenuity can take you, even in today's prohibitive mortgage market.

(Excerpt) Read more at realestate.aol.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: downsizing; mississippi; tinyhome
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To: dynachrome

That is not a shack. I’ve lived in a couple of old WWII houses that were about 700 sq ft. One, hubby always laughed about he couldn’t turn around too fast in the tiny bathroom or he’d end up having se... well, you know. It was much easier to keep clean but I want a kitchen where I can at least get a good back swing on a skillet.


21 posted on 06/03/2011 7:14:20 PM PDT by bgill (Kenyan Parliament - how could a man born in Kenya who is not even a native American become the POTUS)
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To: La Lydia

I wonder what type of college degrees Gary and Debra earned?


22 posted on 06/03/2011 7:14:20 PM PDT by trumandogz
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To: dynachrome

I live in a house roughly 2 1/2 times the one I was raised in with both my parents and 4 brothers and one sister. Do I need all this space? No. Could I live in much less space. Yes, if I had to.


23 posted on 06/03/2011 7:14:55 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Islam is the religion of Satan and Mohammed was his minion.)
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To: 1rudeboy

I thought of this song right away. I’ll never forget the first time I heard this song, back in the eighties. It was by no means a new song but it happened to come on the radio when I was leaving work, and the traffic was all jammed up from a heavy March snow shower. One of those times with no wind and not very cold and it seems like it’s snowing flower petals. Left a mark on me.


24 posted on 06/03/2011 7:17:09 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: marktwain; Paladin2

For a while I lived in a full size, full feature, over the cab camper on the back of a pickup, people thought it was small living quarters and if course it was for a house, but like I told them, it is an utterly fantastic bedroom.


25 posted on 06/03/2011 7:18:24 PM PDT by ansel12 ( JIM DEMINT "I believe [Palins] done more for the Republican Party than anyone since Ronald Reagan")
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To: dynachrome
Well, there's always the Colorado Yurt Company. Actually some of them are quite nice...


26 posted on 06/03/2011 7:19:00 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: cripplecreek

Me too, by myself, but only if it had a large wrap around porch with roof and a 3 car detached garage with a workshop. I would need the loft to have a full height ceiling since that would be my bedroom. Their master bedroom would be my TV/computer room. I would also need a basement with laundry room and closet space down there. And I would need 1/2 acre of land minimum.

I could make that work.


27 posted on 06/03/2011 7:21:05 PM PDT by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
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To: dr_lew

Snowing flower petals. A lovely image.


28 posted on 06/03/2011 7:23:08 PM PDT by ladyjane
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To: dynachrome

Why do people praise “tiny homes”, yet ridicule trailers?


29 posted on 06/03/2011 7:23:45 PM PDT by LibFreeOrDie (Obama promised a gold mine, but will give us the shaft.)
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To: dynachrome
I spend a third of the year sleeping in the truck bed (covered by a shell) of a Nissan Frontier pickup out in the western wilderness.

I love this house!

Now an anecdote from Plutarch: Plato watched Diogenes the Cynic washing mere lentils to eat for his dinner while both were in a public square. Plato approached him and ostensibly said: "Diogenes, if only you'd learn to kowtow to kings, you wouldn't have to eat lentils." To which Diogenes immediately responded: "Plato, if only you'd learn to eat lentils, you wouldn't have to kowtow to kings."

I appreciate those who live simply, and refuse to kowtow to "kings."

30 posted on 06/03/2011 7:23:58 PM PDT by Flycatcher (God speaks to us, through the supernal lightness of birds, in a special type of poetry.)
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To: Joe 6-pack

31 posted on 06/03/2011 7:25:15 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: mamelukesabre

My first apartment was about that size.


32 posted on 06/03/2011 7:25:40 PM PDT by A_perfect_lady (Islam is as Islam does.)
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To: Flycatcher

I’ve been thinking about living in a tent and a Suburban.


33 posted on 06/03/2011 7:28:15 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: dynachrome

tinytexashouses.com/


34 posted on 06/03/2011 7:29:05 PM PDT by deport
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To: Paladin2

An Airstream and a Suburban would be better though.


35 posted on 06/03/2011 7:29:23 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: dynachrome

Did I read it right? No plumbing? Ohhhhkay, I got some five gallon buckets I could send you. LOL.


36 posted on 06/03/2011 7:30:26 PM PDT by momtothree
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To: dynachrome

There’s a company that sells these mini homes as kits. Quite innovative.


37 posted on 06/03/2011 7:31:19 PM PDT by DaxtonBrown (HARRY: Money Mob & Influence (See my Expose on Reid on amazon.com written by me!))
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To: momtothree

“No plumbing?”

building codes for permanent living, at least in colorado, say the house has to be 600 sq. ft. I figure one of those composting toilets might do the trick.


38 posted on 06/03/2011 7:33:01 PM PDT by dynachrome ("Our forefathers didn't bury their guns. They buried those that tried to take them.")
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To: dynachrome
They showed the storage shed next door where they keep their extra stuff, and it's bigger than their house.

I'm sorry, if you need a storage shed that is bigger than your house....... you need a bigger house.

39 posted on 06/03/2011 7:33:04 PM PDT by kara37
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To: dynachrome

If I get a hotel room that small I ask for an upgrade.


40 posted on 06/03/2011 7:33:17 PM PDT by Tainan (Cogito Ergo Conservitus.)
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