I guess by the quick up tick in new additions that the city has the permitting process stream lined.
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WFAA did an piece on them.
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Went and looked at Athens Park Homes in Mansfield and have pretty much decided to get a unit next year. Now the question is, where to put it?
It’s hard for me to see the appeal of a tiny house in an urban environment vs an apartment or condo. Apartments and condos would typically include access to other, shared amenities (pool, workout equipment, rooms for events/parties, et al) to make up for the lack of space. A tiny home setting would not intrinsically have these options.
I do see the tiny house appeal installed in a rural environment (as a second home on mountain/forest acreage, for example). It would seem to me that they’d hold value in that scenario better than a mobile home would.
I do know of horse facilities that use tiny houses as weekend rentals for horse clinics. Their small size and construction method allows them to be treated as temporary structures which don’t permanently impact their real estate property taxes - I believe they are taxed as trailers instead. Note that this is also in a rural environment on acreage.
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So this is a bit of a necro bump, however a number of the participants are still around so I don’t feel too bad about it.
Drove by today out of curiosity because I happened to be in the vicinity. Looks to be full up on tenants. Took a few creeper drive-by photos.
Looks like a dozen units. Parking situation is a bit tight - perhaps 16 spots. But it’s also a tiny (ha!) plot they’re working with.
The density is better than pretty much any slice of post-1945 suburbia on a unit basis. And since the residences are inherently mobile the infrastructure buildout should be pretty cheap and easy-to-maintain; if you glance at the Google Maps street view it’s apparent that there’s no pavement within the area that the units occupy.
If metro areas are going to keep pricing themselves out of reality with abusive rents and unaffordable real estate prices I can see these sorts of properties becoming an alternative - provided they don’t seek rent like mobile home parks have begun to. We might even start to see walkable neighborhoods again.
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A former English teacher (now a librarian in the district) lives in that community. Could speak of her love of it for quite some time. Found out she rents a storage unit for her clothing and other things she can’t quite get rid of.
A (not really all that) related place is https://awesomepossum.app/ we sold our rv to him. It’s a Makerspace type place where people build out skoolies. It’s part gypsy part techno part sparkle hands part burning man.
awesomepossum needs to update their site so the location is listed. I dont even know what city / state this is based out of.
edit, found it in the comment section of a you tube video. they definitely need to fix that.
Plug in “awesome possum van works and recreation” to mainstream search engine(s) and wham-o!
Google spits it right up:
DuckDuckGo is slightly more coy:
and requires a visit over to “totally not our partners” FriendFace:
So yeah, their main site doesn’t obviously state their location (which does seem like something a business owner might want to address) but it isn’t exactly a secret, either, and I’d bet much like DMS, they struggle with “oh, there’s stuff on the Internet that’s NOT on friendface? I had no idea. That’s the only place I ever go for all my information.”
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If your business depends on the Zuck to be your primary internet presence, be prepared to live an exciting life.
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A lot of these intentional communities have moved to not really telling people where they can be found. Not saying that is the case here but I know some are not advertising their locations anymore.
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Probably to minimize NIMBY interest.
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i definitely get the need to ward off NIMBYs. I commented on their youtube to see if that reaches them. I figured even just a “located 30 minutes west of the DFW metroplex” or something would be sufficient.
its a really cool concept, I already referred two people that have already started these projects but need more networking and support etc. (and yes I did try to get them to join the makerspace)
The owners walked us around the property and introduced us to everyone including all the dogs. It’s huge something like 100 acres and includes part of the river. Showed us the shop and the builds that everyone were working on. It really is amazing and a totally unique little slice. I did try to see inside peoples builds but they were open and direct enough to tell me they didn’t want people looking in (I respected the honesty). Everyone was kind and working hard to get on the road. It’s my guess that his place is the connection spot for so many and will likely be a great documentary. Interesting and warm people but also a fierce edge of independence to “norms”.
They are going to rent out our former RV to people who need temporary housing as they build. It was the perfect solution for everyone involved. I didn’t take pictures as we walked and talked because I wanted to be respectful of peoples homes/privacy.
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The easiest or best job on the planet has to be a weatherman in San Diego.
Chip: How does the weather look Dale?
Dale: It’s 76 degrees with a light wind, now to sports.
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…with “Champ” Kind.
Apparently most of Florida is also predictable (except for the hurricanes). “Today, hot and humid. Rain at 3pm.”
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