Approves


apartment looks like a pain in the ass.

/look, you can even do pushups! Bicepssss. Tricepsssss.

Spongiform: dittybopper: Spongiform: I'm planning on building a small 20x20ish cabin out in the woods and moving into it later this year so I find this relevant to my interests.

I'd love to do something like that. If I ever find myself alone in the World, I'm going to buy a piece of property in the middle of nowhere, get one of those decent sized sheds at Home Depot, insulate it, put a woodstove in it, and go live off the grid.

I'm putting it on the back end of the family farm way back out in the woods. Started clearing a plot already.

Going to do a standard gravel and concrete foundation then build the walls out of cinder block reinforced with rebar and backfilled with cement. Not sure if that's capable of supporting 2 floors but if so I'll do that. Should end up with about 750sq feet which should be more then enough as long as I make efficient use of space.

Not going off grid immediately. It'll cost me about $1500 in materials to run 60 amps worth of electricity out there. Would cost about 10k to go offgrid. So I figure I'll phase it in incrementally. Battery backups first then add solar panels or some such one at a time. I'm not taking any loans out for this so it'll be pay as I go.


With all the concrete on slab, you'd have a prime place for a small cold room / root cellar that should stay pretty cold year round. Ex's dad used to talk about having one like that in his old house around Waverly, VA. and that it would keep a block of ice through the summer.

Are you considering having a window face the sun for winter warmth?

LasssiterBeRight: 258 sqft? I take craps bigger than that ....

How many Courics is that?

Neato, you can fit 3 of his apartments in my shop.

Brought to you by the folks who could fit 160 people in a rail car.

Jonesy Boogieman: Spongiform: dittybopper: Spongiform: I'm planning on building a small 20x20ish cabin out in the woods and moving into it later this year so I find this relevant to my interests.

I'd love to do something like that. If I ever find myself alone in the World, I'm going to buy a piece of property in the middle of nowhere, get one of those decent sized sheds at Home Depot, insulate it, put a woodstove in it, and go live off the grid.

I'm putting it on the back end of the family farm way back out in the woods. Started clearing a plot already.

Going to do a standard gravel and concrete foundation then build the walls out of cinder block reinforced with rebar and backfilled with cement. Not sure if that's capable of supporting 2 floors but if so I'll do that. Should end up with about 750sq feet which should be more then enough as long as I make efficient use of space.

Not going off grid immediately. It'll cost me about $1500 in materials to run 60 amps worth of electricity out there. Would cost about 10k to go offgrid. So I figure I'll phase it in incrementally. Battery backups first then add solar panels or some such one at a time. I'm not taking any loans out for this so it'll be pay as I go.


With all the concrete on slab, you'd have a prime place for a small cold room / root cellar that should stay pretty cold year round. Ex's dad used to talk about having one like that in his old house around Waverly, VA. and that it would keep a block of ice through the summer.

Are you considering having a window face the sun for winter warmth?

If it's structurally possible I'd like to leave the whole 2nd floor facing south open and create a giant window using 2 layers of 4x8 plexiglass. I'll be using a woodstove for heat & cooking when it's cold.

It's definitely more creative than any shiat I ever saw on "MTV Cribs". Dude doesn't even have a Scarface poster. I think a house would be preferable though.

My apartment is half that size. i love it. All you need is shelter, water and food and maybe electricity, but I've lived without and been fine. The rest is unnecessary.

Spongiform: Jonesy Boogieman: Spongiform: dittybopper: Spongiform: I'm planning on building a small 20x20ish cabin out in the woods and moving into it later this year so I find this relevant to my interests.

I'd love to do something like that. If I ever find myself alone in the World, I'm going to buy a piece of property in the middle of nowhere, get one of those decent sized sheds at Home Depot, insulate it, put a woodstove in it, and go live off the grid.

I'm putting it on the back end of the family farm way back out in the woods. Started clearing a plot already.

Going to do a standard gravel and concrete foundation then build the walls out of cinder block reinforced with rebar and backfilled with cement. Not sure if that's capable of supporting 2 floors but if so I'll do that. Should end up with about 750sq feet which should be more then enough as long as I make efficient use of space.

Not going off grid immediately. It'll cost me about $1500 in materials to run 60 amps worth of electricity out there. Would cost about 10k to go offgrid. So I figure I'll phase it in incrementally. Battery backups first then add solar panels or some such one at a time. I'm not taking any loans out for this so it'll be pay as I go.


With all the concrete on slab, you'd have a prime place for a small cold room / root cellar that should stay pretty cold year round. Ex's dad used to talk about having one like that in his old house around Waverly, VA. and that it would keep a block of ice through the summer.

Are you considering having a window face the sun for winter warmth?

If it's structurally possible I'd like to leave the whole 2nd floor facing south open and create a giant window using 2 layers of 4x8 plexiglass. I'll be using a woodstove for heat & cooking when it's cold.


I know it's unsolicited advice, but I've been taking some classes on solar home design and home construction and have a couple of things I'd feel irresponsible not sharing with you:

1. Don't forget to consider having an overhang on all south facing windows to block the summer sun, or that second floor, and any room with a south facing window, will become an oven in the summer. A solid overhang is best, the sun can still get through fabric, and window blinds are in the house and therefore almost completely ineffective in keeping the heat out in summer.

2. Assuming you want to build the second floor window into the roof, consider building it into a wall instead or the rising heat will have much more time on the window surface to cool off and leach out. Then again, with a window that size, especially one made of plexiglass (even two sheets), it wouldn't matter much if it was built into the wall, it will be a seive for the heat in the winter (but would be good for a cold frame / small greenhouse in the garden). Double or triple paned windows are filled with a heavy gas that takes a lot of energy to transfer heat (^)- making them much harder for the warm air in the house to get through the window and leak out to the cold.

3. If I recall correctly, the south facing windows only need at least 12% and at most 17% surface area of the wall to allow for ample winter warmth from the sun. An 4x8 window on a 20x8 (assuming) wall is around 20%. It might not be an issue, but it will be on the warmer side and could mean more heat than you'd be comfortable with.


I don't want to throw shiat on your idea, I would love to do the same thing myself and since I can't right now I'm even more excited to help someone who is able to, if I can.

If you would like, I can email you the notes and handouts I have from my classes so you can read up on some of this stuff. My email is my fark handle with a dot between the y and the B, at gmail.com

Bacontastesgood: devildog123: I like my 3 bedroom/2.5 bath house with a yard better. I know that on fark that makes me some sort of inbred, backwoods loser, but what can I say, I enjoy my space

Way to project and not read the thread. The comments are running 15% likes the tiny space, 30% hates it, and 55% HE'S GAAYYYYY!!!

You forgot the 10% who are bad at math.

Fubegra: No one thought of this? You're slipping...



Then again, I lived in an efficiency apartment a couple of years, I'm guessing 400 sq. ft. or less. It had just a kitchen/dining room, the main room with a genuine Murphy bed, and a small-but-complete bathroom. It was a 1920s-era brick building with lots of wooden trim.

It's not something I'd want to raise a family in, but as a bachelor pad it was just fine, and the rent was cheap.


Or a pic from Lucille Bluth's bathroom renovation in Arrested Development, Season 2, "Queen for a Day" (^)

Isildur: The infantile "OMG gay lol" stuff in this thread reminds me of elementary school. Are people next going to assess whether or not he has cooties?

There are many people who are gay. There are many people who manifest or employ gay-associated mannerisms. If the novelty of this hasn't worn off by the time you're out of college, you've either managed to stay oddly sheltered, or have yet to mature much in general.

Something deliberately over-the-top, say, a testicle-shaped float in a gay pride parade, featuring men atop it dressed as rainbow-striped dicks, who are shooting silly-sting into the crowd, would be grounds for amusement. But in the modern world, someone merely being identifiably gay hardly seems worth mentioning, in-and-of-itself. It's an utterly pointless observation in a context such as this -- he wasn't making a point of throwing gayness in anyone's face, so there's no reason to remark on his sexuality -- just as there is no cause to remark on his accent or haircut.

For example,
"Dude, look at that guy over there; he's straighter than the day is long!"
See how absurd that sounds?

/White-knighting for gays? You can't explain that. [oreilly.jpg]
//and yeah, yeah, I know, [dawson_crying_-_welcome_to_fark.jpg]

Lighten up, Frances.

While that apartment is very cool and all, there are three things that render it unsuitable for me...

(1) No bathtub. Although many people can get by with just a shower stall alone, I'm not one of those people.

(2) No washer/dryer. After living in rental situations with various laundry arrangements for almost two decades now, I've decided that I'll never again go back to a living situation where I'd have to use a launderette.

(3) 5th floor + no elevator + narrow staircase. As a musician with bulky amplifiers etc., this just wouldn't work.

But as far as the living space itself is concerned, I would be very happy in such a tiny, efficiently designed home, although I prefer to utilize the airspace more... e.g., shelves, loft bed, etc.

very practical, very neat.

I however, would not be able to live there,

interestingly enough, because of Dire's exact reasons!

/what's in the space behind the shower/sink area?

lohphat: LL316: It's funny that you get bent out of shape for someone talking down about a group of people and then in the same exact paragraph you do the same. Not at all hypocritical, are you?

Black == born that way
Gay == born that way
Teabagger == willfully ignorant moran

Sadly, I am not convinced that teabaggers have any hope of changing their intellects. Some people are just born stupid.

SpaceyCat: Or, if you know, watched the video... He says right in the first minute that it's meters, not feet.

Watch the video again. Yes he says square meters, but how many? And if you convert that number to square feet, guess what...

SpaceyCat: 0Icky0: Or..you know..not.

Or, if you know, watched the video... He says right in the first minute that it's meters, not feet.

Yes, but he says twenty four square meters, not two hundred and fifty eight.
And since 1m = 3.28ft, that means there is 3.28^2 = 10.76 square feet per square meter.
Multiply that by twenty four and you get... guess what? 258 square feet.
Just like the article and headline say.

Gawdzila: SpaceyCat: 0Icky0: Or..you know..not.

Or, if you know, watched the video... He says right in the first minute that it's meters, not feet.

Yes, but he says twenty four square meters, not two hundred and fifty eight.
And since 1m = 3.28ft, that means there is 3.28^2 = 10.76 square feet per square meter.
Multiply that by twenty four and you get... guess what? 258 square feet.
Just like the article and headline say.

I'm not sure what's worse - that he failed to grasp the numbers/units involved, or that he looked at that apartment and still thought it was 258 square meters.

devildog123: 0Icky0: devildog123: But, you know what? I like my 3 bedroom/2.5 bath house with a yard better. I know that on fark that makes me some sort of inbred, backwoods loser, but what can I say, I enjoy my space

Sure, but that's not the only aspect.
I would rather live in a tiny flat in one of the world's most amazing cities, than live in a huge house in nowheresville.

/But, of course, I'd also rather live in a huge house in one of the world's most amazing cities.

Good for you. I'd rather have the land and the space to go hunting, fishing, and camping. I can visit a city for a couple of days/a week, and after that, they get really boring to me. Enjoy your cities, I'd rather have space and fresh air.

Seconded, though I'm not quite far enough out to hunt on my own little acre plot.

My house is ~1100 square feet, has two full size bedrooms with a jail-cell sized "half bedroom" apparently thrown in for shiats and giggles by the builder back in the 60s. It's on just under an acre of land that's in the metro Atlanta area but just far enough out to be considered the "country". It's not in a subdivision and my only neighbors are a nice old couple on one side and a church on the other, with a cemetery across the street. The house needs a lot of work but I'm good with that sort of thing.

It's absolute heaven, apart from the mosquitoes and bees that invade from April through October. I'm single (well, dating someone but she lives across the big city) and it's all I need for the foreseeable future.

And the best part? My house payment is less than most people's car payment; I paid less than half the appraised value thanks to the housing market crash.

Am I the only one who thought of the walls in Portal/Portal 2?

ciberido: Mrs.Sharpier: Furthermore, I like to have guests over, if I can only have 3 people inside my entire home at any given time, then I would supose my social skills are doing it wrong.

Having guests in your home is kinda an American thing. In a lot of other cultures, you always just meet your friends somewhere (like a bar or whatever), and pretty much never see the inside of your friends' apartments. So the whole idea of "a place big enough to have several friends over at once" probably wouldn't even occur.

It's just one of those cultural things.

Of course, this cultural thing may be due to the fact that they mostly live in tiny apts., meaning that it was never practical in the first place.

I would assume that much of NYC operates in the same way, for the same reason. It's kind of hard to have a party in a shoebox.

Makermook: /White-knighting for gays? You can't explain that. [oreilly.jpg]
//and yeah, yeah, I know, [dawson_crying_-_welcome_to_fark.jpg]

Lighten up, Frances.

Heh, ok, I missed preempting that one.

/noted for future