I think the implication is that when he was a kid, houses were smaller, and what we now think of as “houses” would have been “mansions”. I think he’s wrong, but I think that’s what he means.
I think no one likes being called “tiny,” even though a tiny person [aka kid] would fit best in a tiny house, That’s not very funny, but apparently it’s good enough for comic work.
However, the “tiny house” movement is also known to avoid minimum structural size statutes by building on wheels and making portable tiny houses.
Part of a trend of minimalism that some people find appealing and others might find a financial necessity.
On TV today, I heard a Predators (hockey) player described as tiny. I looked him up and found him listed as 5′ 9″ — my height. Irrationally, I took offense.
Our house was built in 1949-50. It is 30x 20 feet on each floor, two floors with full basement. My parents house must be close to twice size of it and was bought in 1958. Now in this area they are buying and knocking houses and building new ones that take up almost the entire land plot.
The people in this house and the one next door raised 3 children each in the house. Robert and I fill it completely on our own and I really wish there was another bedroom big enough for an office so I could have my own.
In response to the post-WWII housing crunch, developers threw up houses that were fairly small. I had a friend who lived in such a house. 2 BR, living room, dining room, kitchen and bath in about 800 square feet. That’s a couple hundred square feet smaller than the Craftsman homes a few streets away that were built in the 1910s and 20s. That’s probably what Arlo is referring to, but he’s wrong. Tiny houses are considered to start below 400 square feet, and what most people think of when they hear the term is houses under 100 square feet (often on wheels).
A reference to the rise of McMansions, where they cover almost the entire lot with house?
My kids used to watch the tiny house programs, so I’m up on them. I grew up and was born in a house build in 1951. Not giant – 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths and a basement, but a lot bigger than any of the tiny houses I’ve seen.
There were some really cheap tiny houses on the southern plains (Woody Guthrie country, not Arlo) when I was a kid way, way, back in the day. Some of the monstrous cars parked next to them looked bigger than the houses.
I think Arthur had it right, in first comment. That’s what Arlo means, but he’s wrong – the “tiny houses” are much smaller than even the smaller of the postwar tract homes.
And, I’ve come to realize, no matter how large the house, without a basement and attic, there is NEVER enough storage space!
My extended family has been in town for my grandfather’s funeral — not tragic; if you can manage to die at 96 years old of nothing in particular other than being 96, in your own bed, in the house that you built with your own hands, with the woman you’ve loved for over 75 years holding your hand, YOU WIN –, and they were talking about the house in question. The original house he build was three tiny bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a dining room/living room. When the house was that size, my grandmother and grandfather and their four kids lived there — two boys and two girls — and they ran their contracting business out of it.
Now, that original piece is barely a quarter of the total square footage, and, for the past 50 years, it’s been the two of them, and they ran the business out of a building in the center of town that was nearly the same size again. Heck, their ski cabin in Vermont has more square footage than the house they raised four kids and ran a business out of.
That original house wouldn’t have counted as a “tiny house” — < 400 sq ft — but it would have counted as a "small house" — < 1000 sq ft. As such, I count Arlo's comment as "True Enough For A Punchline."
I think that Arlo has it right. I’ve seen several stories on how people manage to live in their “tiny home” and, when you read the story, you find out it’s somewhere between 700-1000 square feet. People in the USA have very distorted concepts about how to live.
In the 1960s, the average newly built single family dwelling in the US was about 1500 square feet, Today it is around 2700. It may be an exaggeration, but Arlo has a point.
I’m in the second floor apartment of a two-flat, and the family downstairs had 3 kids living at home, while I, living alone, struggled to find enough space for my stuff in the same size apartment.
And if they fought, they did it in whispers, because I never heard it.
I’m still in awe of them.
To me a Tiny House is like the trailers and mobile homes of old:
A side note: to think the American dream was about moving up from a tiny one-room shack to a reasonably-sized home with all the amenities, only for a generation to apparently want to reverse the old trend.
Yet the house Arlo and Janis live in was likely built in the 60s or earlier. It’s not as if every existing home was bulldozed in 2005.
Grawlix, I don’t think there is much in common with trailers in mobile home, except that is a limited amount of space. Trailers and mobile homes are cheaply made and ugly as anything. The “tiny homes” that get attention typically show better design, construction, and fittings. There is, however, a sub-category for the home-made stuff. Like trailers and mobile homes, however, many places, particularly in larger countries like USA and Canada, won’t allow these small houses to be constructed. You’ll find a lot of them that are built on trailer frames not because the owners want to pull them around but so they can skirt zoning prohibitions.
I think the movement is, in part at least, due to the fact that so many people who have been working hard find themselves out of owning a place of their own. The tiny home might be small, but is a space all to yourself, free of roommates. And seeing friends and family who have struggled to try to own larger houses, perhaps even being foreclosed after 2008 bank boondoggle, they’re wary taking on huge debt.
My wife loves to watch the Tiny House shows, and occasionally gets me to join her. Some of them show really amazing engineering ingenuity, to cram a whole lot of function into a tiny space.
And as for the McMansions, I sold my first house (a pseudo-Eichler tract home to someone who squeezed a McMansion onto the lot. It was great for me, because I didn’t have to clean up my place at all. I went back for a look, later, and the only phrase that fit was “sore thumb.”
The mobile version of tiny houses now leads to the phenomenon of people having their houses stolen. There was a case a while back in St. Louis where a woman passing through had her tiny house swiped. I think the idiots that stole it didn’t really realize the novelty. Had they jacked an RV or trailer, no big deal. But because it was a tiny house, it’s on ALL the news, with bystander reports of the truck that hooked up to it, with pictures and video of the pilfered domicile. Because of course the sort of person that would have that would also have lots of pictures and videos.
So, here’s this distinctive tiny house, on all the news reports, on social media, AND in their hoosier backyard now. Oops. Anonymous tip and all that, and the teeny chateau was returned to the owner.
Okay, I was going to mention our “tiny house” – our RV. To refresh memory it is what is called a Class B RV. It is a Chevy Express Van converted to an RV. Ours is the second smallest size the company that made it made when we bought it.
I t has the front 2 driving seats – which turn around at night to use as seats for the evening. There is a third seat behind the front passenger seat that is a box with seat cushions – seat lifts up for access to storage in the box.
The back 6+ feet is the bed. It is also if not made up as a bed 2 parallel seating benches (which cannot be used when driving) along the walls (think diner booth) and there is a connecting piece across in the rear which can have a cushion (stored in our house basement) on it during the day to allow 2 (small) people to sit there – but we also took out the 2 seat belts as they made too noise when driving (everything makes too much noise when driving) so no one can sit back there – not that we have anyone to do so. There is actually a table to use between the two benches (screws into the floor), but we do not set it up as we leave the bed made up when traveling. To assemble the bed – pieces of plywood are placed between the seats, the seat cushions slide together in the center, the seat back cushions fill in on either side of the seat cushions and two small arm rest cushions fit in the back corners. Sounds simple, right? Try putting sheets and blankets on a bed that goes from wall to wall, headboard to kitchen cabinet on one side of the aisle that meets it at the foot and the toilet compartment on the other – allowing about 2.5 feet to stand to make up the bed. (Takes me about 45 minutes and involves making up each side of the bed separately so one goes in and out of the bed at the center line.) One side of th bed is 6’6″ the other (my) is 6’3″ long and the bed is 6 feet wide. There are 3 cubbys over the bed. Since we leave the bed made up we pick up storage under the bed in the aisle – 4 cubbies under the bed – 2 under each side – one has the second water tank in it (aka the inside tank) and an empty area with the car jack in the along the wall of the RV also. Front cubby under the bed on the other side has the water pump, water heater and other water controls (two tanks – can function as one or can be used separately or just one of them), the second compartment on this side is empty for storage. Under the back part of the seat, accessible mostly from outside through the back doors is another storage are – 4 laundry basket across in size as we use same to organize it.
There is a closet right behind the driver’s seat – it holds 12 shirts on hangers – we put in hanging sweater shirts and fit in clothes for the two of us for a week. The kitchen is between the closet and the bed. It has a 2 burner propane stove, tiny sink, dorm size fridge (ac/dc – did not get one that also runs on propane) under the sink, there is an actual kitchen cabinet under the stove, two shelves with doors that close the front of them over all this with a microwave next to it.
Behind the third seat is the toilet closet. In the floor of the aisle there is a piece of metal that lifts off and there is a drain in the floor – the shower curtain is stored in the toilet cabinet and pulls out and there is a hand held shower head in the front corner of the toilet cabinet – when one sits in the toilet cabinet, the door has to be open (in full view of the bed) and one sits (or stands) with feet in the aisle. There are newer models that have a toilet in an enclosed shower in this area – but then one loses the third seat and storage in it. There is a hanging cabinet right behind the toilet closet – largest storage inside the RV.
I am 5’1″ and can almost lie flat in the aisle area between the toilet and the kitchen. That is basically the walking around room in the RV. There is additional storage along the exterior of the driver’s side of the RV which contains the electrical and water connections, and we have added a loose TV cable to use, ramps to level it when the space is not level, and assorted water and electrical items in small boxes that might be needed. In front of this storage is where the hose and valves for “dumping are located. The main water tank is under and behind the kitchen area. The two water tanks are filled through door openings – the main one through in the frame of the driver’s door, the other in the frame of the passenger rear door.
The entire length of the van/RV is 21 feet including the engine and the spare tire on the back – so the inside is maybe 18 ft long total at most and probably shorter. It is about 6 ft wide across inside. This makes it under 108 sq ft. The ceiling is maybe 6 ft high – I hit my head on places in it.
That’s our small house – and there was a model smaller than this when we bought this one.
“That’s our small house . . . ”
But . . . you don’t LIVE in it full-time. With kids. Imagine if you put your bears and everything else you own in there, too.
Andréa – no WE don’t. But husband knows (through the Internet) many couples who do live in it full time and most of them have 2 or more LARGE dogs living with them in it. There are also people who travel with their children or grandchildren in it.
Now, to be fair. we did not take the automatic seat for the rear of the van that lies down into the bed,as one loses the storage under the head of the bed (from outside through the back van doors) and one also loses one of the compartments on the floor on each side of the back. If we had that it might be easier to make up the bed as one could make up the auto back seat and then pull the sheets over the front end, instead of leaving the bed made up all the time, which would give us more room during the day. But, since many to most people bought theirs based on what was on the floor of the dealership and did not read the brochure, they are shocked to hear about the manual bed we have and think it a much better idea.
Also other people do not bother to make the beds – just set it up and sleep in sleeping bags.
Of course we bought it not for “RVing” or for camping, but as a personal, movable hotel room.
When we first bought it we could not imagine fitting everything we needed in it. Now we have gotten to the point where we often have to use empty plastic shopping bags and sweatshirts and jackets to stuff storage areas which do not have enough stuff in them to keep what is in them from moving about while driving – and no matter how well I pack it to keep things from bouncing around – on our way through NY’s horrible roads – it all bounces around. Once before we figured out why THE drawer did not stay closed, we had to pull into a very small NYC shopping center so I could run and shut the drawer (it was missing the cutting board which helped weight it into place and we added velcro straps to make sure it stays closed in transit. The front table slides in between the kitchen cabinet and the closet and has matching closing front. Many times while in transit it opens and slides out (then again we did take off the large portion of it at the hinge and leave same home) and I will reach up to a shelf at the top of the RV and take out a “grabber” – open it, push the table in and the front closed with it and then fold and put the grabber back – does anyone remember (a real geezer) Mona McCluskey’s kitchen cabinets?
Comics I Don't Understand 
I think the implication is that when he was a kid, houses were smaller, and what we now think of as “houses” would have been “mansions”. I think he’s wrong, but I think that’s what he means.
I think no one likes being called “tiny,” even though a tiny person [aka kid] would fit best in a tiny house, That’s not very funny, but apparently it’s good enough for comic work.
However, the “tiny house” movement is also known to avoid minimum structural size statutes by building on wheels and making portable tiny houses.
Part of a trend of minimalism that some people find appealing and others might find a financial necessity.
On TV today, I heard a Predators (hockey) player described as tiny. I looked him up and found him listed as 5′ 9″ — my height. Irrationally, I took offense.
Our house was built in 1949-50. It is 30x 20 feet on each floor, two floors with full basement. My parents house must be close to twice size of it and was bought in 1958. Now in this area they are buying and knocking houses and building new ones that take up almost the entire land plot.
The people in this house and the one next door raised 3 children each in the house. Robert and I fill it completely on our own and I really wish there was another bedroom big enough for an office so I could have my own.
In response to the post-WWII housing crunch, developers threw up houses that were fairly small. I had a friend who lived in such a house. 2 BR, living room, dining room, kitchen and bath in about 800 square feet. That’s a couple hundred square feet smaller than the Craftsman homes a few streets away that were built in the 1910s and 20s. That’s probably what Arlo is referring to, but he’s wrong. Tiny houses are considered to start below 400 square feet, and what most people think of when they hear the term is houses under 100 square feet (often on wheels).
A reference to the rise of McMansions, where they cover almost the entire lot with house?
My kids used to watch the tiny house programs, so I’m up on them. I grew up and was born in a house build in 1951. Not giant – 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths and a basement, but a lot bigger than any of the tiny houses I’ve seen.
There were some really cheap tiny houses on the southern plains (Woody Guthrie country, not Arlo) when I was a kid way, way, back in the day. Some of the monstrous cars parked next to them looked bigger than the houses.
If this is today’s comic, they are really behind the times. I think, too, that this movement, such as it is, is more popular/accepted in countries without all the land USA has (The Netherlands, for example). There are some lovely ones, but I get claustrophobic just lookin’ at the pics . . .
https://www.google.com/search?q=tiny+houses&client=firefox-b&sxsrf=ACYBGNR-MKsvOC4m7FmNvvOOqQrllFU9NQ:1577976135001&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiElfaXk-XmAhXbZs0KHSgZBI0Q_AUoAnoECA4QBA
I think Arthur had it right, in first comment. That’s what Arlo means, but he’s wrong – the “tiny houses” are much smaller than even the smaller of the postwar tract homes.
And, I’ve come to realize, no matter how large the house, without a basement and attic, there is NEVER enough storage space!
My extended family has been in town for my grandfather’s funeral — not tragic; if you can manage to die at 96 years old of nothing in particular other than being 96, in your own bed, in the house that you built with your own hands, with the woman you’ve loved for over 75 years holding your hand, YOU WIN –, and they were talking about the house in question. The original house he build was three tiny bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a dining room/living room. When the house was that size, my grandmother and grandfather and their four kids lived there — two boys and two girls — and they ran their contracting business out of it.
Now, that original piece is barely a quarter of the total square footage, and, for the past 50 years, it’s been the two of them, and they ran the business out of a building in the center of town that was nearly the same size again. Heck, their ski cabin in Vermont has more square footage than the house they raised four kids and ran a business out of.
That original house wouldn’t have counted as a “tiny house” — < 400 sq ft — but it would have counted as a "small house" — < 1000 sq ft. As such, I count Arlo's comment as "True Enough For A Punchline."
I think that Arlo has it right. I’ve seen several stories on how people manage to live in their “tiny home” and, when you read the story, you find out it’s somewhere between 700-1000 square feet. People in the USA have very distorted concepts about how to live.
In the 1960s, the average newly built single family dwelling in the US was about 1500 square feet, Today it is around 2700. It may be an exaggeration, but Arlo has a point.
I’m in the second floor apartment of a two-flat, and the family downstairs had 3 kids living at home, while I, living alone, struggled to find enough space for my stuff in the same size apartment.
And if they fought, they did it in whispers, because I never heard it.
I’m still in awe of them.
To me a Tiny House is like the trailers and mobile homes of old:
https://mobilehomeliving.org/how-the-mobile-home-stigma-began/
A side note: to think the American dream was about moving up from a tiny one-room shack to a reasonably-sized home with all the amenities, only for a generation to apparently want to reverse the old trend.
Yet the house Arlo and Janis live in was likely built in the 60s or earlier. It’s not as if every existing home was bulldozed in 2005.
Grawlix, I don’t think there is much in common with trailers in mobile home, except that is a limited amount of space. Trailers and mobile homes are cheaply made and ugly as anything. The “tiny homes” that get attention typically show better design, construction, and fittings. There is, however, a sub-category for the home-made stuff. Like trailers and mobile homes, however, many places, particularly in larger countries like USA and Canada, won’t allow these small houses to be constructed. You’ll find a lot of them that are built on trailer frames not because the owners want to pull them around but so they can skirt zoning prohibitions.
I think the movement is, in part at least, due to the fact that so many people who have been working hard find themselves out of owning a place of their own. The tiny home might be small, but is a space all to yourself, free of roommates. And seeing friends and family who have struggled to try to own larger houses, perhaps even being foreclosed after 2008 bank boondoggle, they’re wary taking on huge debt.
My wife loves to watch the Tiny House shows, and occasionally gets me to join her. Some of them show really amazing engineering ingenuity, to cram a whole lot of function into a tiny space.
And as for the McMansions, I sold my first house (a pseudo-Eichler tract home to someone who squeezed a McMansion onto the lot. It was great for me, because I didn’t have to clean up my place at all. I went back for a look, later, and the only phrase that fit was “sore thumb.”
The mobile version of tiny houses now leads to the phenomenon of people having their houses stolen. There was a case a while back in St. Louis where a woman passing through had her tiny house swiped. I think the idiots that stole it didn’t really realize the novelty. Had they jacked an RV or trailer, no big deal. But because it was a tiny house, it’s on ALL the news, with bystander reports of the truck that hooked up to it, with pictures and video of the pilfered domicile. Because of course the sort of person that would have that would also have lots of pictures and videos.
So, here’s this distinctive tiny house, on all the news reports, on social media, AND in their hoosier backyard now. Oops. Anonymous tip and all that, and the teeny chateau was returned to the owner.
Okay, I was going to mention our “tiny house” – our RV. To refresh memory it is what is called a Class B RV. It is a Chevy Express Van converted to an RV. Ours is the second smallest size the company that made it made when we bought it.
I t has the front 2 driving seats – which turn around at night to use as seats for the evening. There is a third seat behind the front passenger seat that is a box with seat cushions – seat lifts up for access to storage in the box.
The back 6+ feet is the bed. It is also if not made up as a bed 2 parallel seating benches (which cannot be used when driving) along the walls (think diner booth) and there is a connecting piece across in the rear which can have a cushion (stored in our house basement) on it during the day to allow 2 (small) people to sit there – but we also took out the 2 seat belts as they made too noise when driving (everything makes too much noise when driving) so no one can sit back there – not that we have anyone to do so. There is actually a table to use between the two benches (screws into the floor), but we do not set it up as we leave the bed made up when traveling. To assemble the bed – pieces of plywood are placed between the seats, the seat cushions slide together in the center, the seat back cushions fill in on either side of the seat cushions and two small arm rest cushions fit in the back corners. Sounds simple, right? Try putting sheets and blankets on a bed that goes from wall to wall, headboard to kitchen cabinet on one side of the aisle that meets it at the foot and the toilet compartment on the other – allowing about 2.5 feet to stand to make up the bed. (Takes me about 45 minutes and involves making up each side of the bed separately so one goes in and out of the bed at the center line.) One side of th bed is 6’6″ the other (my) is 6’3″ long and the bed is 6 feet wide. There are 3 cubbys over the bed. Since we leave the bed made up we pick up storage under the bed in the aisle – 4 cubbies under the bed – 2 under each side – one has the second water tank in it (aka the inside tank) and an empty area with the car jack in the along the wall of the RV also. Front cubby under the bed on the other side has the water pump, water heater and other water controls (two tanks – can function as one or can be used separately or just one of them), the second compartment on this side is empty for storage. Under the back part of the seat, accessible mostly from outside through the back doors is another storage are – 4 laundry basket across in size as we use same to organize it.
There is a closet right behind the driver’s seat – it holds 12 shirts on hangers – we put in hanging sweater shirts and fit in clothes for the two of us for a week. The kitchen is between the closet and the bed. It has a 2 burner propane stove, tiny sink, dorm size fridge (ac/dc – did not get one that also runs on propane) under the sink, there is an actual kitchen cabinet under the stove, two shelves with doors that close the front of them over all this with a microwave next to it.
Behind the third seat is the toilet closet. In the floor of the aisle there is a piece of metal that lifts off and there is a drain in the floor – the shower curtain is stored in the toilet cabinet and pulls out and there is a hand held shower head in the front corner of the toilet cabinet – when one sits in the toilet cabinet, the door has to be open (in full view of the bed) and one sits (or stands) with feet in the aisle. There are newer models that have a toilet in an enclosed shower in this area – but then one loses the third seat and storage in it. There is a hanging cabinet right behind the toilet closet – largest storage inside the RV.
I am 5’1″ and can almost lie flat in the aisle area between the toilet and the kitchen. That is basically the walking around room in the RV. There is additional storage along the exterior of the driver’s side of the RV which contains the electrical and water connections, and we have added a loose TV cable to use, ramps to level it when the space is not level, and assorted water and electrical items in small boxes that might be needed. In front of this storage is where the hose and valves for “dumping are located. The main water tank is under and behind the kitchen area. The two water tanks are filled through door openings – the main one through in the frame of the driver’s door, the other in the frame of the passenger rear door.
The entire length of the van/RV is 21 feet including the engine and the spare tire on the back – so the inside is maybe 18 ft long total at most and probably shorter. It is about 6 ft wide across inside. This makes it under 108 sq ft. The ceiling is maybe 6 ft high – I hit my head on places in it.
That’s our small house – and there was a model smaller than this when we bought this one.
“That’s our small house . . . ”
But . . . you don’t LIVE in it full-time. With kids. Imagine if you put your bears and everything else you own in there, too.
Andréa – no WE don’t. But husband knows (through the Internet) many couples who do live in it full time and most of them have 2 or more LARGE dogs living with them in it. There are also people who travel with their children or grandchildren in it.
Now, to be fair. we did not take the automatic seat for the rear of the van that lies down into the bed,as one loses the storage under the head of the bed (from outside through the back van doors) and one also loses one of the compartments on the floor on each side of the back. If we had that it might be easier to make up the bed as one could make up the auto back seat and then pull the sheets over the front end, instead of leaving the bed made up all the time, which would give us more room during the day. But, since many to most people bought theirs based on what was on the floor of the dealership and did not read the brochure, they are shocked to hear about the manual bed we have and think it a much better idea.
Also other people do not bother to make the beds – just set it up and sleep in sleeping bags.
Of course we bought it not for “RVing” or for camping, but as a personal, movable hotel room.
When we first bought it we could not imagine fitting everything we needed in it. Now we have gotten to the point where we often have to use empty plastic shopping bags and sweatshirts and jackets to stuff storage areas which do not have enough stuff in them to keep what is in them from moving about while driving – and no matter how well I pack it to keep things from bouncing around – on our way through NY’s horrible roads – it all bounces around. Once before we figured out why THE drawer did not stay closed, we had to pull into a very small NYC shopping center so I could run and shut the drawer (it was missing the cutting board which helped weight it into place and we added velcro straps to make sure it stays closed in transit. The front table slides in between the kitchen cabinet and the closet and has matching closing front. Many times while in transit it opens and slides out (then again we did take off the large portion of it at the hinge and leave same home) and I will reach up to a shelf at the top of the RV and take out a “grabber” – open it, push the table in and the front closed with it and then fold and put the grabber back – does anyone remember (a real geezer) Mona McCluskey’s kitchen cabinets?