Micro Houses

Micro homes are tiny houses, and an exciting new trend in housing options. I define them as ones with less than 500 square feet. Why have more house than you need? A little place is cheap and easy to own and maintain. Consider a micro home.

The micro homes of the Tumbleweed House Company have received a lot of attention over the last few years. They offer tiny houses ranging from 164 square feet to 260 square feet. All are designed to be fully liveable, with bathroom and kitchen.

This Athens Park 399 square foot prefab home is built by a major mobile home manufacturer. It features an unusual design and an attractive covered porch. See the floorplan, photos and a virtual tour.

Minim Micro Homes manufactures a 264 square-foot house that looks quite liveable. It features big windows, pull-out bed with full mattress, kitchen, bathroom, dining table, and a closet.

If the construction process is overwhelming you, consider a prefab. The IdeaBox "minibox" is a modern 430-square-foot prefab house. A clever simple design. Just add furniture and move in.

The kitHAUS modules are fantastic. 117-square-feet to 289-square-feet aluminum-framed modular that can stand-alone or combine for larger structures. This is the future of housing innovation -- strong, efficient, easy-to-assemble kits of parts. If these go into volume production, prices could fall substantially.

The micro compact home is a clever little living-space built in Germany. The tiny box is a fully-functioning home and has been used to house college students.

Escape Homes offers a 400 square foot prefab home. The design features French doors opening onto a large screened porch, and a wall of windows. Attractive cabin style.

Katrina Cottages are small, high-quality house designs born out of post-Hurricane-Katrina housing needs. They have really nice plans for fans of traditional architecture, including 308-square-foot and 416-square-foot versions.

Here's a plan for a 320 square foot 1-bedroom home. Its extremely simple design would be easy to build.

Ross Chapin Architects has tiny house plans from the 307 sq ft Blue Sky Cabin to the 449 sq ft Backyard Cottage. These are beautiful designs for micro homes you can be proud of.

Cheeky Monkey manufactures tiny homes. They have several models sized from 170 sq ft to 357 sq ft. Delivery to anywhere in the US.

Designer Cottages is a micro house spinoff of a large modular home company. They build 464 square foot homes that have great style and lots of windows.

I hope you've found these micro house resources interesting and useful. If you want something a little bigger, check out our small houses. There are options out there -- live in a tiny house if you want to!