The Tiny House Movement

"According to Mr. Janzen, he came to the realization that 'I don't want this life - the life of someone who's working too hard to pay a large mortgage to live in this house.' The catalyst, he said, was watching the value of his home plummet with the rest of the real estate market, while the time and money required to maintain the property only increased. 'The energy cost is enormous,' he said, 'and the bigger your property gets, the more there is to do.'

Which is why Mr. Janzen has become interested in the small house movement, whose adherents believe in minimizing one's footprint - structural as well as carbon - by living in spaces that are smaller than 1,000 square feet and, in some cases, smaller than 100. Tiny houses have been a fringe curiosity for a decade or more, but devotees believe the concept's time has finally arrived."