Have you noticed? Living small has become fashionable in some circles lately. Google “tiny house living” and see what pops up. It’s pretty amazing really.

We’ve been living small since the mid-nineties. Doesn’t seem possible, but we moved to the cottage in ’96. As I’ve mentioned before, we have a 750 square foot living area, a screened porch and a nice sized yard. That’s huge compared to some of the “tiny houses” being built now.

I’ve spent the past month sorting and organizing in my studio and office space, and one of the things that surfaced was an Armstrong Flooring Brochure with a 1985 copyright date. I ordered it back when we first thought about down-sizing and have carefully saved it for nearly 30 years now. I thought, back then, and still think, this would make a perfectly lovely place for two people to live in comfort and style.

I’ll share the brochure with you here, hoping the Armstrong Flooring people will appreciate the plug and not scream copyright infringement. As you can see the building is nearly square – not suitable for trailering around, as some of today’s tiny homes are. I think the idea was perhaps originally designed to be a “mother-in-law suite” in a two car garage. If you want the full size images, click to enlarge, then open in another window. The full size images are 1276 x 1650 pixles, giving full text and details for building. Back in 1985 it was possible to order blueprints from the manufacturer. You’re probably looking at hiring a draftsman to work out the details now, but I can’t imagine it would be a big deal.

The kitchen seems perfectly adequate to me, even without granite counter-tops and stainless appliances, but I expect they could be included if you absolutely could not live without such luxuries. Following along with the tiny house movement, I recently stumbled on an article detailing down-sizing to a mere 200 items. Don’t think I could accomplish that. I do think this space would hold everything I might need though.

Take this dining table / storage island for instance:

I can imagine a candle-lit dinner in front of the fireplace, with a chilled bottle of champagne and a soft gentle storm outside the windows. So.o.o.o charming?

The manufacturer was kind enough to include plans for the table. And again, you may need a draftsman and a fairly accomplished woodworker to the build the unit – but even in our cottage it would be useful.

Another feature of this plan that would be perfect for us is the Greenhouse corner / office. Our orchids could live here quite comfortably, too.

There is also a master bath and bed area, and a nice photo of the general space. I’ll share those in another post.

Did I mention I just love this tiny space. Hope you get an idea or two from it as well.

