The New York Times had an article about small houses in the Escapes section last week. I thought I’d link to it, but I’ll also add the links to the various sites listed in the article in case the article disappears behind the pay-wall.

The article, Think Small, mostly focuses on vacation homes. Vacation homes make great candidates for small houses (those under 750 square feet) since a larger house is going to require more upkeep. One thing you don’t want in a vacation or weekend house is doing upkeep on the house rather than enjoying yourself.

Small houses also make the land more important in comparison to the house. If you are in a small house, more time will be spent outside. And the greater tightness of the house makes the landscape all that much more important.

I have read articles about some of the small houses before, but I’m not sure where. I know I’ve read about smallish houses in Dwell. Dwell has had several articles about pre-manufactured housing, and small houses and pre-manufactured houses can easily go hand-in-hand.

I also saw a posting on Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools site about Tiny Houses, but this isn’t what I was thinking of. It was probably in a long-gone magazine.

Here are some of the sites mentioned in the article.

• Alchemy Architects who make the weeHouse is based in Minnesota.
• BlueSky Mod is out of Toronto.
• Cavco Industries sells barebones cabins
• Tumbleweed Tiny House Company sells several different models, though some are plans only, not manufactured. They also sell tiny houses on wheels that can be moved. They have the greatest focus on tiny houses as they don’t sell larger models unlike some of the other manufacturers.
• Cusato Cottages created the Katrina Cottage for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Currently the cottages are only available in Missippi and Louisiana, but they’ll be selling the houses as kits through Lowe’s some time in spring 2007.
• Tiny Book of Tiny Houses book from the Cool Tools site. The author wrote other books on tiny houses, Tiny Houses: or How to Get Away From It All and A Little House of My Own: 47 Grand Designs for 47 Tiny Houses. I haven’t read any of these books, but I’ll be looking at them soon and may add them to my already hefty book collection.