_:ncd4ef894e97344a9b3255c86dced51fbxb598
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"I'm a New Yorker via the borough of Queens.  I live in a tiny house by most standards.  It's an attached row house on a plot of land 100' long by 18' wide, the house has 3 floors and is 18' wide by 32' long. It was built in 1927 when people had maybe 3 outfits and 3 generations lived in it and had between 2 to 8 kids. There are 3 floor, a basement no frills and unfinished very much the way the house came. there is the furnace, hot water heater, all the meters to monitor usage, a washer, now a dryer...yes there wasn't a dryer till 13 years ago...the wash line was the way to go inside and out, a big old scrub sink with 2 big chambers, an old fashioned sink with separate spigots for hot and cold, a toilet in a box..yes walls were built around it on 2 sides for privacy...lol, way back was a stove to heat hot water to scrub clothes in the scrub sink cause that's how you did it.  Main floor is a gally kitchen where if your tall enough you could touch the side walls, and the door to the yard and a window, the kitchen originally contained, a sink, a stove no counter space, a built in dish closet, a table and chairs,and the fridge which was a ballet to use, (11 years ago I added a full bathroom off the kitchen which included a space for the fridge and more storage. Off the kitchen the dinning room which had 2 windows to the yard, now a French door to the yard, and then the living room 3 windows, the front door, the stairs to the 2nd floor the front door, a former nature gas when natural gas had no smell and vented into the room fire place. It's comfortable space.  3 bedrooms 2 large one is the size of a closet, a bathroom small a tub/shower, sink, toilet.  The closets are small each room has windows.  Great for a family with 2 kids nowadays.  But back then everyone was on top of each other...there wasn't a lot of stuff back them and there were up to 11 people living in it.  Oh and the electric is fun the house has limited outlets for today's usage...lol.  Back them it was a few lamps and a radio. Today over load a circuit and your going to the basement to reset it...lol\r\n\r\nNow I feel a prerequisite to live in a tiny house should to be to live in a railroad apartment. My grandparents had one.  They are usually in 6 family apartment buildings in Brooklyn. For the uneducated a railroad apartment only has 3 doors in it. Back then there could be up to 12 or more people living in it multiple generations again. The front door which was usually locked and blocked off cause the space was needed located in the parlor, not living room there were 2 Windows looking out to the street. There was a bedroom as part of that room as well. An arch way takes you to the next small dungeon like bedroom, the only window was the air shaft, the foot of a twin sized bed was in the walk way..nothing larger could fit but a twin if you wanted furniture like a night stand and dresser. A full would be next to the wall like the twin but no furniture maybe a tiny night table a light was on the celling. Archway and wall of air shaft to the next bedroom also the foot of that bed was in the walkway.  This was the big bedroom you could have a full maybe a queen, with no furniture, the other side of the air shaft with a window, a full wall of closets and draws were built into the wall as this is where the apartment gets a bit wider narrowing the communal halway the apartments shared. An archway to the kitchen/ dinning room/ bathroom.  The 2nd door is here, which became the main entrance to the apartment as most of life took place in the kitchen. This door leads  to the shared hallway, and dumb waiter, the dinning room aka kitchen table &amp; chairs, TV, stove, built in dish closet, and draws, the fridge which was an ice box in the old days, the kitchen sink which was a huge scrub sink that some took baths in, it had 2 sides to it, 2 windows, now the bathroom was not originally part of that apartment when it was built. It was an adventure to use the bathroom in my grandparents apartment.  It was next to the fridge, it had a small window, originally the tub was off to the side and filled with a bucket till plumbing was updated, a wall was built around the tub butted up right next to the tub was the toilet, above it the medicine cabinet. Now using the toilet was a trip as the 3rd door need to be open to remove your trousers and pull them up as the door in my grandparents apartment missed your knees by a few inches..even for toddlers...lol. It was fun the whole kitchen could hear everything lol.  \r\n\r\nThere is NO PRIVACY in a railroad apartment, you can hear and see everything, if you have to use the facilities in the night and your parents are getting busy, your walking through! Often 2-4 people slept in a bed!  If your chasing your siblings through the rooms is an adventure run straight, run like a crab, run straight, run like a crap, and so on till you reach either of the big rooms.  There is no sneaking in late, cause your walking through everyone's bedroom. Forget outlets as there really weren't many.  THERE IS NO PRIVACY AT ALL!  In parts of Brooklyn and Queens these apartments are going for $3,000 a month now!\r\n\r\nNow the way things used to work, were you lived in a tenement in Brooklyn or Manhattan till you could afford a house, then move into one of the row houses or a house in Queens, and scrimped and saved for a big house out the island.   \r\n\r\nThe smart fools wanting a tiny house should be made to live in an old railroad apartment first. They can experience the cramped living quarters and lack of privacy, the togetherness, till they see if the like it.  \r\n\r\nI'll never forget the joy of everyone hearing me use the bathroom in my grandparents apartment.  When I left the bathroom there was always the question did everything come out ok!  Or that was musical! Then going over to the kitchen sink to wash up afterwards.  Such great times....it was really was, I knew all the neighbor's, they knew me.  We kept the kitchen door open the apartment next door kept theirs open. If there was a bathroom emergency you could go next door if no on was using theirs. Ridding in the dumb waiter, it used to be for the coal to run the stove to heat the water till gas came.  I believe there was an outhouse at one point.  Or a bucket....yes way back they used buckets.  I'm only 49 and have many, many old time experience. \r\n\r\nIt seems these people want to go back in time...till they realize that they need to really cooperate and like each other.  Those days people were connected to each other there were no cell phones they talked not texted to each other."
<http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2016/04/05/an-open-letter-to-tiny-house-hunters/?replytocom=670610>