A niche market today is small houses, ones big enough to accommodate a person or two provided they don’t have even a fraction of the “stuff” I have tucked away at home.
Some have a living area with a loft for sleeping. All sorts of fancy little innovations provide for such necessities as cooking a meal, as long as you’re not expecting a crowd.
They remind a bit of the post-World War II campers. You know the ones, shaped like a big snail and sheathed with aluminum so they were light enough to be easily towed about by a car.
The only tiny house I remember being in was a couple of miles east of Humboldt. We had friends, who lived in one room — one end being a small kitchen with a pitcher pump — and a couple of small bedrooms along one side. An outhouse completed the living arrangement.
Something similar may be coming back.
During the Re-Imagining Humboldt Summit mention was made of bed-and-breakfast units that are popular in and near Cottonwood Falls. Lark Inn Guest Houses they’re called.
They’re not newly manufactured structures on the small, rather old and often dilapidated houses that have been remodeled and brought up to snuff. Each has a casual theme — some rustic, others like early 20th century cottages, which in most respects is how they started.
All have front porches, conducive to spending a few laid-back hours with a good book or having a neighborly chat. I guess some people still do that, and more should if for nothing else than to exercise the gray matter without the telly interfering. Just think, you might get through an evening without a single word about politics or some contentious or negative topic being broached.
I don’t know how commercially successful they’d be in Humboldt or Iola, but it would be a good alternative to a hotel, which also came up at the Humboldt summit, or a full-fledged B&B. In an approach involving construction, they could be grouped like the old travel courts for nostalgic ambiance.
Why would someone want to come to our towns, you ask.
Why not; there are compelling reasons.
We’ve the proliferation of biking and hiking trails, several festivals and, of course, Humboldt’s raceway has some high-profile events. Workers hereabouts for a few days or several months surely would find a home-away-home more appealing than a room smelling of Lysol, and a bed cramped in with a TV and microwave.
A bold effort would be required to purchase and then refit small one- or two-bedroom houses, though if one of them were about to dance at the wrecker’s ball it shouldn’t be too costly.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 10.5px; font: 9.5px ‘Nimrod MT’} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 10.5px; font: 9.5px ‘Nimrod MT’; min-height: 11.0px} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
