Big ideas for tiny houses coming to Charlotte

I'm fascinated with tiny homes. The concept, that is. I'm not sure I'd actually enjoy living in a space that's less than 500 square feet.

But I do like the idea of alternative housing for the many economies linked to it. For some, that means living with a much smaller mortgage or mortgage-free. For others, it means freedom from reporting to work every day – maybe just for a while.

So I'm delighted that Lloyd Kahn will be a guest during the Southern Spring Home & Garden Show's first weekend, Feb. 21-23. Kahn's books, “Shelter” (1973) and “Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter” (2011), have offered generations inspiration and resources for nontraditional homes, many of them built by the owners.

The National Association of the Remodeling Industry will have a small home on display, and tours will be available. Kahn's presentation will be linked to that exhibit.

Kahn said he regularly finds articles about small dwellings in national publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the Huffington Post. That tells him there's a sustained interest in alternative homes and products for creating them. “Tiny Homes,” now available for the iPad, offers readers both. 

“For a couple of decades people have been building bigger and bigger houses,” Kahn said. “They're too much in the way of resources and money; they're hard to heat and hard to cool. Maybe for a period of time, you live in a small home. I think it's a wonderful thing for a lot of people.”

Sullivan: http://homelifeclt.blogspot.com/ and @sullivan_obs on Twitter