Four Families Build ‘Magical’ $40K Tiny Houses

Four families built vacation homes together outside Austin, Texas that are each just 400 square feet and they share a separate common kitchen and dining room. (Photo: Alexander Stross). 

A group of friends and their families are living large in custom-built, riverside vacation homes outside of Austin, Texas that measure a mere 400 square feet each. The community of four cabins (less than two hours outside the Texas capital alongside the Llano River) that they’ve nicknamed “Llano Exit Strategy,” also includes a 1,500-square-foot building just up a hill that serves as communal space with a kitchen and dining area. 

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“They all love each other very much and want to spend time together cooking, eating, watching sports,” Austin architect Matt Garcia tells Yahoo Parenting of the friends of 20 years, for whom he designed the buildings completed in 2012 but just recently touted in home design stories online. “They also want the ability to get away, though, and have quiet time alone. Having separate space and privacy was key. This set-up gives them the best of both worlds.”

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(Photo: Alexander Stross).

One of the homeowners Jodi Zipp told The Huffington Post, “We wade in the river, explore the rocks and sit on the porch watching hummingbirds. It really is a magical place."

Yet the key to the success they’ve found vacationing with multiple families (with three 20-something kids and more than three teenage girls between them), was based on something more concrete: preparation and compromise.

“They’d all gone out to the area before and rented cabins for a weekend vacation,” says Garcia of the families, who all primarily live in Austin. “They knew they liked the spot and the river.” So when they saw a piece of land for sale, they agreed to jump on it.

(Photo: Alexander Stross).

And when it came to construction, “everyone was supportive of everyone else’s ideas,” he says. The project took about a year, start to finish, with each cabin ringing up to just $40,000. “They all understood that there was a cost efficiency to keeping the cabins identical and everyone fell in line with that so it was pretty easy,” Garica adds. “That was key for this whole thing. Everyone is really easy going and likes each other.”

(Photo: Alexander Stross).

With cabins just 12 feet apart, you’d have to. “Staying in close quarters like that, you really have to let your guard down and accept that, ‘Hey, I’m never going to be more than five feet from my husband or my kids and that’s just what it is,’” says the architect. “You get used to it really fast and it brings you together. Everyone is really enjoying it.”

(Photo: Alexander Stross).

Most of the families visit at least a couple of weekends a month. “The kids love it there,” he adds. “They take all of their friends out there for the Fourth of July. The teenagers go swimming and play Frisbee on this huge grass area by the water.”

(Photo: Alexander Stross).

When vacationing with multiple families it certainly helps if the kids are around the same age, family therapist Paul Hokemeyer tells Yahoo Parenting. “But it’s not essential. By having kids at different developmental stages, the children can learn and grow from one another.”

The most important thing is that the group figures out ahead of time how they’re going to handle the nitty gritty details like who’s cooking or what the agenda is — especially if you’re traveling together to a new place. “From a practical standpoint, it’s helpful to set up a policy around how choices are made,” he says. “The best way to do this is create a system where everyone has the opportunity to decide what and how something is done on a rotating basis.”

So while initially it may take work to do these group getaways, Hokemeyer says there’s actually a greater benefit to be earned than simply having fun. “Learning how to be hypersensitive to the needs of others,” he says. “May not be a drawback after all.”

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