We’ve seen people live in all sorts of sized houses just to call the Lone Star State home, and that’s definitely the case up in Spur where we found some of the smallest homes we’ve ever seen.
Since 1909, Spur Texas has been a small spot on the Lone Star State map. About an hour east of Lubbock this part of the panhandle has been a particularly quiet. The population has steadily decreased over the years but now this town of 1,000 is becoming a little hotspot.
John Schmidt grew up here and now works part time employee as the Code Enforcement Officer for the City of Spur. He’s the man with a plan when it comes to a popular new place to live and we’re not talking palaces, we mean pint sized homes. Despite being small in stature, these structures and not being spurned in spur.
“I see it resurgence in the town,” John said. “We’ve got people paying taxes buying lots. They want to get away from the big cities, the high taxes, the hustle bustle, the traffic, stuff like that. And Spur is just a nice, quiet little town to do it in.”
Denise Rosner came from New York, through LA to settle down in a simpler style of life.
“This is a breath of fresh air, literally fresh air,” Denise said. “Coming from LA this was a big deal.”
Denise is right at home, living in the one town that would allow her to have this small scale lifestyle.
“I was too young to get social security and too old to start working and start a new career,” Denise said. “I just looked at what I could do with my finances and what I wanted to do and what I wanted to do was not have to work anymore and to retire early, so not in LA and not in California.”
Carol Haefner also came from Cali and her house is half the size of Denise’s, standing at 12 feet by 18 feet. Carol bought her pint sized parcel site unseen and got to work building her own home as soon as she arrived.
“I love it here, I love it,” Carol said. “I came here to build a tiny house. I had no idea I’d actually fall in love with Texas and Spur.”
Danny Schallenberg is a small home builder and says these homes usually run between 35 and 45 thousand dollars. The smallest sits at 83 square feet!
“Spur is still the first to do it and has done it and it’s paid off big time for them,” Danny said. “People are downsizing their life, they’re downsizing their possessions, they’re downsizing their car, they’re downsizing their house, they’re downsizing their taxes, and it’s working.”
These homes have everything you’d expect. Bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, lofts, storage and all sorts of scenery. But they’re also sort of a tourist stop for a curious crowd.
“We get a lot of people who come through because they’re curious to see, ‘How is that possible? How are you living in that amount of size,’” Denise said. “And I will say that this house does surprise everybody.”
While many see these small homes as an oddity, their oddly quite homey. Bringing people from across the country closer together in this small Lone State State town, committed to making tiny homes a tangible choice in Texas.
“Spur is the only place so far,” Denise said. “We’re hoping that if we can do it, other small towns can do it as well and make more room for the hundreds of thousands of people who economically need to do something like this.”