A stylish cottage for Katrina country is a hit all over

By Ron Scherer | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

OCEAN SPRINGS, MISS.

 

A model home here that gives Katrina's displaced an alternative to trailer living is starting to take the country by storm.

 

The Katrina cottage - with living quarters about the size of a McMansion bathroom - is now appealing to people well beyond the flood plain. Californians want to build one in their backyards to use for rental income to help with the mortgage payment. Modestly paid kayakers in Colorado see it as a way to finally afford a house. Elsewhere, people envision building one so a parent can live nearby.

 

...

 

from the October 02, 2006 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1002/p01s01-ussc.html

 

 

I can see some possibilities for this in Urban Ohio neighborhoods where affordable housing is needed.  Yeah, it's not a McMansion, but something like this would be ideal for homeless families trying to get back on their feet, young couples looking for an affordable first home, singles, senior citizens.

 

It's a simple but very functional design.  I could eve see colleges putting clusters of these homes together for graduate student housing or visiting faculty.  Lots of possibilities here.

 

Here's a website I found for the cottage designer:

 

http://cusatocottages.com/index_content.html

Looks like a sawed off Shotgun House.

 

They're a lot like the 1906 Earthquake Refugee Shacks:

 

http://www.outsidelands.org/shacks.php

 

I'm thinking "Lake House".

Interesting story from a New Jersey newspaper on how the "Katrina Cottage" has captured the imagination of people and homeowners who aren't necessarily hurricane victims.  They are actually sold in kit form through Lowes.

 

A cottage of their own

 

A home designed to resist hurricanes is catching on with folks who are using it as a vacation home or retreat.

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 08/30/07

BY SHANNON MULLEN

STAFF WRITER

 

Two years ago, New York City architect Marianne Cusato designed a pretty, little yellow house she envisioned as an alternative to the dreary, government-issued trailers that were sheltering tens of thousands of people along the Gulf Coast displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

 

Her 308-square-foot "Katrina Cottage," had shutters, a peaked tin roof and a front porch, in keeping with traditional Southern sensibilities. Resistant to rot, termites and water damage, it was designed to withstand winds of up to 130 mph. It cost less than the Federal Emergency Management Agency's $70,000 camperlike trailers and could be used as a permanent home and added onto later.

 

...

 

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070830/LIFE/708300422/1006/ENT

 

 

Nice story.  I've come across the Katina Cottage kit plans on the Lowe's site before.  Very interesting alternative to the kit home designs you typically find at the local home improvement center. 

 

Here's a sampling of the Katina Cottages - from a 544 sq. ft., two-bedroom minimal design to a five-bedroom, 1807 sq. ft. "behemoth".

 

 

Very cool.  I think the beauty in these is their simplicity.  I've got a friend who's looking at putting a cabin on a piece of land he owns near Mansfield and I've been trying to get him to look at a Katrina house.  I've read somewhere where one family built one in their back yard as a home for their aging parents: kept them close by but still allowing them to live independently.  I think there's a lot of possibilities for housing like this.

They're a lot like the 1906 Earthquake Refugee Shacks:

 

http://www.outsidelands.org/shacks.php