But then again – we just went through building a 696 sf, 1br, detached companion unit. It’s got PLENTY of space for 2 people (my in-laws) and takes into consideration my father-in-law’s wheelchair. (Can’t have narrow doors or small bathroom if you’re accomodating a wheelchair.
We regularly have dinners with 6 people (my in laws, my kids, hubby and I.) Lots of room, don’t feel cramped. The bedroom is big enough to accomodate a motorized bed (and room around it) as well as all the other typical furniture (dressers, chair, etc.)
I can’t address the issue of whether wheels gets you out of the permit process… But I can see where these houses COULD be built to code and permited.
Like I said – we built a small (by most people’s standards) 1 br house that is MORE than spacious enough. If it didn’t have to accomodate the wheelchair we could have easily stripped out a lot more space and still been livable and not cramped. We could have stripped a lot of space from the bedroom and bathroom if we didn’t need to accomodate the wheelchair.
