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A 10-foot-wide house was built 'out of spite' on a leftover piece of land in Florida and is selling for $619,000. See inside.
Jordan Pandy May 11, 2024, 3:05 AM PDT
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The exterior of a skinny house.
This 10-foot-wide house in Jacksonville Beach, Florida is on the market for $619,000. Open House Optics
A 10-foot-wide house was built on a lot in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
If the neighborhood had its way, there wouldn't be a house there at all.
It's being listed for $619,000 and has interest from those who want a low-maintenance lifestyle.
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What was once an empty residual lot used as a garden by a neighbor is now a 1,547-square-foot home in Jacksonville Beach, Florida — only 10 feet wide.
The two-story house sits on a 25-foot wide lot (with a lot of depth) and even has space for a garage.
The listing agent, Ryan Wetherhold of Oceanside Real Estate, and builder, John Atkins, regularly build on these leftover lots and anticipated having a little more space for a home.
"What you can do on these smaller lots is you can go in front of a board of adjustment, and they'll allow you to build more than the building code is allowed," Wetherhold told Business Insider.
If the neighborhood had its way, there wouldn't be a house there at all. The neighborhood attended the public hearing voicing concerns — mainly from a next-door neighbor who used the untouched lot as a garden — and persuaded the board to disallow any adjustments.
"And to be honest, the builder almost built this out of spite just because of that fact, 'Oh, you don't think we can build, hold my beer,'" Wetherhold said.
They were stuck building a 10-foot-wide home instead of a 15-foot-wide home, but they still managed to attract buyers. Take a look inside.
Wetherhold said this particular lot was probably plotted back in the mid-1900s.
The exterior of a skinny house.
The home even has space for a one-car garage. Open House Optics
"We don't create our own subdivisions and build — typically, we build on lots that exist," he said. "In this particular neighborhood, which is typical of beach areas or areas of high density, you'll get some areas of smaller lots."
In the 2000s, a developer built on nearly 90% of the lots in the community, but this was left out.
An aerial view of a skinny house in Florida.
The home is squeezed in between a few other houses. Open House Optics
The lots were all 25 feet wide, according to Wetherhold, but eventually, some owners started to combine lots together, leaving some uneven spacing.
Wetherhold and John Atkins have built narrow homes on these leftover lots before and usually get some grace regarding building codes.
A very narrow garage.
Inside the narrow garage. Open House Optics
"They'll say, 'OK, you can build within the setbacks, you can build wider, you can build deeper, you can go up front,'" he said. "Typically, it's a fairly straightforward process."
However, due to complaints from some of the neighbors, they had to build the house within the codes they were given.
An entrance and hallway in a skinny house.
The entryway leading to the dining room. Open House Optics
"What we were left with was to build within the building code, a modern building code that's been revised that's pretty conservative at 35% law coverage and seven-and-a-half-foot setbacks on each side," Wetherhold said. "So it made us build a 10-foot wide house. We had no other choice."
A next-door neighbor had used the plot as a garden and persuaded others to complain about the house being built.
The exterior of a skinny house and the backyard.
A view of the house from the backyard. Open House Optics
"Had they understood the process better they would've worked with us to help us build a wider home," Wetherhold said. "But their whole idea was once the pot got served, 'We can stop it from being built,' which is counterintuitive because obviously that was not the case.
Because of the building constraints, the home has some interesting features.
The backyard of a narrow house.
The spacious backyard. Open House Optics
While it is only 25 feet wide, the lot is 140 feet deep — deeper than some typical lots in the neighborhood, Wetherhold said.
Another cool feature of the home are the bump-outs — similar to what you would see in an RV.
A seating area in a skinny house.
Built-in, bump-out seating. Open House Optics
"You're not supposed to put floor area in them, but you can put seating area — so you're not able to stand on it, but you can do build-in seating," Wetherhold said. "We built a ton of built-in seating because it's narrow anyway. To try to put a couch in a 10-foot-wide house isn't really practical."
The home doesn’t come fully furnished but, some pieces of furniture will stay in the house, like the custom dining room table.
A custom dining room table.
The custom dining room table comes with the house. Open House Optics
"The builder's son did this really cool dining table that was made from boards from when our pier was destroyed by Hurricane Matthew," Wetherhold said, referring to the 2016 storm that destroyed a pier in Jacksonville Beach and caused damage throughout the Atlantic coast. "He kept all those boards and then made a dining room table front on it, which was a really cool thing."
The house was finished in 2024 and listed in March for $619,000.
The kitchen in a skinny house.
The kitchen which opens up into a living area. Open House Optics
Wetherhold said he had a deal lined up within the first week, but it fell through.
Wetherhold originally had a lower price in mind, but once the house started to come together, he thought he could aim higher.
A living space in a skinny house.
The living area with built-in seating on either side. Open House Optics
"We thought originally we'd be maybe $450,000 to $500,000, and then as it evolved and we started to see it come to fruition and actually walk through it and finish it out, it really felt better than the way it looked on paper," he said. "Ten feet wide does not sound appealing at all, but once you're inside, the typical room is maybe 12 to 15 feet wide.
Wetherhold said the activity on the house slowed down after the first deal fell through, but after being featured on 'Zillow Gone Wild,' more people became interested — even just to look at it.
The upstairs of a skinny house.
A look at the upstairs. Open House Optics
"I had an open house the weekend after the 'Zillow Gone Wild,' and it was a three-hour open house, and I probably had 300 people to 400 people — which is just unheard of."
While the neighborhood is filled with homes in the high-six-figure to million-dollar range, Wetherhold said this home was for someone who wants low house matinence.
A bedroom and large window in a skinny house.
A bedroom with a large sliding door. Open House Optics
Wetherhold said the house is perfect for "a person that wants to be in a neighborhood of million-dollar homes but doesn't want a maintenance factor of that and still wants to be in a nice area and pay about half the price."
"And come to find out, we weren't sure if that was a niche that was out there, but sure enough it is," he added.
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