shelter

Kent Griswold hasn't turned his dream into reality – yet – but he's making a living blogging about it. His passion? Tiny houses. And he may have hit on something.

Griswold, 51, started his blog, Tiny House Blog, a few years ago just to have a place to put his assorted photos and links collected during years of fantasizing about owning a cabin home in the mountains.

Now, in just the past year, his blog is receiving triple the number views, from five to 6,000 unique visitors each day. Griswold tries to keep up a steady nearly-daily posting of interesting tiny home solutions, from build-it-yourself options that range from a 102 sq. foot number with a building plan that starts at $859, to a 16' x 20' Vermont cottages to micro lofts.

And there's an ever-increasing amount of readers who are more than happy to share their own stories. Griswold thinks the economic downturn is responsible for the building-small craze.

No visitor or local in New York City can avoid the city's ubiquitous "sidewalk sheds," those unsightly wood-and-scaffolding structures put up to protect pedestrians during building renovations around Gotham. Whether at the entrance of your apartment building or wrapped around your favorite retail outlet these eyesores are ever-present.

But now sidewalk sheds are getting a much-needed makeover.