You Have to See the 441 Sq. Ft. Garage This Man Calls Home

At 441 square feet, Jeremie Buchholtz's house seems like a palace compared to the 320 square foot home or the tiny 78 square foot Manhattan apartment.

But wait -- Buchholtz's Bordeaux, France house isn't a house at all. At least, not originally. The photographer bought it when it was just an old garage and turned it into a stylish pad, all for less than half the price of a similarly-sized home in the French city: 80,000 euros, or about $110,280

Buchholtz told faircompanies.com he was looking for an affordable apartment in Bordeaux, and when he came upon an abandoned garage for sale -- complete with old junk inside -- he thought it was worth a try.

"My friends said, it's impossible you will do nothing with that," Buchholtz said, "there is no light, there is nothing."

But an architect friend, Matthieu de Marien, saw potential in the garage as well and got to work transforming it:

Buchholtz bought the property and De Marien quickly cut into the old garage to create more light and ventilation. The roof is historic and couldn’t be touched so he carved a 12 square meter (129 square foot) patio out of the small space, leaving only 41 square meters of living space (441 square feet).

In order to make the space feel larger, De Marien created a “house within a house”: one large piece of furniture that includes the bathroom, bedroom, office, closet, a sofa bed and all of the home’s storage. With everything contained in this large furniture box, the rest of the home was given more breathing room.

Take a tour of the home -- complete with innovative space savers -- below, courtesy of faircompanies.com:

So what do you think? It's no 320 square footer, but it's not much bigger. Could you do it?