I Like Tiny Houses But I'm Not Tiny, What Do I Do? The other day we got this comment on one of the new Tumbleweed tiny houses that just came out. How well can someone over 6 feet tall and over 300 pounds live in this? And the best answer I could think of, was this: If you’re asking that, you may want to look at this instead, will probably be better for anyone who likes the idea but needs more space: Then I thought, “I better write about this really quick while the ideas are in my mind.” Let me show you the interior below: Bathroom Kitchen and Living Area Sleeping Loft Entrance and Staircase For more photos of this Park Model tiny home click here. This might not be the best design for you but if you’ve been wondering about more space, maybe a park model is a better option for you than a tiny house? The main difference is that you have to pay a professional driver to move it for you because it exceeds the 8’6″ width and road height requirements for most areas. Which would you prefer and why?
Another Couple Living in a Debt-free Tiny House: Meet Shaye & Tom Shaye and Tom are a young couple who decided to design and build their own tiny house in West Auckland, New Zealand. It measures 7.2 meters long by 2.4 meters wide which translates to approximately 24′ x 8′. Or a total of 15 square meters (or 161 square feet). They’ve only been living in it for two weeks as of the filming of the video tour and interview you can watch below thanks to the folks at Living Big in a Tiny House. What’s really inspiring is that the couple had never built anything like this before. They were able to learn most of what they needed by watching videos on the Internet. What might be even more inspiring is that they’re only going to spend a total of about $20,000 to build it themselves. Images: Living Big in a Tiny House / YouTube I encourage you to enjoy the rest of the tour (and interview) below: Kitchen and Staircase with Storage to the Loft Kitchen (Still Unfinished) Living Area Nice open living space and notice the built in storage drawers under the built in seating.
The Emerald Cut (Part 2) A 156 square feet tiny house on wheels in Morrision, Colorado. Built by Tiny Diamond Homes. More info. here. Sweet Pea Tiny House Plans: Big Enough to Start a Family? Published onSeptember 23, 2013 I thought I’d let you know that Dee Williams and her team at PAD Tiny Houses have made the Sweet Pea tiny house design available to the public. It’s a design that was created for their friend Gina who wanted a tiny house that she can maybe start a family in. What do you think? Can you see yourself starting a family in this tiny house? Photos by Chris Tack Do you think this tiny house is spacious enough for a young family who enjoys simplicity? Sweet Pea Tiny House Plans: Do You Think it’s Enough to Start a Family In? Exterior – Hitch Side I love the little bump out that gives you just that little bit of extra space. Interior of the Sweet Pea Tiny Home I really like how there’s a lot of open space when you come in. Looking Towards the Sleeping Loft and Kitchen Pretty Big Kitchen for a Tiny House, Right? Closet Space I think closet space might be one of the biggest challenges for a family living in a tiny house like this. Bathroom in the Sweet Pea Tiny House
Tiny Modern Leaf House in the Yukon Speaking of tiny houses, check out Version.2, which is the second tiny house built by Leaf House and Laird Herbert in Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon, Canada. Herbert appears to be on a roll because his first home was sold and two more are on the way, provided this second home finds an owner. In any event, Version.2 is a 20-foot rolling house of luxury with a sofa bed, full kitchen, full bathroom, and dining area. Including the 55-square-foot loft, Version.2 has a total of about 215 square feet of living space. It was built with FSC tongue and groove cedar siding, metal siding, triple-pane Northern Windows, steel stud construction, spray foam insulation, Energy Shield wrap, low-VOC wood finishes and paint, a Sun-Mar composting toilet, GE propane range, Kohler sink, Pegasus shower, tankless water heating, Ecoheat electric baseboards, Broan ventilation, LEDs, dimmable CFLs, birch plywood and ultralight drywall finishing, etc. Leaf House is selling sold Version.2 for $44,500.
MEKA reinvents shipping container housing Shipping containers are wonderful things- for shipping. They are part of an elaborate and extensive infrastructure for moving goods cheaply and efficiently that has revolutionized world trade. They are also all the rage among designers and architects who have been converting them into housing, with varying degrees of success. Then there is Meka. They do not build shipping container housing; they build what I will call housing containers- modules of houses that are built to shipping container dimensions to take advantage of the shipping container infrastructure, without most of the problems that actually arise from working with shipping containers. Where a shipping container is designed with enough steel to stack nine high completely filled with stuff, Meka designs their boxes with just enough steel to do the structural job that is required, while filling in the rest with conventional building materials that cost a lot less, that are easier to work with, and provide some insulation.
Unboxed: Surprisingly Spacious Flat-Pack House on Wheels The renderings are as matter-of-fact as the design: a no-nonsense, use-all-spaces approach to mobile and quickly-deployed housing by Mehdi Hidari Badie. The non-directional configuration contains all of the basics centered around a core volume of space – supplementary wings on either side and raised decks front and back. Adjustable metal legs support the primarily wood-and-glass frame structure, adaptable to different ground conditions when the wheels are raised. Solar panels are a clearly dominant feature, providing full energy self sufficiency as well as shade and shelter for the outdoor areas.
Colin's Coastal Cabin Here’s a little bit of my tiny house building story and some of the things I learned in the process. I hope this information will help or possibly inspire a few future tiny house builders, in the same way I was greatly supported by all you guys who shared your stories before me. The best things about this project were the support I received from friends and family, and getting to learn so many new things this year. Before I started I had a little bit of experience building. I’d built a shed or two and some homemade plywood furniture. Until a year ago, the stuff I built was almost totally designed from a functional perspective. On my first trip to the salvage yard I had no idea how much things should cost, or even the difference between redwood and fir. At first I was hesitant to pay for those e-books, but I quickly came to my senses and realized the cost would more than pay for itself by saving me time and money spent making big mistakes. A few notes on the design of my house:
Acorn House A 119 square feet tiny house built on a trailer in British Columbia. Built by Nelson Tiny Houses. minim house complete | Boneyard Studios Minim house (aka my trailer in the alley) is complete. A little longer than expected, but I believe we have a finished product that is more refined than planned, flawlessly executed, and ready for the next 50 years. And perhaps a project that contributes to the dialogue on the potential of sustainable, small spaces. Planning and building this micro house has been one of the most passionately engaging and satisfying experiences I’ve had, and it is largely due to the excellent folks I’ve had working by my side. A sincere thanks to Will Couch at Foundry Architects, David Bamford at Element Design+Build, Tony Gilchriest, and all the many additional contributors to the project that I’ve attempted to list on the project plaque (see below). As for the experience of being in this 210 square foot house, while I can’t officially live here, I did design it to allow for that someday, and have spent many hours in the space. More pictures and background on this micro house at the Minim House website.
Amazing Tiny House on Wheels: Truck Converted Into Gorgeous Solar Powered Off Grid Home The off grid home is truly a self-sufficient design providing energy via roof mounted solar panels. Built by Joseph Tayyar, this wonderful example of ingenuity and sustainability is a tiny house worthy of the name. How would you like to live in this? It doesn’t come cheap at $225k, but that cost is spread out over several years. Though this home is not quite affordable for many folks looking to move off grid right away, it does show what is possible with designing and building with recycled/repurposed vehicles, and high-technology. This tiny home is self-sufficient, and mobile. via: via: Images: Comments comments
Sol Haus Design's 140 Sq. Ft. Tiny House: Would you live here? This 140 square foot tiny house on wheels sits on a 20′ x 8′ utility trailer. It’s designed to be self-sufficient and is the home of Vina Lustado at Sol Haus Design. She will be using portable solar panels and passive solar heating/cooling approach to go off the grid. The walls, ceilings and floors are highly insulated to help with this and additional heating is provided by a propane gas fireplace. Like most tiny homes this one has an upstairs sleeping loft with a big skylight so you can see the moon and stars before bed time. Unlike most skylights in tiny houses, this one can actually open to let in the breeze. Image: Sol Haus Design on Facebook I encourage you to learn more about this tiny home and enjoy the rest of the tour (in photo and video) below: Image: Sol Haus Design on Facebook So how tiny is 140 sq. ft.? For those of you, like me, who have in the past wondered whether you should go tiny or small. “Tiny vs Small” (400 sf and 140 sf side by side) Image: Sol Haus Design on Facebook
Historic Shepherds Huts - on the move A quick note to say that the excellent site dedicated to shepherds' huts - Historic Shepherds Hut ("a web based archive dedicated to record survivors and the forgotten part they once played in our country's rich agricultural past") - is heading to a new location at www.shepherdhuts.co.uk because of hosting problems. They're still in the process of moving everything across but it's worth changing your bookmarks now as they are also planning to expand the site to deal with lots of new huts which have come their way as a result of recent media coverage. Incidentally, if you have a shepherd's hut for sale, please do contact Shedworking - there were many, many disappointed readers who were very interested in the last one we advertised (including the editor of a wellknown national magazine) that I'm sure you'd find a buyer quickly. Our Monday posts are sponsored by garden2office, the Swedish garden officespecialists.Click here for more details.