Tiny House Blog

Sarah wrote me about the new Monolithic Cabin and wanted me to share it with everyone. I had seen it in it’s early design stage but wanted to wait tell they had photographs to show you this unique cabin. It is not going to win a beauty contest but portability and durability will rank high for this tiny home. Here are some details about this cabin.

The Monolithic Cabin is a modified Monolithic Dome – like a tunnel with rounded ends. These domes all have a diameter (width) of 12 feet, but their total length and interior space depends on the model.

Model 15 has a length of 15 feet and a living area of 150 square feet. Model 18 is 18 feet long and 201 square feet. Model 24 is 24 feet long and 266 square feet. All models are a nominal 10 feet high, from bottom of crossbeams to top of roof.

David South, President of Monolithic, sees the Monolithic Cabin as “one of the most versatile, small domes we have ever designed. It’s really an all-purpose unit!

“We manufacture these cabins here, at our headquarters in Italy, Texas and load one or two of them on a truck for transport to the client’s site,” David says. “They weigh about 9 to 14 tons, are definitely shippable and require only a small amount of land.”

The Monolithic Cabin can be used as a rental unit, eco-housing or granny flat, disaster shelter, workshop, office or studio, game room, vacation dome, exercise room, temporary housing for work crews or home builders, guest house or storage. They can be designed as single living units or combined with others. The list goes on and on!

To learn more go to the Monolithic Cabin site. They are quite reasonable price wise,  you can get a completely furnished unit for less than $40,000. A unique home worth looking into.

Monolithic Dome rentals are now available! Built on private country real estate giving you the small-town environment. Most units include a bathroom with shower, basin and toilet; a kitchen with stove, refrigerator, table and chairs; a furnished sleeping area; heating and air conditioning. You can find out more at the  Monolithic Dome rentals site.

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As many of you know Michael Janzen and I work together on the Tiny House Forum. You will be interested to know that Michael  just did  an upgrade to the Tiny House Forum to a forum system called bbPress.

The new system feels a lot more user friendly and should thwart spammers a little better. bbPress is made by the same people that make WordPress, the blogging platform most of us use. If you’d like to take part in more tiny house conversations online please check out Tiny House Forum.

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Carrie from Cheyenne was very helpful and took pictures of the open house in her home town. I am enjoying seeing pictures of the parks as I did some contract work for Jay and one of my jobs was to select the parks for the open houses on this coast to coast tour.

I’m going to let Carrie update us on the Cheyenne visit:

Hi Kent!  Today I went to the open house for the Fencl at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, in Cheyenne, WY.  It was so exciting! 

After reading about Jay getting in late at Salt Lake, I was sort of expecting him to be late hitting Cheyenne, but my mom and I went a little early anyway and walked a bit around the gardens.  When we got back to the parking lot, there were 3 women waiting and one asked if we were there for the tiny house.  Indeed!  The internet feels like a bubble sometimes, and I didn’t know if people here were interested in tiny houses or if they’d even heard that Jay and the Fencl were in town, so it was great to see people interested, seriously interested, in tiny house living.  A small crowd gathered over the next few minutes, and it was only about 10 minutes after 6 when Jay pulled up.  So thrilling! 

The house was gorgeous.  A lot more beautiful in person (and I had expected a lot), and the craftsmanship was amazing.  And something I didn’t count on was how wonderful all that wood smelled.  It was just lovely.

I know there have been a lot of posts here about the tour but I will do another post later today on other tiny homes. I hope everyone is enjoying watching Jay’s tour.

Looking for Boulder CO pictures next so if you are going please send me some. Thank you!

People waiting to go inside.

Boots and other shoes of people touring the tiny house.

My mom getting ready to climb into the loft.

I don't know if it'll make it on the news, but a reporter with a camera came out to do a brief interview with Jay and to see the house.

I was having trouble with my camera and caught Jay off guard.

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Yesterday I stopped by Little House on the Trailer to see how the Sonoma Shanty on wheels was coming along.

The Sonoma Shanty Hybrid shell on a trailer is 20 feet long versus the 15 foot long shanty built on a foundation. When I stopped by it was not completed, but the picture above gives you an idea of what it will be like. *** No Longer Available ***

This is a simple and affordable tiny house that you can buy as plans, a kit, a complete home, and Little House on the Trailer is offering workshops to show you how to build one. I put the video below together to provide an overview of the structure itself. Here’s the price list:

• Plans for stick built: $27.00
• *** No Longer Available ***
• Workshop (limited to 6 participants): $250.00
• Stick built kit (plans plus precut and labeled parts): $2,000.00
• Sonoma Shanty Hybrid Kit (honeycomb floor and end-walls, stick built pre-assembled side walls and roof): $3,500.00
• Sonoma Shanty Honeycomb Kit: $4,000.00
• 7000# capacity trailer frame with brakes, lights and breakaway emergency brake: $3,000.00
• 160 square foot hybrid shell on trailer: $9,000.00
• Kit assembly on site: $1,000.00 plus $4/mile travel cost

The plans will be available soon and I will let you know how you can get a copy, so stay tuned.

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I just received my first report of the Coast to Coast tour with Jay from the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.

The Smith family visited Jay’s open house in Salt Lake City Utah. I am going to enclose their letter as they explain it best.

Hi Kent

We just got back from the fabulous showing at Salt Lake City.

Jay was about 2 hours late since it took longer to travel from Reno to Salt Lake than he anticipated.

The group in anticipation faithfully waited and it was certainly worth it – we enjoyed discussing about small houses and the small house society as we waited. It is the coolest people who appreciate small and simple living.

There were others who took better pictures than I – but I thought I’d at least send some. There was one professional photographer there from Park City – hopefully he will send you some.

Jay is a true gentleman. The tail lights were not working – so we stayed and arranged permission from the police to leave it at the Murray Park – parking lot. They were real good about it. Murray is a town adjacent to Salt Lake City. Jay is spending the night with a family who is graciously offered to host him until tomorrow morning – that will be better for Jay than a hotel that he had planned.

This was an awsome evening – our family loved it – Featured in one of the pictures is our family.

Thanks again Kent for all you do on the Tiny House Blog.

Sincerely,
The Smith Family

Remember if you have been to one of Jay’s open houses or are going to one please email pictures, etc to tinyhouseblog(at)gmail.com and replace (at) with @. I want as many reports as possible so we can have a photo journal of the trip. Thank you!

Jay setting up for visitors

The Smith Family and Jay

Salt Lake City Open House

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My hometown of Reno was the first stop in Jay Shafer’s Fencl cross-country tour. I counted about two dozen people who stopped to visit Jay’s newest build, some who were visiting from other Western states.

I was impressed with how many of us could fit into the 120 square foot house. It smelled like freshly cut wood and let in lots of afternoon light and air from the numerous open windows. The great room was a nice place to hang out and chat.

I think what Jay does best with his tiny homes is the space planning. I mentally began to fill the numerous shelves, closets and cubby holes with my own things and kept coming up with spaces to store stuff. I was really impressed with the space below the kitchen sink and the depth of the two great room closets.

The window seating area was my favorite part. It was large enough for a puffy chair and even a small table or bookshelf. The placement of the fireplace was right next to the seating alcove, which I like better than right in the middle of one of the walls the great room. This gives you more wall space for additional seating or a dining table.

Two ladders on each side of the entrance to the kitchen/bathroom area are used to reach the loft. Some people found them a little difficult to maneuver, but they seemed safer and more utilitarian than a moveable ladder.

The loft housed a fairly large bed, more than enough for two people. There is a small cupboard at the foot of the bed. The Fencl loft seems to have more privacy than other tiny house lofts I have seen.

Jay answered numerous construction, space and living questions and was very approachable and gracious. He seemed to enjoy meeting people from all over the area and was impressed with the visitors who had come from long distances.

How much fun would it be to be able to take your house on a tour, to show it off and meet interesting people along the way? It just goes to show that the smaller your house is, the bigger your world becomes.

By Christina Nellemann

The great room, loft and peak of the kitchen

The seating alcove and detail of the loft ladder

View from the loft

View of great room from loft

View of loft

Kitchen sink

Two-burner stove and refrigerator

Kitchen shelves

RV toilet

The shower

Storage area above the alcove and front door

Alcove seating area

Jay and one of the Fencl visitors

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Michael Janzen has this week’s issue of Tiny House Living out today. You will find a newly announced design competition called The Tiny House Project, two stories of people hitting the road in travel trailers, two videos of earthbag dome homes, a bunch of photos of tiny cottages in Oregon, and Jay Shafer hitting the road road and headed to New York in his recently completed Fencl Tumbleweed tiny house.

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