Tiny House Blog

I am out of town today and was not able to get a detailed post up, so thought I would share with you a post Michael at Tiny House Design put  up a week ago.

I wanted to make sure that our readers saw this cool little adobe casita featured on his site.

Samuel Gray from Abiquiu, New Mexico built this cute little 12′ x 10′ adobe structure and currently uses it as a part time residence. He plans to move into it full time in a few years.

Sam spent $3000 building the structure and did a beautiful job. To read more about it please go to Tiny House Design and read the full story and view more pictures.

Photo Credit: Sam Gray

by Kent Griswold (Tiny House Blog)

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In the fall of 2007 my wife Lin and I gave up our condo and pitched a tent in an Iowa field to live immersed in nature and without debt.

The tent was soon flattened by a thunderstorm and replaced with a tow behind camper that we picked up on ebay for $700. Even with a tiny woodstove, the camper wasn’t up to an Iowa winter so we journeyed to Oregon where the summer before we had done cob building workshop with Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley.

Cob is an ancient building method that combines clay soil, sand and straw in a free form, frameless structure. The typical thatched cottage of southern England was built with cob and Ianto, a 70 year old Welshman, has led the cob revival. The book he wrote with his wife Linda and Michael G. Smith is aptly titled, The Hand-Sculpted House. Modern cob structures often take full advantage of cob’s sculptural possibilities with curving walls, dragon reliefs and frog mouth pizza ovens.

When Lin and I returned to Iowa early in the spring (actually, a little too early), we started digging a foundation for our own cob cottage. We had no intention of trying to stuff all our activities into a small house. By this time we had built an open shed out of recycled wood and roofing to house a summer kitchen, outdoor shower and workshop. We had no desire to move indoors but we didn’t want to be forced to travel all winter either. So we designed a 14 by 18′ winter room with a high pitched roof to give us a sleeping loft.

Our photo website http://www.pbase.com/hapm/ourhouse has details of our building process. In Iowa the subsoil is high in clay, great for building but not good for drainage. Our gravel foundation drains to daylight as does a curtain drain around the high side of our building site. After starting the walls with old concrete and limestone, cobbing began on June 1, 2008. For the next 10 weeks our days began with muddy feet as we mixed our house, batch by batch on tarps. Many new friends would be made doing the cob dance. This must be the most low tech way to build a permanent structure. Whole families joined in and even two year toddlers were able to contribute.

By the end of August the roof was on and we were no longer losing sleep trying to keep our cob covered from the Iowa rains. After another two months of plastering and doing the cob floor, we moved in, just in time to crank up the woodstove. We spent $7,000 on the house and none of it was for labor. Most of the money went into the windows and roof system.

In the “developed” world, houses are made to be plugged in to existing infrastructure. The modern house doesn’t function without connections to water, sewer, electric power and often natural gas. This dependency on infrastructure strikes me as a huge risk considering the current potential for environmental and economic changes and to say nothing of Murphy’s law. In our little house we filter rainwater for drinking. We heat with scrap wood. Our electricity comes from a small photovoltaic system. Our only connection to anything is a phone line. Because our lifestyle is a small step away from camping we are quite content with our minimal facilities.

Tiny houses will play a big role in creating a sustainable future for mankind on earth. Almost half of our countries carbon footprint is caused by the manufacture and maintenance of our structures. For Lin and I, the tiny house is part of our goal to live cooperatively in nature. Based on the hundreds of people who have visited and helped with our construction, this is clearly a shared vision.

We are coming to the end of our second building season on the land. Two more houses have sprung up. One is a strawbale house that we are helping to build for my folks with Brad Young the paid main builder. The other is a 14×14′ bedroom/house that we are building with our daughter Anna. http://www.pbase.com/hapm/annahouse This bale/cob hybrid will have a living roof and will cost half as much as our house. The wall building that took 10 weeks with our cob house took one week with Anna’s bale/cob. The bales in the walls will have a much higher insulation value than straight cob. Anna will use her grandmother’s kitchen and bath, another example of sharing and saving.

By Hap Mullenneaux for the (Tiny House Blog)

Cob Loft Bed

Cob House Kitchen

Wood Stove and Stairs

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Alternative Energy, Passive Solar House for Sale

The house is located in Tres Orejas, a small off-grid community one-half hour west of Taos, New Mexico.

Situated on 3/4 acre of desert oasis with outstanding 360° panoramic views of the Sangre de Christo (Rocky Mountains) and Picuris mountain to the east and southeast, with BLM National Forest to the west.

Casa Juan Galan- a beautiful, small (one-bedroom), green solar-home.

Operates on sustainable energy: passive solar heating, off-grid electrical system with solar panels (photovoltaic) & wind generator electricity.

It’s an energy efficient, energy independent home.

Rain and snow water harvesting-catchment system provides water (about 4500 gallons of storage).

Heat is by passive solar and a wood stove. There is a small propane heater in the new bathroom. I have left for extended times in the winter and the house plants have survived on the passive solar alone (temperatures around 0 F).

The house is almost 800 square feet.

There is a tank house and next to it, a covered pavilion—which would be fairly easy to convert to a studio/office, maybe a bedroom.

The house has one bedroom which is a combination studio/bedroom with a queen size loft and a small Mexican chimenea (freestanding fireplace). It has a space to hang clothes. A clothes closet is being built as part–but separate from–the new bathroom. There is another small sleeping loft (or storage space) next to the kitchen.

The bathroom is “in process” and the septic system will be finished in the spring (or ASAP, if sold soon). I have been using a “sawdust flush” composting toilet. The bathtub is large with a shower. All greywater is designed to go to trees and plants

The hot water heater is an Aqua Star propane on demand. I have installed an efficient propane refrigerator. The kitchen stove is a small trailer-type propane 3 burner with oven. The kitchen and dining space are separated by a bar. The living and dining area are separated by a partial wall with an arch.

There are two water holding tanks. One is about 3000 gallons and is in the tank house. The other is 1500 gallons and is freestanding. Roof collection for snow and rainwater is about 890 square feet.

A solar haven with High-Speed Internet, Internet Phone and good Cellular reception available.

A great recession-proof, real estate deal!
For sale by owner Asking: $115,000
email: JuanGalan(at)TresOrejas(dot)com

Visit website for more photos and details.

by Kent Griswold (Tiny House Blog)

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Over the past nine months we have been following Brian or Ziggy as his friends call him build his cob house. You can check out the last two posts on the build here and here.

Ziggy emailed me Friday night to tell me he has completed his home and moved in and has set up a page with a recipe for building a cob house on his blog. Here it is in a nut shell:

With $3000 for supplies and nine months of full time labor, Ziggy was able to build GOBCOBATRON, a small cob house with interior dimensions of roughly 15′x13′, and a footprint of (again, roughly) 20′x18′. Practically all of the labor was completed by hand (and foot!), including making and applying all of the cob.

Here’s what Ziggy actually bought, and what he paid for in building supplies:

• sand (just over 30 tons total) – $507
• gravel (about 13 tons total) – $177
• straw (16 bales) – $36 (most straw I used was free)
• black walnut scrap lumber – $100
• misc. lumber – $20
• windows – $220 (two casement, one double hung window)
• electrical – $28
• galvanized wire – $30
• nails – $100 (I couldn’t believe how expensive nails are)
• raw linseed oil (for floor) – $72
• EPDM pond liner $622
• polycarbonate for skylight $400

and for the rocket stove:

• firebricks – $70
• flue pipe – $228

It’s true… you can build your own cob house with little money, but with lots of time and enthusiasm. There’s nothing quite like the experience of building your own home with little more than your hands.

Visit Ziggy’s blog for the complete story.

Thanks Ziggy for sharing your journey with us in building your cob house.

by Kent Griswold (Tiny House Blog)

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Because of the lack of space in a tiny house, a separate bathhouse can be built nearby to hold a bathing area, hot tub or sauna.

This is not only for necessity, but as a tranquil space for relaxation. On my search for tiny bathhouses I kept running into these examples built from natural materials that I thought looked so beautiful in their environments.

One of my favorites was this cob bathhouse and its accompanying yurt created by Oasis Design.

Oasis Design is a family owned, home-based design consulting and publishing business near Santa Barbara. They’ve been developing original designs for living better, cheaper, and more ecologically since 1980. Their focus is mostly on water, wastewater and energy systems.

This bathhouse at the Chinati Hot Springs in Marfa, Texas is made of adobe and dates back to the 1930s.

And this bathhouse has a living roof and is located at the Center for Whole Communities in Fayston, Vermont.

A natural bathhouse can be a celebration of tranquility and privacy, but also can make us more aware of where our water is coming from or where it should be going.

By Christina Nellemann

Copyright © 2009 Tiny House Blog

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I am very lucky to be living in Northern California where there is a lot of tiny house activities going on. Besides, Jay with Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, Bill with Tortoise Shell Homes and Stephen with Little House on the Trailer, I am just 45 minutes from Hopland and the flagship Real Goods Store and Educational Center.

A few weeks ago I was on my way to see my folks in Ukiah and pick up Max our dog and decided to take some time to stop by Real Goods and photograph their tiny houses that they have scattered around their property.

I have stopped in at different times as they were constructing the homes, but never had my camera with me. This time I went prepared with the idea to share with the Tiny House Blog readers what Real Goods has to offer for examples of tiny homes.

I have attached a lot of pictures to this post and have put brief descriptions under the photos. So take your time and enjoy. If your ever in the area, reserve time to visit Real Goods, you won’t be disappointed.

Here is what Real Goods has to say about themselves:

We’ve been busy getting stocked up for the holiday season and fine-tuning displays to make them educational and exciting — emphasizing product groupings like “Relocalization and Peak Oil,” “Biofuels and Alternative Transportation,” and “Green Building.” We’re also revamping our Renewable Energy Department, where we’ve seen sales numbers double annually in response to worldwide global warming concerns. Our sustainable living library contains more than 2,000 titles on subjects including organic and biodynamic gardening, cooking, natural and green building, renewable energy, intentional community, permaculture, politics, alternative fuels, electric vehicles, sustainable outdoor projects and much more. You’ll also find new men’s and women’s organic clothing (from basic to hip) as well as healthy body care products. And for the little ones on your list, we carry dozens of educational and solar toys. More than half the store’s products cannot be found in this catalog, so we invite you to stop by, browse and experience the future, while you check out the wonders of the Solar Living Center. The Hopland Real Goods store is open every day (except Christmas Day) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Go and visit the Real Goods Website and if you are in the area be sure and stop by and check everything out yourself.

Straw Bale Welcome Building

Inside of Strawbale Welcome Building

Colorado Yurt Company Dwelling

Straw Bale and Stick Built Garden Shed

Straw Bale Residence

SIP Building Example

YurtBoy Yurt

Straw Bale Bathroom would make a cool tiny house

Windmill and Giant Solar Panels

Cob Well House

Tepee Residence

Straw Bale and Stick Built Tiny House

Back of Straw Bale and Stick Built Residence

Painted Storage Container

Solar Option for a Tiny House

Portable Solar on a Trailer

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In the stark Texas desert, Patricia Kerns has created a small community of tiny adobe, cob and straw bale houses that snuggle right into the landscape. I first saw Patricia’s tiny houses in the book, Little House on a Small Planet. The dome of the Egyptian style guest house caught my attention because of its interesting shape.

Patricia’s little community in Terlingua, Texas contains six tiny houses: the main straw bale house, a shower house, a bathroom, the guesthouse, a cob studio and a new project which will house a kitchen and a great room.

The cob studio was built with Ianto Evans of the Cob Cottage company. The main straw bale house is a 20-foot circular structure. Her power comes from several solar panels and a small wind turbine. She uses rain catchment systems for all her water needs.

She also has a video tour of her property and its tiny houses on her website.

Her love of natural building and small spaces came along at a time when she wanted to simplify her life and become financial independent. She took a straw bale building workshop, and she realized that with her new skills, she could leave her career as an attorney and build her own house.

A few years later she is living the life of her dreams in the desert. She was kind enough to send me her story of building a life of simplicity:

Journey to a Small Place
By Patricia Kerns

My journey to a small place began with a simple desire for financial independence. Several years ago, having taken an early retirement from my employer, I needed to find a way to live on less than half my previous income. I had to reduce fixed expenses, especially mortgage/rent. The crazy idea that I could find some cheap land and build a house with my own two hands began to work its way into my head.

How crazy? I was a 40-something attorney whose only experience with a hammer was to hang diplomas. Being a woman, I didn’t even have a high school shop class to draw on for experience. I ran through these and other pertinent facts every day, trying to get the goofy idea that I could build my own home out of my head. When the chance to attend a workshop on straw bale building came along, I jumped at it, thinking I could finally prove to myself that I couldn’t do it. But that workshop, and several succeeding ones, made it clear to me that my dream could be realized.

I began planning my home’s design as I sought land and prepared to move to a small desert community in the Big Bend area of southwestern Texas, far from any big cities. As I developed the design, I realized that the house would have to be very small if I wanted to complete it myself. I originally considered this to be a limitation, one I was willing to accept. I imagined that my standard of living in terms of creature comforts would decline, but accepted this as a small price to pay to free myself from the burden of a mortgage. I got some excellent advice at one of the workshops I attended: record the amount of time I spent in every area of my home for a week. I was living in an 1100-sf home when I conducted this experiment. I was amazed to find that there were two rooms in my home where I rarely set foot. I realized with a shock that the primary purpose of those two rooms was to store furniture that I had only purchased so those two rooms wouldn’t be empty. This was a happy realization, since all I had to do to cut my space needs in half was to sell furniture!

I sold every piece of furniture I owned, had multiple garage sales and made a few deposits to thrift shops. After two months of shedding stuff accumulated over twenty years, I packed what was left into a 10 x 6 U-Haul trailer, hitched it to the back of my truck, and headed for Texas. I had never felt so free in my life. It was the first sign that living in a small space wasn’t going to be the dip in standard of living that I had imagined.

I spent the first three months in Texas camping out of my Suburban in the National Park while looking for land. This was a good start to my new commitment to minimalism. In January 1998, I moved onto a piece of unspoiled desert land halfway between the communities of Lajitas and Terlingua, Texas. I erected a 16 x 16 foot army tent, built a composting toilet and solar oven, set up a solar shower and camp stove, hooked up some solar panels for power, and I was living in the lap of luxury.

It took about two months to get my foundation built and the straw bale walls up, just in time to have a place to get out of the severe winds that whipped across my land in February and March. I had no roof, no windows or doors, and no floor, but I had a comfortable place to sit and read or play my guitar while the winds howled by “outside.” I could never before have appreciated such a humble shelter. It seemed like heaven to me.

I spent six months finishing the exterior, roof, door and windows, then moved into the house while I finished the interior. I had designed a space that included a bedroom, a small computer nook, and a larger sitting room. The design was a circular space trisected into three areas. Between the three areas, instead of building walls, I built shelves that pass through so they can be utilized from either side. This gave me a great deal of storage in a small space. The bed is a futon on a plywood board that flips up to reveal storage. I also designed a built-in sofa in the sitting area with storage underneath. I learned a lot about effective use of small spaces for storage by visiting numerous trailer sales lots and observing their use and design of space. All of my interior furniture is built in, using cob (unformed adobe) and scrap wood.

I decided not to have the kitchen and bathroom in the main house, but rather to leave them for a second project. I haven’t regretted this decision, and continue to be happy cooking on a camp stove or in a solar oven, and using a camp shower and composting toilet. The climate here is quite mild, so this might not be feasible in a more northern location. I learned to live with so little during my journey here that every addition now seems like an unaccountable luxury.

The most beneficial consequence of my decision to build small became apparent as I networked with other self-builders. I was able to complete my home in the same amount of time that many people used to build larger structures, but using much less labor. This allowed me to like the home and continue to like it as I worked. I never felt overwhelmed by the process. My little casita and I have remained fast friends, and I have nothing but good memories and good energy invested in my home.

As it turns out, there was no lowering of my standard of living – not in creature comforts, not in any other way. I have learned to be greatly appreciative of every little comfort, and I enjoy what I have now far more than the four times as much that I used to have. My home and possessions serve me and shelter me, and are never a burden that require more than I am willing to give (such as a 30 year mortgage). I am well on my way to becoming sustainable on this land and a small home is part of what allowed me to see my way there. Now, when I am inside large enclosed spaces, I feel lost, disassociated and adrift. I wouldn’t trade my casita or my experience of creating it for a mansion any day.

Note: I wrote the above article five years ago. Since then, I have completed a small bathhouse of adobe and a small office building of cob. In addition, I have a large shade building (one day to be a kitchen/living room – if I ever think I really need it…) by which I catch enough water for my needs. I remain mortgage-free, and have no utility bills. Visitors stop by occasionally and say “gee, isn’t it HARD living like this?” I’m not sure what they mean, but I guess it’s that I have a composting toilet, cook outside and have no television. I think back to when I had all those “luxuries” in my life, and what it was costing me to sustain them. No, it isn’t hard!

By Christina Nellemann

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Some days, don’t you feel the world crumbling around you? Financial crises, world hunger, war, poverty. It seems unending. Some people may feel that one way to escape is to have a small, comfortable place to come home to. A home that is like a hug, warm and alive.

Some people have found that feeling in a cob house. A hand sculpted structure that curves and comforts like the earth it is made from. The House Alive! company is offering workshops for 2009 on how to create your own small structure.

House Alive!, which was started in 2001 by Coenraad Rogmans, James Thomson and numerous volunteers, teaches workshops about natural building, natural design and appropriate technology. They also offer consulting services, do presentations and seminars and work to promote natural building as a real alternative to conventional construction methods.

Cob is a building material that is made of a mixture of sand, straw and clay. The materials are mixed wet, by foot or with a tractor or mortar mixer. The word “Cob” comes from an old English word meaning “Lump” or “Loaf.”

The wet cob mixture is used to build thick earth walls; the building technique is very similar to sculpting with modeling clay. Because cob building requires no forms, you can build your walls into any shape you choose. Curves, niches, arched windows and built-in furniture are common features in cob buildings.

Because cob can be labor intensive, it is best if a cob structure be kept on the small side.

House Alive! will be offering a workshop in May of 2009 on how to build a complete shelter. Participants of the workshop will leave confident that they can design and build their own natural home. The building techniques will include:

• Making cob by foot
• Rubble trench foundations
• Stem walls out of recycled concrete, earth bags, and stone
• Natural sub-floors for earthen floors
• The materials sand, straw, and clay: How they work, what to look for, where to find them
• Wall building: tapering, keeping it plumb, trimming, shaping
• Electricity: How to put in wires, how to build a circuit
• Plumbing: Water and gray water systems
• Windows, doors and hanging cabinets and other things on cob walls
• Hybrid buildings: The interfaces of cob with other materials
• Earthen floors
• Earthen finish plasters

Lectures and demonstrations will include

• The economy of building
• Passive solar design
• Natural design
• Composting toilets
• Solar hot water
• Solar electricity
• Codes, hybrid buildings and natural renovations
• Straw bale construction
• Light straw clay, adobe brick and waddle and daub.
• Roofs and roof insulation
• Simple living and community

One thing that cob building lends itself to is cohousing. Cohousing communities attempt to be as self-sufficient as possible, by building their own homes from sustainable materials like cob and straw bales and by growing their own food. The Emerald Earth Sanctuary in Mendocino County, Calif. makes decisions by consensus, and they value direct, open communication and conflict resolution. They also offer work parties, natural building workshops, and a work trade program.

If you are interested in learning more about cohousing, the 2009 cohousing conference will be in Seattle, June 24-28, 2009.

By Christina Nellemann

Emerald Earth Sanctuary

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We discussed Brian Liloia cob cottage in an earlier post and I wanted to give you an update on his progress. Brian has started the roofing of his cob home as you can see by the picture above.

Brian was recently interviewed about building his cob house at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. He was interviewed by Tom Tucker of Greenblogosphere.com.

He discusses his experience building the house, the benefits and history of cob, and why he chose cob over other materials. They also talk a bit about life at the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage.

Brian is hoping that this audio interview will help shed more light on what it is like to build with cob and others will be encouraged to give it a try as well.
I have posted the audio below and attached some photos of the process so far. You can visit Brian’s “The Year of Mud: Building a cob house” blog to learn more as well.

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Those of you who have an interest in building with cob as in the Little Cob Cabin posted recently, will enjoy this site by Brian Liloia one of our readers.

Brian is a 23 year old currently living at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, learning to fulfill his desires to live more sustainably and self-sufficiently.

There’s a growing need to help shape a more eco-conscious, less destructive, and healthy culture, and he hopes to share some of his experiences living in a community that values these qualities.

Building With Cob

Brian explains his cob building process that they have developed over the past few weeks.

• Mixing Cob: The first step is the “burrito”, which consists of the final cob mix of sand, clay, and straw. When the consistency is right the mixture will roll and shape into a burrito.

• Making Cobs: The second step is to make “cobs”, or little loafs of the material. Kind of like kneading dough. Each loaf should only take a few seconds to make.

• Cob Wall: The third step is moving the loaves to the wall and lining them up. The wall is soaked with water before applying the new loaves.

• Cobbler Thumbs: The fourth step is taking cobbler thumbs ( a wooden tool) and “stitching” the cobs together, by working the straw into the layer below the new cobs and blending them together.

• Cob Finishing: In the fifth step you use your hands to create a clean, plumb edge.

Brian’s cob cottage footprint is 20×16, and the structure is spiral-shaped, with an urbanite foundation and all cob walls. The house will feature a reciprocal living roof, and it will make maximum usage of passive solar and feature a rocket stove connected to a mass cob bed.

• View pictures of the cob building under construction.
• Building with Cob Work Exchange.

Cob Building Photographs

Urbanite Foundation

Making “Cobs”

Three Foot Cob Walls

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