Tiny House Blog

by Steven Kuchinsky

I am part of a team of people from Monmouth University building a program known as THRIVE (Towns for Healing and Rehabilitation in Interactive Village Ecologies.)

We are working to create an alternative for about 80 homeless people living in tents (Tent City, Lakewood). Unfortunately, they must soon leave and will only have a homeless shelter to go to for one year and then they are on their own with no facilities available.

We want to create a sustainable community where these people together can build micro-homes and learn to live in a holistic life style.

We want to partner with whatever appropriate, likeminded caring people/groups will support this endeavor, such as Habitat for Humanity, various school programs that initiate sustainable farming, Home Depot which teaches home maintenance, and finally proponents of tiny homes that would like to make a difference in the lives of these people.

What better way to empower homeless people than to give them the opportunity to build their own homes and build their own community!

To what extent would you like to be a part of this ranging from simple suggestions, sharing contacts, ongoing communication, educating, etc.?

Here is a website about Tent City, and here also is a slide show (video) that I created. As idyllic as it may look, it is very difficult in the winter and they will not be permitted to live in these tents much longer.
(The pile of wood chips shown in the slide show were placed there by the town to make it more difficult for people to donate food to the homeless people. The county has since enforced removal.)

We were just featured on our ABC news affiliate here in Portland, Oregon for our vision and involvement in tiny houses. We thought that it might be a nice link for you to share on a slow news day.

We have launched a new 2013 initiative offering three eclectic new and we are offering them in three affordable ways:

1. We manufacture and ship a complete kit , ready to assemble $7,500-$9,000.
2. We manufacture and assemble the kit at our warehouse or at buyers location. Exterior 100% finished, interior 60% finished. $12,500 – $14,500
3. We assemble the kit and then have an affiliate contractor finish the interior to the buyers specification. $15,900 – $18,900

We like these approaches because it allows every person interested in a tiny house or cottage to participate in their own project to whatever extent they are comfortable and it brings the final cost of a cottage down to 50-60% of what people are paying. Continue Reading »

Barbara Techel is a writer who recently finished her first adult nonfiction book in memorial to her wheelchair-bound dog, Frankie. Frankie’s story and other stories about animals who have changed Barbara’s life were envisioned and brought to life in Barbara’s 10×12 foot writing studio which sits just behind her 1,100 square foot house in Wisconsin. Even though Barbara still lives in the larger house, she has been actively thinking about tiny spaces ever since reading Tammy Stroble’s new book You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap).

“I’ve begun smart-sizing the stuff in my home, donating many things to second-hand shops as we begin to think about moving to a tiny, or least a tinier home, in the future,” Barbara said. “When I started telling my husband about tiny home living and subscribing online to tiny house communities and blogs, he really embraced the idea also.”

Her tiny studio was built over the course of 3-4 weeks by her husband, who’s a contractor, and has been decorated in a cottage style by Barbara. Her husband, seeing that his wife spent a lot of time reading and relaxing in her little space, named the studio MySpace.calm. Continue Reading »

by Cristo

I like questioning ideas and concepts that most of us take for granted.

We usually accept them as a basis for our mind-frame or for how we are looking at our world and sometimes how we live our lives.

I love twisting things that are so deeply integrated into daily life that we don’t even see them anymore. For me, it’s all about investigating different for common objects. With a little imagination new possibilities are limitless.

Take a stupid shopping cart for instance. Apart from strolling thoughtlessly along sad supermarket-isles what are they good for?

Well, it could turn into a small shack as shown.

And voilà!
This shack could be used as a unit for dreaming, for thinking…Instead of, “Shop shop shop!” I could then turn this into, “Think think think!”

It could also be used as a cheap and decent shelter for homeless people. I like the idea that a consumption-system symbol could be helping those who have been expelled or denied access to the system. And now there’s just one more thing to do. Build it!

by Andrew Heban

I am with the non-profit Opportunity Village Eugene and thought you might be interested in posting about our newly developed 60 sq. ft. Conestoga Hut here in Eugene, Oregon.

The Conestoga hut is 6 by 10 foot shelter that can be built for between $250 and $500 depending on the utilization of re-used or donated materials. While this price is similar to a quality tent, the Conestoga makes significant improvements upon the tent – most notably an insulated and lockable space – while minimizing the cost, skill and labor required by a more conventional, four-walled structure.

There are four components to a Conestoga hut: a basic 6 by 10 foot insulated floor, two solid, insulated walls that line the short sides of the flooring, and a metal wire roof that is curved to connect to the long sides of the floor. The roofing frame is then covered with insulation and outdoor vinyl that is attached to the base of the structure.

The result is a structure that resembles the Conestoga wagons used during early American westward expansion. The components of the shelter can then be easily assembled or disassembled on site, drawing a reference to the rugged individualism again linked with the Conestoga wagon. Continue Reading »

I am Jeff White the director of the Sarah House Utah project. We are a small non profit community based organization. Our goal with the Sarah House project is to provide fast, green minded, safe, affordable homes for the underserved using salvaged material and volunteer labor.

We are also providing online instruction and showing people how to build inexpensive homes using salvaged material for themselves. Our small house is 640 square feet and is currently being constructed in a residential neighborhood in Salt Lake City which was a lesson in dealing with permitting and zoning, etc. I have enclosed a few photographs. You can see more on our facebook page Sarah House Utah or pose a question as many others have on our page.

Rendering of Completed House

Continue Reading »