Tiny House Blog

My friend Julie’s family comes from a ranching family in eastern Nevada and various antique items have made it into her home including a full-size sheep wagon that now sits comfortably in her backyard. The wagon was formerly used by her husband and father to camp in while they went hunting in the wilderness of the high mountain state. Julie would eventually like to turn the wagon into a place for people to stay and get a taste of the Wild West.

The wagon (which dates around the early 1900′s) has a metal roof that has been painted, the original wood and a full size bed in the back. It also contains the original wood stove and a small table that covers up a storage cabinet and lowers down in front of the bed. Many original sheep wagons did not have a sink, but Julie’s does. It’s covered with a wooden food prep board and the water drains out onto the ground. The sheep wagon shares the yard with an tin-roofed outhouse that she picked up for free. Continue Reading »

Towards the end of the build I realised it needed to be a little more than just my personal hideout. I’m hoping to attract folks who will share the hideout with me, taking their broken stuff to fix, while making a fire inside or outside and having a tea or beer. I’ve added a website too, www.repaircave.com, inspired by the popular ‘Repair Cafes’ (where people go and repair broken things together). It’s in Dutch, but that’s much like English

The site is about what’s happening in the Cave and through it I try to motivate people to repair and recycle and to use free stuff in a creative way. So far no one has come, but nevermind, it’s still my retreat too. And it’s still fresh, who knows what will come of it. Continue Reading »

Charles Finn might just be the ultimate tiny house Renaissance Man. He’s a self-taught woodworker, an author, freelance writer, editor of the High Desert Journal, a literary and fine arts magazine, and his custom microhomes also allotted a full color spread in Lloyd Kahn’s “Tiny Homes, Simple Shelter” book.

Charles is originally from Vermont, but lived in Japan for a few years and admired the Japanese tea house designs. He eventually found himself in British Columbia living in a 7×12 foot vardo made by a woodworker friend. The vardo had no electricity or plumbing, but did have a 3-burner propane stove, a Jøtul woodstove and a set of deep-cycle batteries to run his laptop. After his first experience in a tiny home, he built his first “microhome” in Potomac, Montana out of lumber dismantled from old barns. The 8×12 foot cabin with a five foot loft became known as the Potomac Cabin. Continue Reading »

Hey all, a belated happy new year, and here’s a brand new video mini-tour of “The Whittled Down” Caravan, which made a guest-structure appearance at our Tiny House Building Workshop in Massachusetts this past November (one of five tiny shelters, structures, houses, we had on site!). It was built by Tristan Chambers and Libby Reinish (now of Easthampton, Massachusetts) for a mere $1,500 – trailer and all. They drove it to Massachusetts all the way from New Mexico, where it was originally built. This little wagon also had a full page photo spread in “Humble Homes, Simple Shacks.”

By the way, some guy named Kent Griswold (tinyhouseblog.com) will be trekking cross-country to speak and hang out at the next workshop that I’m hosting alongside Steven Harrell (from tinyhouselistings.com) in Wilmington, North Carolina (April 26th-28th). Other speakers include Laura LaVoie from 120squarefeet.com, Dustin Diedricksen (environmental engineer and small house dweller/builder), Alex Pino of tinyhousetalk.com, and more….its almost becoming a tiny, “tiny house convention”. We’ll ALL be building a tiny guest house too, and holding campfire discussions at night. Its limited to 25 people to keep it more intimate.

We’ll have the full roster/event poster out soon, and keep you updated. You can also sign up at Relaxshacks.com for this three day, hands-on, workshop.

-Derek “Deek” Diedricksen

*Update below where Flow answers some questions and includes more photos

Hi, my name is Flow and I live in Humboldt county. I thought you might enjoy a peek at my new Gypsy wagon a friend and I created this summer.

Designed and built in northern California using as many reclaimed woods as possible, Douglas Fir floor from old school bleachers, a redwood door from old barn, and benches from downed old growth redwood.

The bed frame features a Ranma from Japan carved in 1910 and all the lighting is L.E.D. low voltage. It also has radiant heat flooring and an organic futon. Continue Reading »

By Devorah Peterson

In 1973, the year she met her future husband, a friend of mine bought a three year old caravan, an early project of Lloyd House. Since then, this treasure has been sitting in a forest clearing on an island of British Columbia. As there is no kitchen or bathroom, other small structures were built alongside.

I fell in love with the rustic 17 foot caravan in the nineties when I first visited the remote property. Perhaps more than any other “tiny house,” it has inspired me to write about them and (hopefully) build one of my own eventually.

Though the exterior is plainer than many hand built caravans, I kind of like that about it. One would never suspect that inside is a world that’s magic. Continue Reading »