Tiny House Blog

Shelley recently sent me this link about Rima and her horse truck hermitage. I really like the rustic look of this home and you could spend hours just viewing everything in Rima’s blog.

Rima is a traveling artist who with Tui her partner have built this unique home to travel around the country selling her artwork.

These pictures will just wet your appetite for what Rima has on her blog.

Rima’s curiosity leads her through the many worlds of words, languages and lettering, books and stories, puppetry, nature and interesting people, music, superstitions, folklore and fairytales, and most of all the otherness that can be found on the periphery of our lives, the strange and grotesque, the absurd and unnerving … that topsy turvy in between place where things are not quite what they seem… Continue Reading »

I wanted to give you an update on Bill’s Solar Tiny House. You can view the first post here. Bill is constructing Michael Janzen’s free plans of the Solar Tiny House pretty much by himself.

Bill just completed installing the windows with some help from his father. He was able to complete the installation one day. Below are some updated pictures of the house with the sheathing completed. The house wrap in place and the roof installed.

Windows Installed

If I have done a post on your tiny house that you have started and you have an update for me, please let me know. I get rather back logged with all the great ideas and projects coming in and I am unable to stay on top of all the projects at times. Please send me an email with pictures and I will do an update on your project too. Continue Reading »

John Labovitz contacted me the other day to tell me about his tiny housetruck project that he is working on. The minute I saw the frame it reminded me of the Cable Car Trolleys that I worked on for a couple of years as they were built using the same steel tubing and looked very similar before being skinned and completed.

I’ll let John tell you more about his plans and his philosophy behind his choice of design and materials.

My overall values in designing the housetruck were simplicity, durability, sustainability, and mobility, which combine to liveability. Although I’ve been inspired by the tiny house movement, the biggest breakthrough was discovering the long tradition of gypsy caravans and British ‘living wagons.’ Continue Reading »

Joe in Michigan sent me his story about what he is doing in his life right now and how he is downsizing.

I have been a tiny house fan all my life and a fan of your website for over a year.

In 1997 I had to sell my 2000 sq ft house in the country and move into a trailer park in town. Not wanting to sell my solar panels and equipment with the house, I installed them on my 1979 camper trailer and parked it on my parents back 40 for safe keeping and the solar camp was born.

Mom was quick to tell me where a good place was to place the fire pit and I had a 4ft by 8ft building for the kids to wait for the school bus moved over into the area.

Last year I put in a sawdust privy and power for the camper trailer and a 35 gallon rain barrel with an outdoor sink in. This spring wanting a better place to deal with the food from the cookouts, I added on to the backside of the privy an Arizona kitchen.

I have been drawing and dreaming of my little house on wheels for my retirement years, I came across your article on a 8ft by 8ft finished house for $9,000 this inspired me to start drawing on the 64 sq ft idea.

Needing a temporary replacement for the camper trailer next year when I remove the old trailer from the frame and build my new 8ft by 22ft little house on wheels, I started the bunkhouse which is 8ft by 8ft with a 4ft covered deck.

I have to date finished the exterior and should have the bunkhouse ready for sleeping in a mouth or two. Next spring I hope to finish up on the desk and closet for a finished and complete project.

Thanks Joe for sharing your project, I look forward to pictures of the completed bunkhouse and will plan to do an update when you are finished. Please keep us posted on your 8 x 22 tiny house on wheels as you design and build it as well.

by Kent Griswold (Tiny House Blog)

Arizona Kitchen

Many of you expressed interest in the availability of the plans for this little red cabin we featured in a recent Tiny House in a Landscape post.

The owner has kindly consented to making these plans available through the Tiny House Blog.

This 14 x 28 cabin is 392 square feet plus a 198 square foot loft. The plans are on two pages, 24”x 36” each and are drawn 1/4” = 1’.

The first page contains four plan views for the foundation, roof, loft, and main floor along with a door & frame schedule, and a window schedule. The second page contains four elevations (front, rear and both sides) some general notes on codes, systems, and the like, and a detailed stem wall section (from footing to roof).

The owner is selling these plans for $149.95 with additional sets available for $15 each if bought within a 90 day period of purchase of original plans. Three shipping options are available. At this time the plans are only available at the Tiny House Blog.

You can purchase the plans on the Tiny House Blog Plans Page.

by Kent Griswold (Tiny House Blog)

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We didn’t do everything right when we built The Little House, but I love the things we did do right.

One of those things was to skip the carpeting and instead, we installed laminate flooring that looks like wood.

I put a lot of thought into the flooring because I hate carpet – and here’s why – we have dogs.

Dogs and carpet don’t mix. I would like to say I was the genius who came up with the plan to forego the carpet, but my aunt moved here before we did and was actually the brains behind the plan.

She’s been here since 1999 and her high-quality, laminate flooring still looks almost as good today as it did then, and she has several big dogs running around with their nails.

As well, carpet is just not good here in the country, where the clay is red and seed ticks dwell (seed ticks are tiny little baby ticks that are worse than their grown counterparts and can burrow in carpet).

When we pulled the carpet up to replace it so we could sell our house in the city, I was doubly glad I would never have to deal with carpet again. Even when you keep it clean, the dirt and dust (and I suppose mites) that congregates under the carpet and padding is one of the grossest things I’ve ever seen!

As with most people I know, our primary consideration had to be with cost when building The Little House. Our next consideration was the convenience of cleaning/maintaining a floor with the dogs.

When taking both cost and convenience into consideration, hardwood was automatically ruled out.

While I would have liked to have gone with bamboo, as it is the most environmentally friendly flooring, cost also eliminated that choice as well.

We were left with laminate and I’m very happy with it. In The Little House, we went with a light oak, as the décor is more cabin-based. In The Belle Writer’s Studio, I went with a darker wide wood plank, as the décor there is what I like to consider more “19th century country law office.”

If you’re going to choose a laminate flooring, here’s some tips that made things easy for us:

• In The Little House, we went online and chose a high-quality laminate as the prices were cheaper then the stores, even with shipping. We had the company ship us samples first to make sure it was what we were looking for.
• For both buildings, we chose an easy snap together flooring that uses no glue.
• We haven’t found it to be true that you can’t use laminate in the bathroom due to the risk of water. I suppose it might not be a good idea if it were to get wet all of the time (if you have kids, for example), but we’ve even had an incident where my husband left the shower curtain out and the floor didn’t buckle. Of course, we soaked up as much as we could and put fans on the floor to dry it as quickly as possible.
• We weren’t here for much of the building process on The Little House, so we hired a flooring company to install it for us. BIG waste of money. The snap together flooring is easy and can be done in a small house in a matter of hours. Just make sure you follow the directions. If you have a helper, my husband says it’s easier!
• The one thing I would have done differently was to go with the next higher grade. We went with a medium priced, medium quality floor and we’ve found when things hit it just right, it will dent and even chip.

Guest Post by Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell for the Tiny House Blog

Office Floor

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Yesterday, we looked at a book promoting the Minimalist lifestyle, today I want you to take eight minutes of your time and watch a couple who is living this life style.

Go back to the 1800’s with a couple determined to live in solitude without any modern technology. Dick and Bonnie Cain don’t have electricity, running water, or any other conveniences on their West…

Thank you Robert who brought this movie to my attention and who thought you might like a look at some people who have lived a life dream for 35 years. In a 100 year old adobe home in West Texas, and thank you Texas Country Reporter for putting together such a neat story for us to sit back and enjoy and at least dream about this type of life and break away from our hectic day to day lifestyle we live in today.

by Kent Griswold (Tiny House Blog)

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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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The New York Times printed an article yesterday about a family who cut the size of their house to more than half the size.

Giving up a big house to conserve money can create conflict with children. Even with the oldest away in college many issues have come up regarding this change. The family downsized from 3000 square feet to a 1200 square foot rental.

This is temporary but the new home they are building will be about the same size.

Click here to read The New York Times Article “When Home Shrinks” by Harvey Araton.

Photo Credit: The New York Times

by Kent Griswold (Tiny House Blog)

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Our idea began to take form in late 2008 when we saw the attractive little dwellings in the TinyHouseBlog.com Web site. We especially liked the houses with wood paneled walls. Not long after, while driving down the Interstate, we noticed a beautiful cabin for sale in a portable building sales lot. These portable buildings were actually “high-end” tool sheds, pre-built, available in many sizes and delivered to your site as a giant rigid box.

We had recently purchased a 75′ X 180′ lot in a subdivision near New Orleans and we wanted to put our building there. We chose a structure measuring 14′ X 24′ with a loft at each end. The floors are constructed with 2 X 6’s which give the building a very solid feel. It weighs 7,600 pounds and sold for about $8,000 (about a dollar a pound). The price included delivery and tie down.

The building has been delivered to the site and placed on blocks and leveled.

The delivery guys use something called a "mule" to wheel the portable building into place.

I felt I had the necessary skills to complete the inside of the dwelling but I wasn’t sure about getting the proper permits as required by Saint Tammany Parish (Louisiana) law. We were uneasy when we first walked into the lobby of the Parish Governmental Complex. Our anxiety was only heightened when we saw a mannequin sitting in the lobby for reasons unknown. I wanted to be a “self contractor” for this project but was fearful that the building permit staff would be quick to turn me away if I said anything wrong at all. At first they seemed disdainful of my plan to build a 340 square foot “home.” The whole project seemed to be nearly impossible to do according to code standards but without a permit we couldn’t even turn on the electricity. I knew that building codes are the law and that regardless of the staff’s outlook or my concerns, our structure would have to conform to those standards. In order to build rapport and credibility with staff, I started visiting regularly and was always polite. Before long, I was able to consult with the chief building official.

I learned that in Louisiana (because of Hurricane Katrina) every structure has to be certified by a licensed Louisiana professional engineer that it is able to withstand 130 MPH winds. The business that sold us our cabin provided this document for free. It had the necessary engineer’s red stamp on the plans to certify that my building could withstand the 130 MPH wind load. However, this structural rating is not complete without a Louisiana licensed architect’s seal to define how the foundation is to be built. The foundation design must be specific to the particular building and lot. This process turned out to be far easier that I had expected. I made an appointment with an architect who had done many of these drawings for sheds. For $300 he made a quick drawing of the precast concrete pads, blocks and tie down anchors. He completed the drawing in about thirty minutes. Best of all, the Parish was happy with his drawing and issued my building permit.

The parish issues a poster sized placard where you affix stickers as you pass each stage of the process.

The Parish building permit (application) fees were reasonable. They totaled $246. However, the survey fees were considerably higher. Three different surveys are required including a boundary survey, topographical survey and elevation certificate. These totaled $800.

The permit process is a series of steps in four different areas spanning nine different inspections. The four areas are electrical, plumbing, frame and drainage. In each area there is usually a preliminary inspection and a final inspection. For example, with frame, the inspectors need to have the walls open so that they inspect the required hurricane clips and insulation. Since the code demands R-30 in the attic, I had to butt 2 X 6’s up to the 2 X 4’s to give the 10″ thickness needed for the R-30 to fit next to the ceiling. (See picture)

Often, three inspections can be performed during one visit and you don’t necessarily need to be present during the inspection. For example, you can leave the door unlocked for the inspectors that morning. They can come in during the day, make the inspection and leave the green tag if you pass.

The empty cabin is just a shell waiting to be modified into a dwelling.

For my electric service, I used an underground feed from the utility pole buried 18″ deep with 100 amp service. One of the best decisions I made was hiring a licensed electrician and he was wonderful. Once he came on board, he served as my advisor to guide me through the numerous details the Parish would be inspecting. For example, the code requires hard-wired smoke detectors and the shower must have a light in it. The electrician knew all of this. Even better, he had knowledge in all the other trades and knew the inspectors. Without his professional skills and expertise, the process would have been much more difficult. I tipped him in addition to his fee because he kept me out of trouble.

The electrical box for the 100 amp service has been "roughed in."

Another item needing careful attention included plumbing vents. These must vent above the roof ridge line. All of them must be “dry vents” so they breathe properly and allow the toilet to flush correctly. In the areas of water and sewer services, my particular subdivision has a community water and sewage utility. This saved me plenty of grief because otherwise I would have had to deal with another set of local requirements pertaining to all that.

The plumbing has been roughed in with the vents as required.

The building permit was issued in April 2009. Our Certificate of Occupancy was issued in August. The whole project cost about $20,000: $2000 electrical, $3000 plumbing, $8000 cabin shell, $5000 materials, $2000 various fees and miscellaneous.

The entire effort shows that “smaller” does not necessarily mean “simpler” in terms of getting a project done the right way. We wanted our “Tiny House” to be a true home and not just a glorified tool shed. We wanted it to free of the potentially life-threatening hazards that can accompany poor site preparation and unstable construction, dangerous electrical wiring and shoddy plumbing. With the help of a few professionals, our own “sweat equity” and a positive approach to meeting local building code requirements, we have achieved our goal. We are very pleased with the final product. Please check out the various pictures of our project.

The 30 gallon hot water tank was placed up in one of the loft areas.

The R-30 insulation requires about 10 inches of clearance so you have to "add to" the 3 1/2 inches of 2X4 rafters to increase their depth to almost 10 inches to make room for the thick insulation sheets.

The wood paneling is slightly flexible and it can form an arch at the peak of the ceiling to eliminate a seam.

A temporary scaffolding was used to give workers the ability to reach high enough to do their insulation and paneling work on the ceiling.

The parish requires R-13 underneath the floor. Notice the steel wire "Tiger Teeth" that easily hold the insulation in place. You should not have a vapor barrier here because moisture might accumulate above it. So just tear off the vapor barrier so it can breathe.

A small kitchenette has been added.

by Bill Northup for the (Tiny House Blog)

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