Living Tiny in the Round
Guest Post by Daphne Shapiro
I knew that I wanted to move into that round cabin in a field from the moment I saw the ad on Craigslist.
At 500 square feet, it was the smallest place I had ever lived in. It was round, like a yurt, but built like a house, with windows all around and two sets of doors to the outside. A big skylight dominated the ceiling. The cabin had a colorful past, having been used not only for housing, but also as a recording studio and at one point, for professionally-run seances. I hadn’t a clue how to furnish this round room so I went on the web and researched “yurts.”
I decided that I liked the way the Mongolians handled the situation. In those yurts, the middle of the room was taken up by a big stove and all the furniture was pushed against the edges of the room with the beds doubling as seating during the day. I didn’t have a big stove in the middle of the room, but I liked the idea of being efficient with whatever I did bring to the yurt, so I immediately sold my sofa and arranged the rest of my furniture around the perimeter, Mongolian-style, leaving an open space in the middle. That area under the skylight ended up doubling as a personal yoga studio, a guest room where I could put the blow up mattress, a larger space to move the dining table out when I had people over to eat or as a place to put extra chairs when friends were hanging out. The middle space with nothing in it became the most used and most useful area in the cabin. Continue Reading »
Green Cedar Bus
by Josiah Williams
My wife, Christy, and I took a 1994 Blue Bird school bus and turned it into a home for us and our little boy.
We spent the summer of 2011 doing most of the conversion. I worked days as a carpenter and put in long nights and weekends on the bus and was rewarded with a comfortable, warm, and unique space for our family, free from rent and mortgage.
We spent the winter months traveling from Georgia to Washington state, spending most of the time around the south-west.
Along our journey we found out that we were pregnant with our second child so, though our time in our new home has been short, we are now in the prossess of selling the bus in order to fund a move to Alaska. We hope to get enough money from the sale to be able to start a life there and begin plans for another small, simple yet beautiful and unique home, this time though on a soil foundation! Continue Reading »
Brookside Cottage
by Christopher Stoney
When I consider all of the hurdles and hassles associated with building a tiny house in this modern time of high land prices and restrictive zoning, I find myself extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to buy a small cottage. My cottage has remained essentially unchanged since the 1940s when smaller houses were the norm.
I have always had an idea of just what kind of house I wanted to live in. For years I had been keeping an eye on the market for the perfect house. Finally, in 2006, I saw an ad in a real estate flyer: ‘Brookside cottage with claw foot tub.’ This I had to check out, even though I was in a perfectly comfortable living situation at the time. When I visited the house, I felt a sense of recognition. It was as if I were returning to a home I had built for myself in a previous lifetime. In a flurry of negotiations I got the price down to what I could afford, and with the help and advice of a Tarot reader, I overcame some legal hurdles and I became a homeowner.
Although I think it would be closer to the truth to say that this house owns me. Even as I have chosen this house to be my home, I feel that in some sense I have been chosen by this house, and by the woodland spirits that live here, to be its caretaker.
Since then, I have been redecorating/remodeling the house one room at a time. The claw foot tub is still there, although the rest of the bathroom has been completely redone.
Living Large in Small Houses
Guest Post by Deb Durham
Deb Durham, here. I am a 6 foot tall woman. Ironically, I have always been attracted to small spaces. And I drive a 2 seater roadster.
Since I left home, I have never lived in more than 1,350 square feet. Blame it on the half dozen ubiquitous 2–story and split-level suburban tract homes I lived in growing up around the country. Ever since I was a small child (well, I was never really a small child) my escape was the Swiss Family Robinson style tree houses I built or the family linen closet hide-away I turned into the perfect little nest.
Certainly, years of living in Manhattan apartments demanded I meet the challenges of small spaces. But I liked the coziness of them. To the shock of friends, I once entertained 80+ guests in the 350 square feet of my New York City abode.
So what is it about a smaller home that is so appealing? They typically have more charm and soul than McMansions. They are about human scale vs. trophy housing. Besides the emotional appeal, you can allocate more budget in finer materials, unique accessories. Practically speaking, there’s less to maintain. And how does one live large in a small house? Here are some tips taken from my 900 square foot cottage a/k/a The Topanga Tree House:
1. Expand your inside-outside living by choosing colors that blend with nature’s surroundings To blend with the rustic feel of the environment, I used stained pine boards for the walls and painted the house exterior and well as interior trim a soothing green. Lines blur between indoor living and outdoor space. Antique beveled glass French doors form walls of windows softened by sheer linen drapes not shown (IKEA). Imagine waking up to this every day! Continue Reading »
Idaho Bridge House
by Carla
In summer 2011, Carla, a gypsy engineer, found an unusual property at an online auction: a drainage ditch. Downtown Boise, none the less! Dimensions: 270 feet long – but only 15 feet wide. City Hall told her that she could build a shed, as long as the sides touching her neighbor’s property line would not exceed 7 feet and the overall size be under 200 square feet.
No problem. Well, one problem: a 15 foot wide property with a drainage canal running through it for half a year does not have much dry land to build on.
The solution: build a bridge and put a small building on that. Two days and $500 later, this small house was built. It’s 7 feet wide, 7 feet high and 14.5 feet long.
Max’s Cabin in Washington
Guest Post by Max Magick
I bought my property in early May 2011. One third of an acre in a town in Pend Oreille County https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pend_Oreille_County, Washington for $13,000. I am only about 500 yards away from the beautiful Pend Oreille River, but do not have a view of the river.
I had my cabin bulit in May/June of 2011 while I was clearing the property which had an old and dirty shed on it. My builder was Joseph Birky of Birky’s Better Built Barns LLC based in Clayton, WA. Here his website: http://local.yahoo.com/info-63959343-birky-s-better-built-barns-llc-clayton I highly recommed him and his work.
The cabin is 10ft wide and 20ft long, has a 6ft porch, a 10 X 14 ft living space and two 10 X 6 ft sleeping lofts reached by custom built wood ladder. The cabin is a 2 X 6 construction, is R-21 insulated in the walls and ceilings, and is finished with cedar inside with a 3/4 inch redwood laminate flooring. The floor is insulated as well. Continue Reading »
