William’s Floating Teepee
William Woodbridge is a 21 year old second year university student. He has a unique way of looking at life and how he lives as a student is quite different than the usual.
Williams lives in a teepee and a floating teepee at that. Will says “It’s deliciously hippyish.”
Will decided to leave campus life after accidentally setting off a fire alarm and then being fined $350. At first, Will lived in the back of his car, he than decided to build a raft and looked at what options he would have for shelter. He looked at cabin-type tents and finally his uncle suggested a teepee. Continue Reading »
Little House on the Prairie
Guest Post by Jerry Hambley
In 2004, my wife and I decided to purchase 20 acres in rural Kansas about 45 minutes away from our suburban home in Overland Park, Kansas. With a daughter close to graduating from high school, we thought the best way to transition to the country might be to build a small cottage that would serve as my home office. I sat down and made a list of requirements for the office and decided it might be wise to add a small kitchenette and second floor sleeping loft just in case we wanted to spend the weekends at the farm.
Exterior of the cottage after roofing
After a good deal of research, I settled on a set of plans called the “Weekend Warrior” by Robinson Residential. Using those plans as a guide, I expanded the footprint of the cottage by three feet and added a full second floor sleeping loft. Continue Reading »
Paul’s Tiny House in the Woods
Guest post by Paul Mittig
I built my 10 x 20 house in 2005 for about $10,000 in materials, including all furnishings. It is built on six poles set two feet into the ground, that support the floor and roof. There is no framing in the walls except at the door and the large window. The walls are rigid foam insulation, R21, covered with ½ inch sheetrock and all glued together. The ceiling has R38 fiberglass insulation, and the floor has R19 fiberglass insulation. I spend about $100 a year on propane for heating, cooking, and water heating.
The house is located in the hills of Northern California. I live in it full time. The house is set up for one person, but you could easily put a double bed by the door where the tall bookcase stands. If you did this you might want to move the window. Continue Reading »
Livin’ Large, Living Tiny
Guest Post by R Blank (this is a repost from his original blog)
My wife and I have now been living tiny for several months. For those who don’t know, tiny homes (living units under roughly 200sq’) have become increasingly popular in the past couple of years. When we researched many options for different types of tiny homes, we found a lot of information — but very few first-person accounts of the experience.
And, after all, that’s what tiny living actually involves — a fundamental shift in thinking about consumption and space utilization — the rest (what type of tiny home, whether its mobile, how its built, etc) is all just details.
Our Shipping Container from LEED Cabins, in Place, with the Completed Porch and Privacy Fence
Given the increasing popularity of tiny homes I thought it might be valuable to someone out there considering the same to read some of my thoughts on what this experience has been like for us.
In our case, this isn’t a tiny home, so much as a my home-office. But we decided to place this small office structure on the land first, before building our home. Our land is 30 miles away from the nearest town (where ‘town’ is quite loosely defined; we’re literally 20 miles away from the nearest service at all, which is our post office), which makes development quite challenging. So we started small, so we could establish a base of operations without too much trouble (that it took us a year to even get this far, is an entirely separate story). Continue Reading »
Tiny House Family
Here are some pictures of our tiny house in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We are a family of four (plus one big dog) living in a 8 x 21 ft. tiny house we designed and built ourselves. We have worked our space so that there are two private lofts with separate ladders. Feel free to tour our home.
Our tiny house experiment has helped our family grow closer (not just physically!). It is a daily challenge to practice living in the moment and breathing deeply to find the patience needed to weather the difficulties of family life in such tight quarters. The rewards are a life full of moments of real connection.
We have lived in the tiny house since May of 2011, and have learned many lessons. Through our blog, tinyhousefamily.com, we are sharing the story of our lessons from living tiny.
Our Tiny House in the Hills
by Neil Norton
Here are some photos of our tiny house made from a storage building. We had been living in a 2,700 sq ft home, between upkeep and utilities we were constantly broke. A friend of ours offered to sell us a quarter acre of his property, so I went to work researching tiny homes.
After a month or so of youtube videos, google searches, etc… I decided on this layout. The living room is 10 ft 6 in X12 ft. The kitchen/bathroom is 6 ft 2in X 6 ft 10 in with 6 ft 7 in ceiling to accommodate the storage loft above. Our bedroom is 10ft 6in X 7ft 8in. All rooms except for kitchen have 9ft 6in ceilings. We have two lofts, the front one overlooks the beautiful rolling hills of Northern Arkansas, it measures 10ft 6in X 48in with a 40 in ceiling at the peak.
The back loft is accessible from the bedroom only and matches the kitchen footprint with 40 in ceiling at the peak. We lowered the ceilings in the living and bedroom for structural integrity, but left the lofts for more head height.
Our water is heated by a 7 gallon Ariston point of use water heater. We heat with a 35,000 btu propane heater (overkill yes, but it’s nice to heat our home fast and I got it at a steal for 40.00 bucks) and a electric radiator heater. It’s a livable work in progress, we are adding a 12 ft x 20 ft addition in the spring for a utility room and bath.
