Another one of our readers from Rich County Utah, Sco Smith wanted to share his story about his 10×12 house, I’ll let him tell you more about it.

For years I’ve been interested in small houses and small stores and shops.  Years ago an internet search only seemed to yeild a hit on “the Smallest House in Great Britain” which is in Conwy, Wales.  I had heard about this small house when I  was on an LDS mission in England from 1984-1986.  Now you find a wealth of rich inspiring information about small houses, simple living, and a whole community of people who are just as interested in small houses as I am.

We had built a small store on a busy highway that has been open seasonally during the summer months.  Last year our family of 5 (me and my wife and 3 children)  stayed in a travel trailer behind the store - so this year I decided to build a 10×12 size little house to live in while we operate the store.  Initially my wife thought bigger would be a bit better since we have three small children, but with the 10×12 size we did not need a building permit and I am already a small house enthusiast so we went with the 10×12 size with a loft.

The loft turned out taller than we expected, but if it is not the smallest house in the area, it is definitely the smallest tallest house.

We were careful to make sure it was well anchored to the Concrete pad  We also enjoy the 6 foot porch.  In connection to our store - this house has also become a tourist attraction.  We regularly take customers who come to our store on a tour of the small house behind the store.

We built it on a shoestring and working on it off and on it took about 41 days from start to finish.  The concrete pad was poured on 30 April 2008 and we spent our first night in it 10 June 2008. We insulated it well since it is in a hight mountain valley.  The interior paint color was chosen by default - Home Depot sells “Ooops” paint so we got 5 gallons of great paint for $15.00.  It is well insulated - since it is in a high mountain valley at a high elevation.

I would love to hang a sign or certificate in this house that indicates we are part of some type of small and simple society.  The Small House Society seems to purposely not have any membership cards or certificates, but I would love to have some type of official certificate to display in this small house and even a certificate in my office that would help help promote and facilitate conversations of the small house movement.

See more pictures of the Smallest House In Rich County.

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Shipping Pallet photo by Michael Janzen

Tiny Free House

I just found a cool blog, actually three cool blogs just started by another neighbor of mine. Well within a couple of hours of where I live. Michael Janzen from the Sacramento Valley is embarking on a little experiment. He is going to build a tiny house, 90 square feet, that’s a cross between Henry David Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond and a Tumbleweed-like Tiny House on wheels. But he is going to build it without spending any money. There will be some things he won’t be able to scavenge. For these items he plans to sell things he can find for free on craigslist.org. In the end he hopes to have a tiny free house. His blog Tiny Free House will be a record of the project. He also plans to write a book on his experience as well. Below are his plans.

Shipping Pallet Construction

Michael’s main source of lumber will from shipping pallets, that you can find free in many locations.

I will post updates as Michael progresses with his project. He plans to have it completed by this fall. To learn more visit two of his blogs: Tiny Free House and Tiny House Design.

6×15 Tiny Free House

Nine Tiny Feet

Michael is not stopping there in fact, I think that he will be building the smallest house out there called Nine Tiny Feet. A nine square foot home on wheels. Quoting Michael at his blog:

OH… WHY?

No I don’t intend to live in it. Building something like this will be an interesting journey and I plan to use it as a home office some or all of the time. I may also use the Tiny Free House as an office too, I just haven’t decided. The other reason is to show people how small, small can be. I’m beginning to develop a theory that nine square feet is all we really need and that every square foot after that is for added comfort, vanity, or people.

So the short version… I’m building a nine square foot house to explore the possibility to satisfy my own curiosity and explore my own values. If successful I hope it will act as a tool to help other people see that the least is the most.

View his plan below and go to his his blog at Nine Tiny Feet to follow his progress. He plans on building this after he has completed the Tiny Free House, so stay tuned.

Nine Tiny Feet Design

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Lakeshore Mississippi was particularly hard hit by Hurricane Katrina which pretty much destroyed all the town’s homes. The reconstruction work is still ongoing and among those doing a lot of the work is Lakeshore Baptist Church, whose buildings were also leveled.

Jamie Dunbar one of the long term volunteers living in Lakeshore and helping with rebuilding efforts, shares a few pictures of the building of her new tiny home. She writes:

“Since I’ve been here I’ve lived in several different places here on the church property, but for the most part I’ve been living in a camper. The church has decided to build me a little home that I had designed. It’s 12 ft x 16 ft with a 4 ft front porch on the front making it 16×16. there is an 8 ft loft above.”

I really like her simple yet attractive design. When I first learned about it from Alex at Shedworking I wrote to Jamie and she shared her plans and drawings with me. Her tiny home is still being constructed so I will have an update later on when her home is completed. Thank you Jamie for sharing your experience with us.

You can find lots more details and photos at Jamie’s blog.