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.

There has been quite an interest in the floating home niche, so I am sharing with you Doug Lundy’s story written by Doug himself.

For this builder living on a 37 foot sailboat provided all the comforts. The boat was his first project and Doug took the boat single handed a hundred miles offshore, sailed through gales of forty knots and spent a year in the Monterey Bay at Moss Landing Harbor. He returned the next year and continued working in the Portland area in construction.

Marina life is low cost and like summer camp, lots of fun once you get used to the intimacy of living with people you might not willingly choose to be particularly close to, a profound lesson in community. But soon Doug wanted a little more, closet space, a deck, workshop, room for a couch and chairs and a place to hang art, but not three bedrooms and 1600 square feet including all the associated taxes, monthly fees and debt. This house is just under 700 square feet, built out of pocket over seven or eight years.

The barge home is designed to meet marine licensing requirements and reside in a standard boat slip. It has self contained systems, dock supplied power and water, plug-in, just like any vessel.

It’s up to marina management whether or not to accept such a tenant, but many marinas will take them for slightly increased fees. With houseboat space increasingly unavailable and expensive, this option may provide a living option in marina space for those unwilling to accept the space limitations of a boat, at much less cost than a similarly sized yacht-quality vessel. Ideally it would be licensed as a marine vessel but the county assessors tend to prey on them, forcing them into the floating home category with their local sway over the state marine board. In Oregon what is clear is that there is a totally unclear statutory description of what is a boat and what is a floating home. Many Oregon barge homes remain successfully licensed in the marine vessel category.

This home is easily towed with any vessel of 25 horsepower or could easily be self propelled and steered.

This design was inspired by local examples and a survey of the best of Seattle area Lake Union barge homes. It features a many level layout which keeps interior headroom and door clearance fully adequate without having excessive overall height.

The living room floor is sunken with a vaulted ceiling to create a feeling of space, and the back room has a raised floor to accommodate storage under the floor. Full windows and glass door for lots of light. There is a full interior stairway to the upstairs loft, skylight over the landing, with washer dryer and a freezer underneath, and the bathroom is raised on a mezzanine level with an extra high ceiling and plant shelving above the shower. The loft provides access to the upper deck.

The house is finished in cedar and old growth salvaged fir taken from remodeling projects, nothing under thirty grains per inch, doors all of solid material to match the trim and shelving. In small spaces matching color and material is crucial and needs to be consistent.

All materials are kiln dried, glued and screwed fasteners to assure a solid unitary structure.

The float is ¾ inch solid plywood manufactured for cement form construction and fiber glassed with several layers of mat and ten ounce cloth, reinforced in all the corners and stress areas. The resin is high tech vinyl ester resin with the moisture and chemical resistant qualities of epoxy and the final coats of resin contain copper to provide increased resistance to ultraviolet exposure above the water line.

If you have any questions write Doug at the following email address: skp3.1416@juno.com

Barge Home Photos

Entry

Kitchen

Stair

Loft

Outside Back

One thing I really am enjoying about writing this blog is the people I am meeting along the way. As I research and look for people living the small house life style it is fun get to acquainted with them.

This time I had the privilege of meeting Stephanie who is a member of the Yahoo Tiny House Group located at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TinyHouses/ which I also belong to and recommend that you join.

Steph recently moved from Tucson, AZ to Portland, OR and is living in a floating home. Steph is a fantastic writer in my opinion and I will let her give you a brief introduction below to her home. To get her full story and look at more pictures please go to her blog called Coming Unmoored.

“What?!” you say. “What the hell is a floating home? And why in the world would you do that?”

Well, to start with, a floating home is a house that has been built upon a raft-like system called a “float”. Typically they are docked in a slip-space (or in some cases two adjoining ones) in a marina. Mine is sitting in a marina about 20 minutes outside of downtown Portland in the Columbia River. If you’re familiar with the area, it’s just south of McGuire Island and cycling distance to Blue Lake Regional Park.

My house started its life as a boathouse in the 1960’s. At some point, one of its enterprising owners began to carve out living space from the boat well. It has been remodeled by subsequent owners, each time expanding the living space at the expense of boat space.

Currently the living space is a little over 500 square feet. When I finish filling-in the boat well, it will be roughly 650 square feet. Small, I know. Even by floating home standards, which are still smaller than what’s happening on land.

Following are a few more pictures of Steph’s home. I will be writing a followup post with some resources and and other examples of small floating homes in a couple of days.

Please visit Steph’s blog and enjoy a great read!

Slip where floating cottage is located

Living Room

Boat well to be converted to Office/Laundry

Inside Boat well