Tiny House Blog

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 »

by Scott Evans

I built the Yurt last year for the purpose of holiday rentals, it’s situated in an old abandoned quarry high up in the hills overlooking vast acres of Devon landscape with outstanding views. I got the idea from Bill Coperthwaite and his buildings featured in Lloyd Khan’s Homework book (Lloyd, what a guy). Anyway, I sent off for Bill’s plans, could not understand what was going on, and so eventually I made it up as I went along.

The building is mainly constructed out of scrap scaffold boards, pallets and timber from the builders merchants. It cost about £10,000 (about $15,979) not including labour time. Cedar shingles are so darn expensive over here along with plumbers who have to make sure gas is installed properly and signed off (big expense). The house also has a sawdust toilet, off grid for lighting, and mains water with shower and kitchen. The swing is a trampoline turned upside down purchased off EBay for £1.99. Continue Reading »

Exotik’s founders, Michel Labadie and Debra Lamothe, founded each of their projects and prototypes on their personal values. Their primary concern was to achieve and surpass their own quality standards. With a mysterious mixture of creativity, meticulous detail and cultural sensitivity, Exotik Innovations stages a high quality product, combined with charm, rusticity, and durability.

Prototype 2 and office

Their combined professional experience counts almost 30 years with the Cirque du Soleil, as Project managers and event planners. They put to profit this experience, by betting on their own dreams and building a high quality product as innovative and original, based on values as enterprising as their past employer.

Continue Reading »

by Katie Breyer

I work with a company (RVC Outdoor Destinations) that has created & branded the concept of Outdoor Destinations. These are basically outdoor resorts for luxurious camping with upscale amenities and accommodations mixed with beautiful natural environments. I’d like to tell you a little bit about their unique lodging options…

Cottages
RVC worked with Athens Park Homes to create their own customized RVC Resort Cottages. They come fully furnished with lofts, flat screen TVs, washers/dryers, bathrooms, fully appointed kitchens, and fresh bed linens & towels. They also include a BBQ grill, picnic table, and fire ring for outdoor cooking and gathering. While RVC Resort Cottages are small, they can sleep up to four adults and two children with the bedroom, loft and fold-out sofa. Continue Reading »

SunTime Yurts imports traditional handmade Mongolian Yurts to the Pacific NW (WA, OR, ID, and MT). The Mongol Ger (Yurt) has been an essential dwelling place to the history of Central Asia. Ger-like structures have been used as far back as 3,000 years ago. Many structural attributes contribute to the Ger’s long-lasting existence. The circular shape and heavy weight make it ideal for strong winds and harsh weather common throughout Central Asia. The hand painted rafters and natural wood latticed walls covered with a clean white wool felt create a cozy, comfortable atmosphere. The thick felt mutes outside noise, holds heat in the coldest of winters, and insulates against heat in the hottest of summers. Mongolia gets as cold as -50 degrees in winter and as hot as 100 degrees in summer, quite an extreme environment. The Mongols live comfortably in their Gers year round.

How SunTime Yurts Came to Be

Last March, I bought a one way ticket to Mongolia to develop my independent film making career. My success can be seen and read at www.suntimefilms.com. My 7 months in Mongolia were filled with adventure, friendship, generosity, nomads, food poisoning, and falling in love with the vast open landscape whose horizon is dotted with little white yurts. My friend Amaraa who lives in Ulaanbaatar helps run SNS Yurt, a small manufacturing company of the traditional Mongolian yurt. Each yurt is handmade out of Mongolian natural products. The only materials not from Mongolia are the tight weave canvas (for rain) and paint (no led). Amaraa has worked with “The Authentic Mongol Yurt,” in the UK for over 5 years and Peter, the owner, has been continually pleased with Amaraa’s service. Continue Reading »

Malcolm White contacted me about a new ebook he has written on how to build a new prefab he calls the TenYurt. I recently had the privilege of looking his plan over and it looks very doable for the average person. I am going to let Malcolm tell you more about it. (at this time this is only a concept, Malcolm is building a prototype soon)

For a long time now I have been interested in almost everything related to residential design and construction. If you looked at the bookmarks in my Internet browser you would find that category to have the most pointers by far. While most of my career has been in the semiconductor industry I have spent a fair amount of my spare time and occasionally my full time designing or building things.

More recently I have become increasingly interested in looking for ways to help ease homelessness both in this country and potentially abroad. Partly with that end in mind I have been thinking about how to build very simple structures that could be used for housing. I am also very interested in prefabrication techniques so I was naturally drawn to the idea of simple prefabricated structures.

My new eBook titled “TenYurt – A Simple DIY Prefab Shelter” details one such structure. A TenYurt is a simple 10-sided yurt like building that encloses about 118 square feet of floor space and is about 12 feet from side to side. In its prefabricated but unassembled for easy transportation in a pickup truck. I have included lots of drawings, accurate dimensions and complete how to build details. You can build a very simple basic structure or you can enhance it in most any way your needs and budget suggest.

For more information about my eBook and for information about how to order you own copy visit diy-prefab.com.