Roald Gundersen, an architect who may revolutionize the building industry, shinnied up a slender white ash near his house here on a recent afternoon, hoisting himself higher and higher until the limber trunk began to bend slowly toward the forest floor.

“Whooh!” he said, jumping to the ground and gingerly rubbing his back. “This isn’t as easy as it used to be. But see how the tree holds the memory of the weight?”

The ash, no more than five inches thick, was still bent toward the ground. Mr. Gundersen will continue to work on it, bending and pruning it over the next few years in this forest which lies about 10 miles east of the Mississippi River and 150 miles northwest of Madison.

Loggers pass over such trees because they are too small to mill, but this forester-architect, who founded Gundersen Design in 1991 and built his first house here two years later, has made a career of working with them.

“Curves are stronger than straight lines,” he explained. “A single arch supporting a roof can laterally brace the building in all directions.”

This would be a very interesting way to construct a small or tiny home. Go and read the complete article and view more pictures at the New York Times website.

Photo Credit: Paul Kelley

Easy to assemble panel construction. The kit is ready to assemble with the help of a couple of friends or a local handyman.

The kit includes: a steel door and two 3‘x3’ double pane windows and a steel roof and texture 111 vertical siding and is ready for you to finish off the interior and paint or stain the exterior however you choose.

Henry’s Place is great for a shed, spare room, home office, tiny house or a getaway.

Special introductory pricing of $4,800 which includes Free shipping within 400 miles of Santa Rosa, California. Shipped as a flat pack plus the option of assembly on delivery for an additional fee. Only 4 are available with this introductory option. Get your order in Now!

Call Kent Griswold at the Tiny House Blog at 707-799-6891 today and place your order. A 50% deposit is required to begin construction and full payment due on completion.

*Shipping Extra depending on location
*Shipping further distances is also available.
*Deck in illustration not included

Basic Kit Floor Plan

Suggested Tiny House Floor Plan not included in Basic Kit

This little house is definitely a fixer-upper, but it (and especially the views!) have a lot of charm. Just thought you might like to consider sharing it– $29,900 for five acres and a 624 square foot house 1/4 mile from the national park (gorgeous area). The house has a water catchment system. Located in Marble Falls, Arkansas. You can view the complete listing here. Maybe this is the little home you have been looking for.

Ryo has a very interesting blog and you will enjoy reading it. It is a journal of his experiences in building his hut, so make sure you go and visit it here. I’m going to let Ryo tell his story now.

This past summer, I bought 60 acres of vacant land in northern California, and have been living there part time since August. Sleeping in a tent was fine while it was warm, but as the weather turned colder and wetter, I decided I needed something bigger, warmer, and dryer. I knew I didn’t need or want much; just something big enough for me to relax, cook, and sleep in comfortably.

In keeping with my theme of “minimalist comfort,” I decided to go for something small, just 6 feet by 8 feet, though with some insulation for warmth, and windows for light. Of course, it also had to be sturdy enough to not collapse under the weight of snow. I looked at pre-fab sheds at hardware stores, but even the tiniest, most shoddily made ones cost $500-600, with no windows or insulation. Naively, I figured that I could build a nicer hut for under $300.

With only a rudimentary (and incomplete) design I put together using Google SketchUp, I began construction in late October when a couple of friends came out for a weekend to help with the raising, and then worked on it alone for another 7 or 8 days before it was ready to be moved into. I built a loft for my sleeping pad, which left all the floor open for use, and left enough space for me to put in a small counter table for my propane stove.

The actual cost has since ballooned past $500, but it’s mostly done, and has been more or less comfortable enough to live in through rain, snow, and 20 degree (f) nights. It’s not the prettiest thing, but I’m proud of the fact that I designed and built a nice, cozy and sturdy hut for relatively cheap, despite not having any formal training in carpentry or architecture.

Ryo’s hut is not quite finished as he still needs to finish off the roof, be sure and follow his blog to keep up with his progress. Thanks Ryo for sharing your story.

Here is what Bruce has to say about his book: For yurt lovers everywhere, we’ve created the newest and best book about making an ultra simple, hand-made, yurt-home.

Ten years ago, at Spirit Hollow, a shamanic school tucked back in the Taconic Mountains of Vermont, I fell in love with yurts. I was bedazzled by an exotic tent, with a framed door, wooden floor, diamond latticed walls and rays of rafters, arching out from a central sky light. I was dumbstruck by the complex beauty and warmth of a tent in Green Mountain winter.

Later as I worked in Boston, seventy hours per week, at a Fortune 500 company, making more money than I had at any point in my life, I daydreamed of yurts. I sketched yurts set beside a roaring brook, in Arlington, in Vermont’s Kelly Stand. I made calculations of the cost of acreage, cost of a bridge to cross the river, cost of a floor and the cost of a Pacific Yurt sixteen feet in diameter. I would calculate the month of next year that I could afford to actualize my dreams.

In the next year, down-sized by life, aching for simplicity, living in an attic room and tending an organic garden belonging to friends, my head was still full of yurts. Purchasing land and a Pacific Yurt was now out of the question. I obtained books by Len Charney, Paul King and Dan Kuehn and down loaded a paper by Charles Lokey, works that would comprise the books of my yurt bible. I studied with religious fervor. Could I build a yurt, bit by bit, over the next several years?

How hard could it to build a yurt? Could I drill six holes in an eight foot stick? Could I drill six holes in sixty-six, eight foot sticks? Could I tie a knot at two ends of a cord after threading the cord through holes that I drilled? I knew I could do all of this and build a yurt wall, and from this place, I believed I could take on the rest of it. But could I really?

“A year and a half to complete everything”, I thought, but could I design and construct something that would fit and hold together, would actually work? To my amazement and joy, within two months, I moved into a new sixteen foot diameter yurt, my “ger” (Mongolian for “home”) all at a cost of less than $1000 or about one tenth of t he cost of a Pacific Yurt. Baku, a Japanese friend of mine said, “It wasn’t that God helped you build a yurt. It’s more like you helped God build it.”

How this all happen, step by step, the ideas, the calculations, designs, construction ideas that led to the simplest plan possible, the good fortune and blind luck that completed my yurt -home is the story that follows. Check out his book and website at For Love Of Yurts.

What is the Story of Stuff?

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns.

The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Lofted Porch

The Lofted Porch comes in 11 sizes from 8X16 to 14X40 and starts at $2,625 up to almost $10,000. This building provides overhead storage space with a covered entry. Windows provide natural lighting, and a traditional style metal door provides security and convenience. There is an abundance of overhead storage, and a covered entryway. The exterior of the Lofted Porch is virtually maintenance free.

Lofted Porch

Portable Casita

The Portable Casita comes in 9 sizes starting at 10×22 which costs $4,465 to 14×40 for $9,650. The Casita offers overhead storage space along with a “cabin” style exterior appearance. The covered “porch” offers a nice added touch, while windows provide natural lighting, and the metal entry door provides security and easy access. Built on sturdy 4×6 pressure treated skids with 2×6 treated floor joists and heavy duty 3/4″ plywood flooring, the Portable Casita is protected with 25 year solid tab shingles. The Casita also comes available with log siding which is available in 8 sizes. With the log siding option, you get real wood log siding over OSB sheathing. The inside of the building is still open with exterior stud walls that can be left unfinished, or you can finish the interior any way you want.

Portable Casita Interior

Mini Cottage

The Mini Cottage is patterned off of Dix’s very successful Portable Playhouse. This unique little cottage provides additional room for both play and storage. The end of the cottage features a larger door for adult access making it a very versatile storage shed. You can also order your mini-cottage with 6′6″ walls in place of the standard 5′3″ walls making it even more functional and providing additional storage room. There are three sizes available: a 10×12, 12×12 and 12×16. They range in price from $2,995 to $3,995.

Each Better Built building will be custom built to your specifications, allowing you to specify such things as overall building size, door and window sizes and locations, and shingle colors that blend with existing structures. Dix also offers a rent-to-own option with each of its buildings. Any plumbing, electrical and interior work will be done by the customer.

Each of the buildings feature pressure treated 2×6 floor joists notched into skids providing a much stiffer and stronger flooring system than the industry standard 2×4 system. They also feature:

• Wall Studs on 2′ centers, doubled on siding joints
• A solid framework for exterior siding
• 5/8″ T1-11 Pressure Treated Premium Grade Siding with sprayed on Cedar Stain/Sealer
• 2×4 Roof Trusses on 2′ center, with 7/16″ OSB decking
• 2×4 Reinforced doors
• Vents for air circulation and temperature control
• Exposed nails that are ring shank and galvanized
• One-year warranty

By Christina Nellemann for the (Tiny House Blog)

I’m building this enormous tiny house, more accurately, it’s building me. I began with wood from a barn a friend and I took down in Cotati and a 7′ x 16′ utility/ flatbed/ car hauler/ trailer. With each decision, my approach has been to imagine a million other people making the same choice I’m considering. If it seems like that choice supports the kind of future I want to see, I go for it. If it seems like the choice is a “necessary evil,” I do the best I can to find an alternative. Please excuse/enjoy the following manifesto.

Living in northern California is a privilege. Here especially, luxurious self-indulgence creates waste of all sorts. Now, vernacular architecture* consists of the abundant building materials locally available from incessant remodels across Marin and Sonoma Counties. Though the practice of replacing a perfectly functioning kitchen has certainly lessened with this economic downturn, the Recycle Town located in Petaluma at the Regional Central Disposal Site continues to provide a pile of wonderful reusable materials otherwise headed to the landfill. So does Craigslist.

With this building project, I want to add what I can to the creative commons and to all of you doing fantastic work to beef up open source architecture. This is an international issue. I agree, there is a housing crisis, and I’ve learned from creative builders who address this issue. I especially want to empower and encourage other women builders.

I have yet to see a house on a trailer built without the use of plywood for sheer strength. Plywood is not something I find often in salvage yards nor on Craigslist. So, stubbornly, this has been my goal: to build a solid, long-lasting home on wheels out of salvaged materials, with no plywood, as inexpensively as possible. I’ve used diagonal bracing for sheer strength. I had been planning on welding 2″x2″ angle iron to the base of the trailer coming up each corner and bolted into the rafters, but after taking it on the road, I’ve decided it’s probably unnecessary. I keep track of each find/expense in order to share a detailed budget once I finish.

If I do it again, I wouldn’t use rigid foam. I’m only using this toxic product because of the truckload I found for free in Sebastopol from someone’s remodel. I thought I had enough to insulate the whole structure, but I’m coming up short and questioning how to complete the insulation. Though rigid foam is lightweight and has an undeniably high R-value, the particulates that go to the wind as I work aren’t something I want my family, garden, neighbors, or anyone to really have to live with. There are things about this project I’m not satisfied with, hence the posting on my blog: ALL THE BAD CHOICES I’VE CHOSEN: Killing the Planet, Killing Myself: Why I’d rather be building with straw and mud, period (8 Oct 09).

Please look all through my blog if you are curious to learn more or post comments. I have a wishlist at the top. If you’re a local and have any of those items laying around, please let me know!

- Jenine Alexander
Blog: Forge Ahead Puppet {Building} Productions http://forgeaheadpuppetproductions.blogspot.com/

Photo Credit: Jenine Alexander

*Vernacular Architecture: methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs.

This little home is certainly distinctive!  Due to the signs on the back of the trailer (Neenah, WI – Tampa, FL) and the owner saying they had come to Florida for the winter…I assume they are snowbirds.

The owner said the following may be hard to believe, but the left rear corner of the trailer was run into by a car driver … IN BROAD DAYLIGHT!

The owner had to straighten it out and used hose clamps to pull the back and side together again … and used lots of caulk on both the outside and the inside to water-proof it.

Most of the the stickers are on a single topic.  One sticker says, “Watch out for motorcycles.”  One on each side says, “Share the road with bicycles.”  And he says he used a lot of trucker reflective strips to avoid being run into at night.  Florida isn’t the only place they have traveled.

The owner stated that one time the trailer actually made it all the way out to California and back.  When I saw this trailer, it was being towed by a utility van.  They have a small black & white dog.

I did not get a look inside the trailer … I had to move my 18-wheeler truck out of the WalMart parking lot …

- Royal 

I like the different roof style that looks really neat on this small structure. A more complicated roof and different from the everyday gable we usually see, very attractive. What do you think?