Living in a Pop-up Tent Trailer in Baja Mexico
January 29, 2012 Mulege, Baja California Sur, Mexico – by Gabriella Morrison
Just eight months ago the idea was born that we (Gabriella, 41, Andrew, 38, and Terra, 12) would sell half of our worldly possessions, let go of our rental house, buy a pop-up tent trailer, leave our known world behind and spend several months living a more simple life. Our motivation was to let go of the patterns that have kept us living in stress and endless to-do lists by thinning down the amount of distractions and busyness we had created over a lifetime. Our hope was that in doing so, we would re-discover who we are and what our nature is when we aren’t inundated by media, television, phone calls, email, billboards, etc…
What we’ve found is that happiness has nothing to do with having a large home (we are living in a 150 sq ft trailer) and that less is so, so much more. That the best way to get to know those you love is to share a tiny space. That the best way to live a life that feels inspiring and fulfilling each and every day is to thin ourselves from all the clutter and unnecessary possessions that create a distraction from who we really are. Continue Reading »
Old-Time Garden Shed
This garden shed would make a perfect tiny house. It was recently featured on the Fine Homebuilding website and I thought you would enjoy it too. The downstairs is designed as a working garden shed and the upstairs has a little retreat with two beds. I could see this design easily transferred into a tiny house. David Edrington used Google SketchUp to design the garden shed and than had a contractor build it.
Read the full article and see more photos at the Fine Homebuilding site.
Photo by Kent Peterson
Tiny House Challenge – Domain Studio
Guest Post by Frank Dobrucki
My Tiny House Dilemma/Challenge. Years ago, as I was watching the Las Vegas housing market crumble, the local TV News was reporting that Las Vegas did not have to worry about the national trend in housing, because Las Vegas was going vertical! Yes, we had well over 100 huge high-rise projects on the horizon! I thought that the newscasters were out of their mind. There is no way that you can insulate one type of housing project, specially when it is an outrageously overpriced concept and believe that this will save us from economic catastrophe. Fast-forward, Las Vegas is truly ground zero when it comes to the national housing market disaster. All of the high-rise projects included, even though most were never built!
Photo Credits: Frank Dobrucki
When I looked at the floor plans of many of the projects, several entry-level models were less than 800 square feet and had starting prices of $600,000 and monthly homeowner fees of approximately $800 to $1,000. I knew that I could do a better job of coming up with the kind of housing that people really need and something that people could afford.
Bringing a Surveyor On-Board Your Tiny House Project
Guest post by David from David Moor Chartered Surveyors
(This information is for the UK not the United States)
Getting a surveyor on-board for your tiny house project can seem like a relatively daunting step. It can be the moment where your tiny house makes its first real steps into becoming a reality. That said, it can also bump up the expense of the project, so it is not a decision that will be taken lightly by those with grandeur objectives for their tiny home.
It should go without saying that it won’t be necessary to bring the technical expertise of surveyors into smaller micro-house projects. There are circumstances, however, where you will bring in the expertise of builders, architects, and indeed, surveyors.
With this in mind we’ll look at the value a surveyor will bring to your project and the circumstances that would predicate this decision.
This article will provide an overview of the role a surveyor plays in the construction of buildings and look at why they may add value to your projects.
There are three factors that will determine whether you will consider using a surveyor:
- The size and complexity of your project
- The budget for the project
- Your prior experience building
Of these three factors, the size and complexity of the project is ultimately the most important. (These however, are often defined by the project’s budget.)
In any new building project, the design is likely to chop and change as the structure begins to take shape. Let’s have a look the responsibilities of a surveyor in a construction project.
Cost Management
The role of a surveyor from your point of view boils down to two words: cost management. On smaller projects, this task can straight forward to manage yourself, but with any job of a significant cost, it’s not recommended you go it alone.
Why?
At the start of any project, you’ll have an approximate idea as to what it is going to cost. There are always (always) unforeseen changes to the project that can cause its costs to escalate.
Whilst this deviation may not be a major problem in small projects, in larger ones they can add up and jeopardize the projects chance of completion.
An architect may have an idea about cost, but they are not qualified to account for the management of building costs as they change over time. The surveyor’s cost management role continues throughout the project,
particularly in accounting for the value of a builder’s work on a month-by-month (or week-by-week) basis.
This isn’t to imply your builders will pull the wool over your eyes, it’s simply a means of giving you confidence that the project is being completed on-time, on-cost, and to sufficient quality.
For example…
As the home begins to take shape, you decide to make a change to the home’s design; for the sake of argument, adding a window, which the builder quotes at $3,000.
A surveyor will audit this quote to ensure the cost is right. You may be adding a window, but you’ll be losing cladding, so money could be saved here.
Your surveyor will be involved in material procurement as well as the negotiation of the builder’s contract, ensuring a fair price as well as the completion of the work to a high standard.
By employing the services of a surveyor for help with the construction of your tiny home, you will introduce a series of checks and balances to the project, helping to fix the cost.
Anyway, that’s my overview of the value a surveyor could bring to your tiny house build. If you’ve any questions, leave them as a comment and I’ll do my best to try answer them.
Slabtown Customs Office for Sale
Scott Stewart from Slabtown Customs in Arkansas is selling his office as he needs more space. This unit is ready for you to turn into a tiny home or office.
Scott says: It’s built like the tiny houses I build and could easily be set up as a house with addition of a bath and kitchen but was built to be my personal office and has been great but some new business additions require more office space so I would like to sell this one. It’s built on a trailer with two axles and bumper hitch, it is 8′ wide and 20′ long including a 6′ front covered porch.
Insulated and wired it has ext ceiling fan and light on front porch, ceiling fan with light and hanging globe lights inside, rustic pine lap and gap and barn metal interior, also has barn metal porch ceiling.
Vinyl flooring, three 3×3 windows with window in back wall having a plug for a window type heat/ac unit in place.
Scott is asking $6,250 for the office as is. If you would like Scott will add a bathroom for $2,000 which would include shower, toilet, sink/vanity and water heater. With that addition it would make a perfect guest house or dorm room for a college student.
Contact Scott Stewart at 870-213-5310
Slabtown Customs
Mountain View, Arkansas
Email: [email protected]
Photo Credits: Scott Stewart
Tiny House in a Landscape
This week’s Tiny House in a Landscape is a little different. It is a tiny house under construction in a landscape. The photograph was taken by Dave Stonehouse of StoneHouse Woodworks in the Rockies of British Columbia, Canaada. Dave says: I live in Golden, British Columbia in the Rocky Mountains. The picture of the cabin under construction is actually in my back yard. We have a couple of acres. My company is Stonehouse Woodworks. I build log and timber cabins, do finishing carpentry, and build furniture (pretty much anything with wood).
You have to wear a few hats to stay busy in a small town, but I’ve always managed to.
Thank you Dave. I plan to feature this cabin again when it is completed, so, readers stay tuned.
Photo Credits: Dave Stonehouse
10′ x 12′ Timber Frame
by Jon Anderson
Over the years, I’ve built a few log structures and along the way, timber framing got into my blood. I love the beams, the posts, and the tight fitting joints made by a builder using mortise and tenon.
I remember the first time I viewed the clean lines of a timber frame structure. The frame was draw pinned together with Red Oak pegs that were cut by hand on a shaving horse—I was hooked. And, for framing, you don’t need fancy or high-tech tools—framing square, hand saw, chisel, and auger bit have performed quite well for hundreds of years.
When I decided to build a timber frame, I was clueless in regards to technique. Of course, like always, this didn’t stop me. Normally, I just plod blindly ahead (or in the case of the TV remote—I just mash every button randomly on the four separate remotes that are clearly critical to the operation of my cable system—something is bound to happen). However, in this case I decided to at least gain a basic understanding of the process, as there is a certain liability associated with handing big heavy things, like timbers. So, I read a few books that described traditional timber framing techniques and I took a framing class at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. Continue Reading »
