Tiny House Blog

Ziggy, who built his own cob house sent me a note telling me about his visit to the the Cob Cottage Company in Oregon.

He just put up a post with a slide show of pictures of his visit. He went to visit Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley in their home in Coquille, Oregon.

Ianto and Linda are two very influential cob building pioneers in North America, and authors of The Hand-Sculpted House, the number one go-to book for cob construction.

Be sure and watch his slide show and read his post as he covers a lot of good information on cob building and what he learned from his visit. Here is what Ziggy came away with from his visit: Continue Reading »

“These “bunkies” are in the Thousand Islands area that forms the border between south-eastern Ontario and New York State. The area has been mainly farmland since it was first settled during the mid-1800’s.

The bunkies face south across the lake. Because of the setting, with open fields, limestone shelves along the shoreline and open water, there is a very east-coast feel to the land.”

Karen is planning on building a bunkie on her property on  Simcoe Island shown in the last picture but she has some concerns. Continue Reading »

I could write a very short blog post here and say: Just don’t do it if you can’t live your small dwelling dream without a mortgage.

I know now one of the cornerstones of the Small House Movement is to simplify life, which includes ridding ourselves of unnecessary debt. If I had learned of Kent’s Tiny House blog and read his advice about getting out of debt sooner, I may not be writing this now.

We didn’t build a lavish small house with all of the bells and whistles. We built our Little House based on what we could afford, which really meant, based on the payments we could afford. Like many people, that’s how we previously defined “affordable.” Continue Reading »

Peter Sing the designer of the Sing Panel is selling an 8×14 cottage on wheels and is asking $9,800 for you to take it home.

This little cottage weighs in at less than 2700 pounds so can be towed easily. The cottage is ready for you to use as is for an office or spare bedroom, or a kitchen and bathroom could be added and you could have a perfect little cottage getaway or even live in it full time.

The Sing RV cottage is built using the Sing honeycomb product designed by Sing. Continue Reading »

Denny Henke wrote me and told me about his cabin/eco village in Missouri. I have posted a few of his photographs but you can view the rest on flickr and visit his ongoing blog called Our Tomorrow. I’ll let Denny tell his story.

I’ve been living full time in my 12×16 cabin since May of 2008. The cabin was built by myself and my brother-in-law, Greg. He’s the carpenter and I the assistant though after building 4 structures I’ve accumulated a good bit of knowledge and skill. I’m on land left to our family by my grandfather.

The property had been a campground of sorts from the 1970’s to the early 90’s so has the somewhat functional remains of an electrical infrastructure and several wells. The area we are using had a well and an old but structurally sound pole-barn style shed. It’s a mix of woodland and meadow with an 18 acre lake on the west side. We’d often talked of building a couple cabins but we never seemed to get started which proved lucky as a tornado hit the far side of the property in 2006. Continue Reading »

I first saw an EcoNest about 9 years ago and had forgotten about them until now. Even after studying many different types of natural building, Econests will continue to be one of my favorites because of their beautiful resemblance to the curves and colors of nature. They might even be the closest way to be outdoors without stepping out the door.

EcoNests are simple, elegant, and healthful handcrafted dwellings that welcome owner participation in their construction. Continue Reading »

Ryan alerted me to this 172 square foot tree house which serves as an office and guest room that was featured in Dwell.

This office/guest house is built on an estate in Brentwood, California a suburb of Los Angeles and was designed by Rockefeller Partners Architects, Inc. I’m sure this was an expensive tree house but that information was not given.

The architects took about eight months to design the tree house. Construction of the inhabitable sculpture, with its studio and lounge, took another 18 months. Continue Reading »

This is one of the tiny houses of the Thousand Islands, which is the name of an archipelago of islands that straddle the U.S.-Canada border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario.

This photo was sent in by one of our readers and was also showcased in Christina’s post Tiny Houses on Tiny Islands. Perfect for a Tiny House in a Landscape feature. Thank you!

At first glance you would not think of Cabin Creek Timber Frame company as a tiny house builder. If you view their site you will see huge timber frame homes. But don’t let this first impression fool you. I discovered that Cabin Creek Timber Frames takes their left over wood and builds tiny structures. Recently I communicated with Norma Jo Bell who gave me some information I wanted to share with you about this alternate building style for tiny houses.

I personally think the 12 x 16 with the half loft would make a great tiny home….at a great price. One could enclose it with (SIPS) structurally insulated panels and have an extremely energy efficient unit. Depending on how it was finished out it could even qualify for the ‘new home’ tax credit. The 12ft x 12 ft compound joinery frame in the video is not on attached price list yet but it will sell for $6,000. Continue Reading »

Ann Holley from ProtoHaus wrote that she will be giving a lecture on the ProtoHaus project Friday November 13 at Alfred University. The lecture is free and open to the public. It will be held in the Science Center (building 13 on the map).

Ann will begin at 12:20 and the event will be over at 1:10. There will be an open house right after the lecture. If you are in the area and would like to come Ann would be happy to see you there! The address is: Alfred University · 1 Saxon Drive · Alfred, NY. You can find a campus map at http://www.alfred.edu/map/