My name is John Warren. I met Andrea Tremols and Cedric Baele at an oyster roast last night in Charleston. They told me about their project and I told them about a series of photos I took of small dwellings out on Block Island, Rhode Island. They are mostly highly efficient summer homes that are are all uniquely designed to withstand sustained winds of over 100 miles per hour.

I photographed about 20 of them, but there are many more. I became interested in small dwellings when I went to Whidbey Island, Washington. Continue Reading »

Kevin Coy recently sent me a video on how to save thousands on your micro house project. In the video Kevin explains that buy buying a used RV, for a small sum, and then removing the important internals such as: heating, air conditioning, kitchen appliances, propane bottles, shower, toilet, and hot water heater can save you a ton of money. Keep in mind, it is important that you are careful when removing these items, but think of how much you can save by repurposing instead of buying new!

You can subscribe to Kevin’s series of videos on his channel here and follow him on his blog at http://kevinsmicrohomestead.wordpress.com/

Thanks Kevin for sharing your knowledge on the renewable way of buildin g a tiny house.

Sold!

Bill Kastrinos of Tortoise Shell Home is selling his 8′ x 24′ prototype. Bill is selling a partially completed prototype at a reduced price until January 27. The house though unfinished includes a separate bedroom, living area, kitchen and a bathroom with a built in shower. It is fully insulated and has dual pane windows. It just needs your own special touch to complete it and to make it you own.

Bill is asking an incredibly low price of just $5,800 but you need to jump on it quickly as it is only available through January 27 at this low price. Give Bill a call at 707-486-4320 and let him know you heard about it on the Tiny House blog.

by Matthew Wolpe

So, I’m designing and building a tiny house. Last year one of my students showed me a picture of the Tumbleweed houses and said she wanted to build one and wanted me to help out. I laughed and thought it was funny and intriguing, but inside I was like “Are you serious, you’re gonna move into one of those?” Okay, so fast forward six months, and the New Yorker article came out and I was reading it in bed. It was a rare moment of epiphany, aided by some lovely company.

It was the ideal next step for me.

There were a few considerations:

1. I loved my housemates to death but don’t love my basement room, particularly in the winter
2. I’d been building chicken coops for the past year, something I’m a little tired of, so it was like a giant chicken coop with new challenges
3. I had been trying to buy a house with friends in oakland for over a year and am convinced this is my only way towards home ownership in the bay area, and
4. After finishing the manuscript and seeing my sweetheart leave the country for a long while I had the compulsion to throw myself into a giant project. Continue Reading »

The T@B is back! Dutchmen, the original manufacturers of the T@B, discontinued the production and support of the colorful, stylish little trailer in 2009, much to the chagrin of die-hard T@B owners and fans. One reason for this might have been because of the high cost of the various parts of the trailer that came from Europe. The rights to the popular trailer has now been acquired by Little Guy Worldwide, a company that makes teardrop trailers. Little Guy has partnered with Pleasant Valley Teardrop Trailers (the people who built my teardrop) to build the T@Bs. The Ohio-based company was also considering acquiring the T@B name and business at the same time as Little Guy, but instead decided to partner with Little Guy and their large fan-base.

The new 15-foot long T@B has the same smart and sassy design, options and details as the original, but is still in the initial floor plan phase. Little Guy has added some additional amenities such as an outdoor shower with a 2.5 gallon heated tank, a 3-way refrigerator that can run off 12 volt, 110 or propane and a detachable screen door. The trailer is about 1,500 pounds fully loaded, contains a sink and a 2-burner LP stove, a propane tank and battery attached to the front and has a 5 gallon fresh water tank. The interior has birch cabinetry, storage under and over the seating/Queen bed combo, a small closet, a Port-a-Potty, an LP furnace/CoolCat air conditioner and several upholstery designs.

Continue Reading »

I covered the ProtoHaus a couple of times in the past here on the Tiny House Blog. Ann Holley and Darren Macca have recently been featured in a neat video at 9News.com and I wanted to make sure you saw it.

“It’s like a sailboat on wheels,” Holley said.

A couple of years ago, tiny homes caught the attention of the couple. So, for about $25,000, they set out to build one.

“A lot of people think you couldn’t live this way,” Holley said.

They built the home with the help of family in Colorado. Then, when Holley went to graduate school out East, the couple drove the home out there and lived inside.

Protohaus caught the attention of folks on both commutes.

“They would follow us off the highway and they would be like, ‘How
many bedrooms are in there?’” Holley said.

Inside the home is a composting toilet; a stove; a faucet; outlets; even a sink with water. The home is fueled mostly on solar power and propane.

“Cleaning the house takes 20 minutes,” Holley said, laughing.

Read the complete story at the 9News website.

This week’s Tiny House in a Landscape is from a link that Margy Lutz from Powell River, BC sent to Lloyd Kahn. Lloyd and another reader Julie Thorne shared the link with me and I thought it was perfect for this feature. I chose the winter shot because it is that time of year and it seemed appropriate. There are construction photos of the cabin at the New Shelter blog http://newshelters.blogspot.com/.

“A series of bluffs up the East Tin Hat Ridge presented better and better views the higher we climbed. This is the last open bluff before Tin Hat summit, a somewhat flat and large, though uneven rock outcropping. We decided to build the cabin here.…Below follows a chronology of the construction of the hut which, complete with upgraded trail, took some 30 days over a period of about three months.”

The photos is titled: The first dusting of snow on Tin Hat Hut at the end of October.

Mike Massulo Photographer