Mike Moving to Texas – Sorta

I discovered Mike’s MicroHouse on Flickr the other day and got in touch with Mike and he shared his story with me. Here it is:

I have a 40 mile one way commute to work everyday of the week for a minimum of 80 miles round trip, counting those miles, and my running around during the day, along with the cost of gasoline kept biting into my budget, not to mention the carbon footprint I was producing was unacceptable.

I’ve gone from driving a gasoline powered vehicle, 450 miles per workweek to 0 miles, since I can utilize my Electric Mitsubishi Eclipse for my work commute and daily driving. I travel back to my main home on the weekends, for a total driving experience of around 150 gasoline miles, which gets me home and back, along with some running around on the weekend.

So with that in mind, it’s why, my brother and I set out to build a MicroHouse that could be legally pulled down the highway without the need of a specialized permit or extreme vehicle. I wanted living quarters that didn’t feel like a cramped RV, better/safer built, and very energy efficient. So far, it looks like I’ll have around $3000 material costs in the MicroHouse, along with our FREE labor, which is less than a 20ft RV would have cost me.

Once, I’m completely settled in the MicroHouse, have the front porch completed, underpinned, etc. Plans are to add a small solar/wind system to help with electrical requirements. I’ll also install one of my solar/water heater contraptions as well. These additions will be very similiar to what I did at my main home, and you can see photos of those additions also at the flickr site.

Make sure and visit his flickr site to see all the construction photos and some of his other projects.

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