Tiny House Blog

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

Dream of Robinson, a cabin perched high in trees, as on stilts is pegged to the slender trunks of spruce. A bridge that spans the gap gives access.

The dream child of Patrick and his two son, Hugo Charly journeyman carpenter and guitarist, has materialized in shacks perched ten meters high, anchored to the slender trunks of spruce.

To see pictures of the interior and read the complete article visit the Mon Jardin website.

My husband and I are big fans of your blog. We fondly rent a tiny home on the edge of Anchorage, Alaska. It is the highest residence in the city. It has no running water, an incinerator toilet, and gas heat. The main living space is approximately 250, and together with the unheated front room we use for storage, it’s just under 400 if you count the loft space in each room. It frequently blows over 100 miles per hour, and is guy-wired to bedrock to hold it down. It’s been on the hill since 1963, which is slightly historic for our town that suffered the giant earthquake in ’64. We are enjoying our 4th winter in what we call the Little Red Cabin, and hope to one day build and own our own debt-free.

Tonight we came home from our family Christmas dinner to a house fire. Our oven is old and according to the fire report it likely malfunctioned. Fortunately there was no serious structural damage or injury, but it won’t be livable for quite some time. We are so sad to have our little paradise destroyed by fire and smoke damage. As I try to unwind and get some sleep at a friend’s house, I find I am revisiting your blog and missing our tiny home. Continue Reading »

This weeks Tiny House in a Landscape was taken by Emily, a geology student from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The picture was taken somewhere in the Yukon and I discovered her blog by accident looking for tiny cabins in the mountains. It is a random photo of a log cabin she took on one of her explorations of the area and I just think it is so cool and fits right in with this feature. You can follow Emily’s blog here. http://moss_agate.blogspot.com/

By Kevin Stevens

A few years ago we purchased some vacant land in northern New Mexico. We chose that area based on a number of factors. Some of those included wide-open space, abundant sunshine, affordability and artistic history (Georgia O’Keeffe lived down the road a bit). Our long term goal is to retire there and pursue a simple artistic life. One of the main reasons we chose that piece of property is its remoteness to other neighbors and the lack of congestion that comes from urban living. Urban living has a lot of advantages like electricity, water, and corner coffee shops. We plan to work around some of these conveniences using “off-grid” practices. I have enjoyed camping since I was toddler. The slower pace of life in an environment more closely linked with nature has always been a draw. Our cabin provides all of this with far more elbow room than a tent. Add in windows, a wood stove and a comfy bed and what could be better?

Site Location and Solar Power

Our parcel of land is a bit under 42 acres and nearly all the land around us is uninhabited grazing land. In fact, the people we bought our land from still graze horses and cattle on their square mile that surrounds us. I have spent enjoyable nights there listening to the baying of cattle and cry of a lonely coyote. Our decision to go “off-grid” was simple: the nearest utility pole to our cabin is nearly a mile away. We could have paid thousands of dollars to run power poles and lines to “connect” but then those “lines” would disturb our pristine views and require a monthly payment. For a fraction of that cost, we simply installed a basic PV (Photovoltaic) system. Our cabin is small at a bit under 200 sq. feet and has modest energy needs. Continue Reading »

Quite of few of you have been asking about Scott Stewart and Slabtown Customs as I have not reported on Scott and his work in sometime and his website was taken down. Scott and his business is still going strong and I have an update here of many of his recent projects. In this post I have put together several galleries and a couple of movies of what Scott has been up to. Here they are:

The Linger Longer, a Park Model

This custom unit is one of our park model builds, it is built perm. on a steel i beam frame with three axles and bumper style hitch (hitch is hidden under front steps) unit is 14′ wide and a total of 38′ long including a 6′ front covered porch with treated decking and vinyl porch posts and railings, layout includes bedroom in back large enough to accommodate a king size bed if needed, large closet, bathroom including a 4′ wide shower stall with seats, full size tall elongated dual flush toilet, sink/vanity, vent/light as well as vanity lights, high grade allure vinyl flooring in bathroom, kitchen includes hickory cabinets, full size fridge, induction cook top, toaster/convection oven, microwave, dual basin full size sink with custom cover that matches the counter top to cover one half of the sink to gain counter space if needed, cabinets include base, overhead and 7′ pantry. house is fully insulated wired and plumbed like a site built home with rv type connections to allow set up in an rv park, set up on 110v service, has two heat/air combo units, one in living area and one in bedroom, layout also includes two lofts, one 6′ storage loft over the front porch that has a custom installed stained glass window in the gable end that has a light behind it controlled by a switch next to the front door allowing the owners to light the stained glass at night for a very nice look,  house also has a large sleeping loft in the back accessed by stairs between the bath and bedroom, this loft is the full 14′ wide and just over 17′ long creating lots and lots of added sleeping/reading room, the side walls of the house in the loft area are 10′ tall with a 7′ tall ceiling below the loft in the bedroom and bathroom to gain headroom in the loft, the loft has railings but is open looking down on the living area below. Continue Reading »

Guest Post by Craig MacDonald

I have been a follower of the Tiny House Blog for a few years and was really intrigued by what it might be like to live in a small home. My wife and I searched for land for a few years, but could never find the right piece of ground. She was convinced that she wanted a place on the water and I was convinced that the only piece of land that we could afford near water would be the size of a postage stamp.

We finally found the perfect spot while exploring a part of our state that we had never seen before. While it is only 85 miles as the crow flies from our home in the city, and about 150 miles by road, it feels like we are in another country. It turns out we didn’t by land near water, but found 30 acres of heaven on earth of highland pasture.

I was at first determined that I wanted to build a tiny house like the Tumbleweed, but was convinced (coerced) by my wife and daughter that 100 square feet just wasn’t going to keep us all happy. I’m glad that I listened! We also bought property in a “development” which requires that homes be a minimum of 500 square feet. With some creative math we were just able to sneak over the 500 square foot threshold. The main part of the cabin is 320 square feet with a 100 square foot bedroom on the back of the cabin. We have two lofts which are connected by a “catwalk” which adds about another 100 square feet. We use a ladder to get up to the lofts and when not in use the ladder retracts into the bottom of the catwalk to give the main cabin more room. Continue Reading »