Tiny House Blog

A tiny, abandoned farm cabin/shack in the snow…And some other snow shots for the heck of it – all up in Vermont where I’ve hosted workshops…these are pix I’ve been taking and collecting for the eventual follow-up to “Humble Homes, Simple Shacks.” The new book will be quite a bit different though with some full-out n’ funky plans. Some from guest architects too (a few of which I really look up to – David Stiles, for one). -Deek (Derek) Diedricksen

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On our way back from Michigan last summer we happened upon this old scene from the wild west. It looks like someone had a dream to develop a small tourist site with an old time western frontier town. Just off from this cabin is a large hand painted sign that reads “A Dream Died Here.”

This is in the small town of Goehner, Nebraska. If you’re passing through, Chez Bubba Cafe in the small “downtown” area is a great place for some BBQ.

Photograph by Kevin Stevens
KMS Woodworks
Carpentry and Custom Furniture with Sustainability in mind
http://kmswoodworks.wordpress.com/

This week’s Tiny House in a Landscape photo was submitted by Nick. He says “a friend of mine has the pleasure of living in a small cabin in Montana. He fights forest fires for a living, and so lives near his work.”

Grant’s cabin home looks very cozy in this winter scene. Thank you Nick and Grant for sharing this peaceful home with us.

by Beth Tacular

As a long-time reader of Tiny House Blog, I’m really excited to share with all of you the tiny building project I’m working on. I’m an artist and musician, living in rural North Carolina. For the last six years, my partner, Phil, and I have been busy with two projects: touring around the world as the Bowerbirds, and building a set of small live-work buildings out of salvaged materials.

We write reverent songs, mostly about our love for the natural world and about finding ways to make a life outside of mainstream culture. We’re currently working on our next album, which we want to record in our small cabin, and for which we are running a Kickstarter campaign. We thought some of you might be interested in hearing about our project (http://kck.st/SxZEg2) or might want to order music and art made in a tiny studio, for holiday gifts, or just for yourselves, which we’re giving away to funders of the new album.

We first started our small building project with no real construction experience, but with a crazy obsession with handmade houses, especially really little ones. In 2007 we bought some cheap land in rural North Carolina, on which we parked an AirStream trailer that we got for a steal ($900!). We lived in the AirStream for three years, with no running water, electric lights or real source of heat, so that we could afford to start the band, record albums, make art, go on tours, and put all our money back into the building project.

(above: Inside the Airstream in winter)

The first thing we built was a 240 square foot art studio, where I make art and write songs on a very small piano, and with a sleeping loft where we’re sleeping while we finish the larger (but still small – 493 feet plus a 168 square foot loft) cabin. We’ve been inspired by stories on this Tiny House Blog about how many people have chosen to live with less and more simply, in order to save money, to create more time for doing what they want with their lives, to be more self-sufficient, and to have less of a negative impact on the land they live on. Because we work at home, in professions (art and music) that require a lot of gear, equipment, and supplies, we can’t really live in as tiny of a house as some people can get by with, but we can create small, multi-use spaces, just big enough for us to get everything done that we need to do. And if we feel cramped, there’s always the woods outside. Continue Reading »

by David Lacey

The X-Permit Cabin is an exercise to create a livable space that will be built on a salvaged travel trailer frame. It will be self sustainable, off grid, and will be built without building permits because it is a “travel trailer” and will be registered as such. The site is beside the ocean in Canada. The actual location will be revealed as time goes on. The point of this is to circumvent onerous permits and inspections that come with “permanent” structures. XPC will be an exercise in civics, construction, and innovation. I hope you follow us as we move forward.

Certainly, “tiny homes” have been built before and many are like the one we are building, on a trailer, for various reasons. This one is a personal experiment in building a livable space in a maximum of 135 square feet. There probably won’t be “grand innovation” involved, but the completed cabin on wheels must have the charm and friendly atmosphere of an old seaside cottage distilled into the space allocated. Continue Reading »

This week’s Tiny House in a Landscape comes from Beth Morgan. Here is what Beth has to say about her Tiny Home.

I wanted to share with you a picture of my little house. The last owner moved it log-by-log from a neighboring county and erected it on 1 acre of woods. We bought it about 12 years ago. It was his understanding that the cabin is about 150 years old. It has been our dream to renovate it to the point that it can be comfortably lived in, and retire there. If things come together, that may happen in the spring.

Over the years, I have mainly used it as my little get-away. It is soothing to my soul. I’d love to know what you think.

Cabin in the Fall

Cabin in the Winter

Cabin in the Summer