Tiny House Blog

This week’s Tiny House in a Landscape is a little different. It is a tiny house under construction in a landscape. The photograph was taken by Dave Stonehouse of StoneHouse Woodworks in the Rockies of British Columbia, Canaada. Dave says: I live in Golden, British Columbia in the Rocky Mountains. The picture of the cabin under construction is actually in my back yard. We have a couple of acres. My company is Stonehouse Woodworks. I build log and timber cabins, do finishing carpentry, and build furniture (pretty much anything with wood).

You have to wear a few hats to stay busy in a small town, but I’ve always managed to.

Thank you Dave. I plan to feature this cabin again when it is completed, so, readers stay tuned.

Photo Credits: Dave Stonehouse

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This is our 13 foot 1974 Boler we have been traveling in around Western Canada, the US, and Mexico since August. We can pull up anywhere, unload our cactus display stand and start selling our handmade guitar straps! We also have an online store at www.bluedogguitars.com.

When we tire of traveling, our plan is to set up our boutique guitar store in Vancouver BC, with the Boler in the showroom as a private space for people to try out guitars, as the acoustics in the Boler are amazing.

(Photo Credits Jenn and Paul)

Sleeping arrangements require the shuffling of a lot of the contents into our car, as we have modified the bed to become almost king-size with the use of two extra-large coolers, so the process makes it more of a camping lifestyle than your typical RV experience. We also have two rather large dogs, so a bivouac in a Walmart parking lot, in the rain, makes for some strategic planning. Continue Reading »

Micro-lofts and Housing Affordability

Burns Block is an innovative market rental housing project built by Vancouver companies Reliance Properties and ITC Construction Group. Located at the site of the historic Burns Block in the Gastown neighborhood of the Downtown Eastside, the building dates back 100 years and is on the Vancouver Heritage Register. The building features 30 self-contained affordable furnished market rental suites or “micro-lofts.” Suites range from 226 – 291 sq. ft., making them the smallest in Canada. The spatially-efficient design contains built-in, pull-down wall beds with integrated folding tables, flat screen televisions, compact appliances, ample storage and built-in safes for storing valuables. Typical rental value for each suite is $850 per month, including cable and Internet, and starts as low as $760 per month. The building is 18,000 sq. ft and has five floors. The majority of occupants are between the ages of 25 and 35 and include students and those working in the heart of the downtown area.

While the former use of Burns Block was for a Single Room Occupancy hotel (SRO) with shared facilities, suites in the redeveloped building each contain a “wet” bathroom and full kitchen. The building also features a rooftop garden, basement gym, bicycle storage and several environmentally-friendly elements. The Bitter Tasting Room, owned by Heather Hospitality Group, is conveniently located on the ground floor of the building, which also includes 1,421 sq. ft. of future retail space. 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/

My name is Grant Kennedy and I live in Prince Edward Island, Canada. I have been following the Tiny House Blog for more than a year when I decided to build my own small house. The outside of the house is finished now and I thought you would be interested in a picture and a brief description. The size of the house is a 24’ x 18’ with a 24’ x 6’ porch on front of it, 432 sq ft. I was planning on building on two floors but I figured with my bad knee and getting older, I didn’t want to be crawling up stairs.

Here are some facts: Designed by myself, built on pressure treated posts, 2″x10″ floors with R-30, 2″x6″ walls with R-20, and roof with R-30, open concept with just a bathroom.

I was originally looking at plans with lofts but with old age creeping up (I’m 45 now) and a bad knee, I thought that a one floor house would be more feasible. I will have an on-demand hot water heater, five small convection heaters and LED lights throughout. I am hoping to have less than a $200 electricity bill even in the winter where we get -40 celsius weather with 7-8 ft of snow.

I have only spent about $10,000 (Canadian) right now for all the building materials which also includes my windows and door, the front entrance set, a one-piece bath/shower combo and my light fixtures.

Thank you Grant for sharing your project with us. We will look forward to an update when you complete the interior.

This weeks Tiny House in a Landscape is a photo I discovered of a small off-the-grid farm for rent in the wilds of British Columbia, Canada.

It has a 450 square foot cabin and is located on 160 acres. It is about 20 minutes to a general store and a gas station, and the person wishing to rent it must be accustom to living off the grid. If you would like to learn more you can visit the kijiji site where it is listed.

Guest Post by JoAnne Leonard

Our story about our little 1998 Aliner camper started two years ago when my husband and I brought home a funny camper with a rotted floor and got the evil eye from our neighbors. We salvaged it from its destiny of the dump from a couple camping friends of ours. They were getting older and had given up on most camping and didn’t have the time, energy or desire to fix the rotting floor, a known problem for this model and year. They had offered it to us a couple years prior, but we didn’t really have the means to deal with it. We were very happy camping in tents as we were lifelong campers ourselves and wanted to keep it simple. But this camper was different, it was simple, a basic popup but without the hassle of canvas, a unique triangle profile and a small foot print (6’3”x12’).

We’d bring the subject up to each other every once in a while until we decided to just go get it. It sat in the furthest corner from their house, the tires sat almost half way to the ground from sitting for so long, a branch had pierced a hole in one of the vents from a bad ice storm the year before and the floor was now growing things under the linoleum that was keeping it together. Looking back now I am not sure how it made it through the 30 mile trip back to our house. Continue Reading »