Tiny House Blog

Named after a simple, yet valuable commodity throughout history, Spice Box Homes is the vision of Colorado residents, Edwin Lindell and Chris Curry. They wanted their tiny house company to reflect their own love of the outdoors and concern for environmental impact, and felt that they could create a similar commodity through building, living, and educating.

Spice Box homes started in 2010 as an alternative to renting. When Edwin was finishing up college in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, he got tired of paying rent and decided to construct a tiny home on a trailer that could be moved every six months.

“Chris Curry, my business partner, had built a similar dwelling for himself a few years back to combat the same issues, just not on a trailer.” Edwin said. “Once our prototype was constructed and tested for seven months, we decided to hit the ground running to build a company, lifestyle, and adventure for our community, friends, and our environment. We work to construct custom homes that resemble our clientele and create better living patterns.”

The homes are built from reclaimed materials and include passive solar heating and efficient appliances. The company subcontracts all the electrical, plumbing, metal stud fabrication, insulation and roofing to ensure quality construction. Continue Reading »

Chris Culbertson sent me this photo and says: “my girlfriend and I stayed in this tiny cabin which is used as a guesthouse. It is located on a ranch near Telluride, Colorado. It has an awesome sleeping loft, small kitchen, a living room, and has no running water. It was built using reclaimed materials, and although a bit for show, was a very nice design.”

Thanks Chris for sharing! If you have a Tiny House in a Landscape photo please send it to TinyHouseBlog@gmail.com

Photo Credit: Chris Culbertson

Last January I covered Zack Griffin and the beginning of his tiny house adventure visiting the great ski areas with several friends across North America. Here is the link.

Zack recently contacted me and here is what he had to say:

Last year I built a Tiny House in order to go on a ski trip! Along with my girlfriend, brother, and two other friends we took the house all over the western United States and into Canada, over 9000 miles. We had the time of our lives! My brother made a movie that I wanted to share with you. I hope you enjoy it!

Below is the movie and some still photos of their adventure. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Thanks Zack for a great update to your adventure.

See still photos below. Continue Reading »

This weeks Tiny House in a Landscape was photographed by Kasey March who is the copy editor for the Tiny House Blog.

Kasey says: Shane and I spotted this tiny house in Leadville, Colorado on our way to a yurt (a story for another time). This little house was about five miles down a dirt road that wound up the mountain. The view was amazing. I didn’t get a good photo but there is a lake directly behind where I stood to take the picture and no other homes in sight. I imagine it’s a very peaceful retreat for someone.

Photo Credit: Kasey March

by Jim

I was driving past my Lowes in Littleton Colorado and saw the attached GreenOx shed.

Do you know much about them? Seems pretty new but they are introducing a 12 x 16 model soon.

The price for that 8×8 model is $2,800. A bit pricy maybe but a trade off with ease of assembly and insulation factor. I am sure the fire proof shell adds to that cost. With all of our dead pine trees and already dry summer, the fire proofing is getting a lot of talk here in the dry West.

I went inside the model and seems very solid. Not a lot of Information on the Internet yet. One YouTube video on the assembly.

Would love to know if others are seeing them and trying them.

Here is some basic information from their website and Jim’s photo. Continue Reading »

Guest Post by Merete Mueller reposted from Tiny

Perhaps one my favorite things about our tiny house (other than falling asleep to the sound of rain on a steel roof) is that it is entirely off grid.

Christopher and I are both environmentalists of sorts, having spent chunks of our lives studying, researching, and telling stories about humans’ interactions with our natural resources and waste. Part of this tiny house experiment has always been about learning to lessen our own impact.

And there’s also the practical side of things: 40 miles from a major town, our tiny house doesn’t have access to a “grid” of any kind. No gas lines. No power lines. No water lines or sewage system. We’ve had to figure out our own solutions for each of these utilities.

Park County, Colorado gets an average of 246 sunny days each year, so solar power was an obvious choice for our electric needs. Throughout the building stage, Christopher looked into rigging up a system of his own design, but when we heard about the SolMan portable solar generator, we decided it was worth it to purchase a professional, pre-made solar unit than to build our own. Continue Reading »