Tiny House Blog

by John

A tiny house doesn’t always mean a tiny build time. We managed to stretch our build out to well over six months, surprising given the footprint comes in at only at 9 sq m /100 sq ft.

But given we had to carry all the materials down a hill, across two flowing creeks, back up a hill and across to the site it was always going to be hard and slow work.

But we got there and this is our first tiny house – a 3m x 3m x 4.2m building very similar to the French Cube profiled here some time ago.

Our house has a distinctive Aussie feel – corrugated iron cladding with a 15 degree skillion roof with exposed rafters. A 3m x 4m deck is attached to the front that will be used for most cooking and lazing about watching the wildlife

The property is a 750 acre bush block, 260 km or 4 hours drive from Sydney. The terrain is hilly to very steep – the house is sited snug in the gully between two mountains and at the junction of two creeks – which are dry for most of the year, except of course when we decided to begin building.

Construction is conventional 4 x 2 pine stud frame, which was made offsite and installed by a friend Mike – the intrepid carpenter/builder/welder/mechanic who has the knack of combining excellent technical skills with a great eye for the aesthetic. The sub floor and roofing are all hardwood – so hard that nailing/screwing was impossible without pre-drilling and a lot of cursing.

Even though it is ultimately a weekender we decided to pay attention to the detail of the exposed rafters/battens as well as giving it a very modern finish inside with square set plasterboard and polished floorboards. Not wanting to completely abandon the modern life it is solar powered by 1 x 120 watt 12 volt panel fed into a 600 amp battery and inverted to 240 volts. This gives us the joy of the coffee maker, a small fridge, electric blankets, DVD player and lights. As we are not there for most of the time the batteries will easily top up and be ready for the next visit.

Unlike the French Cube we decided not to incorporate a bathroom inside – it was a tough choice, but we just couldn’t seem to make the space work with it internally. Instead it’s back to nature and enjoy the views while you’re there.

[View with PicLens]

This Slabtown Customs creation is based on the popular French Cube with some modifications, the biggest being the size. This unit is a 12′ cube, 12×12 footprint and 12′ tall with a very roomy second level for sleeping quarters and storage/closet space, with stair access to upper level

The attached pictures were taken before total completion of the unit so there are some things yet to be done such as a little trim, bathroom door, as well as some kitchen items I mention below.

The house is constructed on wooden skids, it has 2×8 floor joists, 16″ on center with steel hurricane ties on each end of every joist, 3/4″ thick floor decking, standard site built house framing, metal roof, 36″ entry door with window. The house has two 3×3 windows as well as a 2×2 plus the window in the door on the lower level and two 3×3 plus one 2×3 window in the upper level filling the house with lots of natural light. The house is fully insulated with fiberglass in the floor, walls and ceiling, it is wired and plumbed like a site built home but set up with rv type hook-ups including a 50 amp 110v electric service.
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***Update below

Scott Stewart, who I have featured quite a few times lately because of his fine quality and affordable prices has been bouncing the idea of an American made Cube. The French Cube post was one of the most popular and I think their might be enough interest to build something similar here in the U.S. Here are Scott’s thoughts and he would enjoy feed back from you on the subject.

I am attaching a rough draft of a cube that is 11x11x11, these are inside measurements, I wanted to go with a size that stays under the 12′ outside dimension for permit purposes, once over 12′ escort cars are involved and this raises the costs and slows down delivery. This also gives much more room inside over the French version which is 10′ x 10′.

I have changed it up a little, I placed the door on a different wall, across from the kitchen, I thought I could offer a murphy type bed/entertainment center on the wall to the right of the door, between the door and kitchen, the loft access comes up quite a bit for older folks, this would be an option, I also turned the bed area 90 degrees putting it over the bathroom/kitchen area, I thought this makes good sense since you really don’t need much headroom there anyway, this allows dropping the ceiling there to give more room in the bed area.

I plan to use octogon or even regular window instead of the round windows in the French version, they do look good but are expensive, hard to trim and hard to buy or replace. Window placement can be anywhere, I only show a couple on the drawing but will be glad to install anywhere.

As for pricing, I am thinking $10,500 for the completely finished version, $4500 for the dried in model which would look totally finished on the outside but would just be a shell. I will as usual include delivery within 300 miles of Mountain View, AR and will include crossing into one state , any other state crossings and or extra mileage will be extra, $3 per loaded mile plus permits for each added state.

Scott would also like your input on size and I have put together a small poll below and would appreciate your response on this. Also please add your suggestions and ideas through the comment section.

***Update: Be the first to buy a Slabtown Customs American Cube and I will do a series of posts with photos of the build, your experience dealing with Scott, and the delivery and final setup of the Cube.

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French Cube 10' x 10'

One of my most popular posts was the Carre D’etoiles French Cube. Now for the exciting news… the CUBE is coming to the USA/CANADA in 2010!

Daniel Jean-Jacques Inversin from Carre D’etoiles French Cube emailed me yesterday to tell us the following:

We are currently planning on manufacturing the CUBES on the west coast (by the same “manufacturing team” that we have in Europe) and after the exact location has been finalized I will be able to send you an anticipated cost of units to be purchased and installed in the USA/CANADA.

Yes, “Seeing is believing” and that is why we will be installing one in the Lake Tahoe area for your inspection. View our first post with all the pictures of the Carre D’etoiles French Cube.

by Kent Griswold (Tiny House Blog)

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