Tiny House Blog

Trekker Trailers in central Florida has been building vintage and retro style teardrop trailers for over four years, but the company’s owner, Andrew, wanted to take his love of simple, tiny living to the next level and built a 70 square foot house on wheels that was recently sold to a 17-year-old student. His mother is also thinking of getting a tiny house.

“I have always loved campers and simple tiny living,” Andrew said. “I’ve been building teardrop campers for 4 years now, have restored many historic homes in my area, and have a love for form, function, and art. It seemed like a good fit for my talents to build a tiny house. Though my wife and I intend to retire in a tiny house, this one was built to sell so I tried to appeal to the lovers of the craft.

Watch a walk-through of the Trekker Trailer tiny house on the company’s Facebook page.

The Tiffany blue house is built with high quality materials like Galvalume roofing, cypress interior and exterior trim and some interesting and unique storage and space-saving details. The small living room couch (with a lovely skylight above it) has storage behind and underneath the seat and what Andrew calls a “hybrid Murphy bed” folds down from the back wall. The bed can be adjusted to sleep one or two people. The kitchen contains a sink, refrigerator, microwave and a slide-out pantry. The wet bath has fiberglass flooring and a composting toilet that can use BioBags. The water heater is a propane powered heater that is mounted on an exterior wall near the deck. 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 »

by Neil Norton

Here are some photos of our tiny house made from a storage building. We had been living in a 2,700 sq ft home, between upkeep and utilities we were constantly broke. A friend of ours offered to sell us a quarter acre of his property, so I went to work researching tiny homes.

After a month or so of youtube videos, google searches, etc… I decided on this layout. The living room is 10 ft 6 in X12 ft. The kitchen/bathroom is 6 ft 2in X 6 ft 10 in with 6 ft 7 in ceiling to accommodate the storage loft above. Our bedroom is 10ft 6in X 7ft 8in. All rooms except for kitchen have 9ft 6in ceilings. We have two lofts, the front one overlooks the beautiful rolling hills of Northern Arkansas, it measures 10ft 6in X 48in with a 40 in ceiling at the peak.

The back loft is accessible from the bedroom only and matches the kitchen footprint with 40 in ceiling at the peak. We lowered the ceilings in the living and bedroom for structural integrity, but left the lofts for more head height.

Our water is heated by a 7 gallon Ariston point of use water heater. We heat with a 35,000 btu propane heater (overkill yes, but it’s nice to heat our home fast and I got it at a steal for 40.00 bucks) and a electric radiator heater. It’s a livable work in progress, we are adding a 12 ft x 20 ft addition in the spring for a utility room and bath.

[View with PicLens]

I covered the Climate Rite air conditioner about a year ago and Todd Arend recently sent me information about a new model coming out July 22 that is better geared for small small home. Here are the details.

CR-7000 model is brand new to the market starting July 22.

The unit is completely re-engineered. This next generation is much improved (construction of unit, wiring, optimized sensor and thermostat, etc). This unit was developed for bigger spaces than the CR-2500, which is ideal for dog houses, small trailers, etc.

The CR-7000 model suits tiny houses, sheds, man caves, etc. due to its btu power (7000/7500 btu) vs. the CR-2500 being 1800/2500.

The Ideal space footprint for the unit is 350-1,200 cu feet Power consumption averages .5kW/hr for CR-7000.

This item may sell out fast as it was featured on Good Morning America June 20, 2011. The Tiny House Blog purchasers can get a 10% discount by using the Coupon Code “Tiny10“ and the CR-7000 is the recommended unit.

Learn more at the Climate Rite website.

*Note a portion of your purchase goes to help keep the Tiny House Blog running.

One of the perks that comes with writing a blog is that occasionally I am approached to write a review about a product that a company feels would work in the tiny/small house world.

Recently, I received a big package in the mail with a NewAir AC-14000H Air Conditioner in it. It had been recommended to me for use in a small house. To be honest, I was surprised at the size of the box as it seemed huge. I opened it and found that it was double boxed for protection and was a little smaller than I first thought.

The NewAir AC-14000H Air Conditioner is a 14,000 BTU portable air conditioner with a built in heat pump. It produces serious air-conditioning for an area up to 525 square feet. Perfect for a small house. This particular unit also heats but I have not tested its ability in that area yet.

The unit has adjustable air louvers, allowing you to direct the air where you want it. It also has a remote control so you do not need to get up to make changes but can do it from where you are sitting. It also has a built-in ionizer that removes airborne pollutants, thus allowing you to breathe cleaner, healthier air.

It is built of high quality industrial design so should last well under normal use.

Here is my experience with the unit. It was well packaged and had all the components it said it should. It is not a small unit so it takes a little hefting to get it out of the box. It does have wheels so will roll around fairly easily once out of the box. Continue Reading »

If you live in a small space you need a way to heat and cool the space one way is through efficient space heaters. Todd Erend contacted me about his company called Climate Right and they have recently developed a heating/cooling unit made specifically for small spaces. I am going to let Todd tell you more about it.

There is now a solution for heating and cooling small enclosures economically and easily. A company called Tacom Limited in Columbus, Ohio, manufactures and distributes this unit, which they call Climate Right.

The unit runs on standard wall socket (extension cord) power and pulls so little energy that they say you can let it run 24/7 for a cost of about $10/month. Climate Right both heats and cools, and also dehumidifies any small indoor or outdoor enclosure up to 9′ by 9′.

You set it down, turn it on, set the temperature and that is about it. The unit recycles the room air, and heats or cools it to about the temperature you want it.

The unique thing about Climate Right is that it is made specially for small spaces, and both heats and cools. It can be set automatically keep steady the environment. You do not need to oversee it, or constantly adjust it. Other heaters or air conditioners either overpower the space, or are not reliable to leave alone.

This unit is safe (no risk of getting too hot) and eco-friendly (no flourocarbon emissions). The company says it can operate continuosuly for less than $10/month, so it is economical. The manufacuturer offers a one-year warranty on all parts and replacement if anything goes wrong.

To get the full details and learn if this is the right heater/cooler for you go to the Climate Right website.