by Kevin Wilbeck

At 7 ft. x 8 ft. this certainly would be a Tiny House for people but it will be a nice space for the Bantam show chickens it will soon house. The building started as a coal mine pump house built in 1926 for the McElheney mine in central Iowa. We initially acquired it to become a kids’ clubhouse, but later decided to convert it to a chicken coop for some good friends. When we do building conversions at Farmhouse Life we always add style elements that link to the building’s history or portray a new purpose.

Before

In our Bunkhouse we used the hand carved Eastlake style trim from the house (torn down) of the family that donated the building to us. The three cornice blocks surrounding the curved- top door of the Playhouse and pays homage to the three sisters who donated it and who used it as a play house many years prior. The same is true of this building. The six diamonds in the gable represent the family members who we donated the building to. The star in the opposite gable honors the father that they recently lost to cancer.

After

Almost all the material to do the conversion was recycled from other farm outbuildings including the corn crib beams used as the trailer ramp. The last picture depicts hour #2 of a 4 hour long loading process. The only equipment I had to move the building was a transmission jack, log chain, and a 1950 Farmall C tractor. Having never done something like this before, the loading consisted of many, many small moves. More like “adjustments.” As you might guess the height of anxiety was the few moments it was perfectly balanced on the end of the trailer when it could have as easily plopped onto the trailer as it could have headed back to the ground.

Kevin Wilbeck
Farmhouse Life
Rippey, Iowa

www.farmhouselife.com
kevin@farmhouselife.com

Since our post on Tiny House Blog last spring we have had over 150 people tour Camp Coyote and Farmhouse Life. I am often surprised by people’s positive reaction to our little buildings. Most comment that Camp Coyote is the ideal place to “get away.” Proving, I think, that when we aren’t constantly bombarded by external stimuli we have the opportunity to focus on what is important. And while we are going to add small solar and wind for some convenience our plan is to keep things pretty basic.

Taking a cue from our visitors we have added a porch to our bunkhouse. We built two tent platforms that are big enough to house a large tent with room enough to sit and relax up front. A solar experiment was begun by adding a solar heat panel to heat the pool in our grain bin. The water is pushed through the panel with the standard filter pump and on sunny days will raise the water temperature by 20 degrees. There is still some tweaking to do on how to best retain that heat but we are pretty happy with the experience.

Over the summer we transformed our old pole barn to host events for larger groups. This fall we hosted a private screening for the movie FRESH and had lunch for 40+ people from across the U.S., Central America, and Africa who recently attended the Community Food Security Coalition conference in Des Moines. All this interest has encouraged my wife and me to finish a few last projects so we can open in the summer of 2010. I have included a few pictures on these events and you can read more at our website, www.farmhouselife.com.