FirstDay Cottage
The FirstDay Cottage company in New Hampshire offers a house kit which they claim a couple, and a handful of friends, can build in approximately fifteen weekends and for under $45,000. These house kits can be customized for each customer and can be built with almost no carpentry experience. What I found very refreshing about FirstDay is that they insist that their kits are so simple to put together, that they encourage all their customers to contact them frequently to get advice and support throughout the project. They even help to get the owner/builder financing.
While these houses are little larger than the average tiny house, the smallest is under 1,000 square feet. The smallest of the plans is the Basic, which is 16 feet by 30 feet or 960 square feet and costs about $26,900 for the kit.
The FirstDay Kit Includes:
- Instructions and plans
- Posts and beams
- Sheathing and decking
- 2″ High-R Foam Insulation
- Roofing and siding
- Windows
- Interior and exterior doors
- Nails
- Building wrap
- Interior partitions
- Kitchen cabinets
I actually found the FirstDay plans through this couple, who are living the simple life in upstate New York with their young son. They built their own FirstDay as a spec house and then built a tiny cabin in the woods from the scraps left over. The entire project cost them about $900.
By Christina Nellemann for the (Tiny House Blog)
Pine Hollow Log Homes
On my road trip to the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park, I had to stop and take some photos of this darling little log home just outside of Cedar City, Utah. The Mini Pine Hollow log home by Pine Hollow Log Homes is 11 by 16 feet with a full loft and a 4 by 16 foot covered deck.
Pine Hollow offers this tiny cabin as a kit and will deliver it within 250 miles of Cedar City. It takes about two weeks to have a kit delivered. This particular home was unfinished inside, but the Pine Hollow website should have updated photos of the Mini log home soon.
The Basic Package includes:
- Blueprints
- Treated skids
- Floor framing
- 6″ starter/finish logs
- 6″ wall logs, gable ends
- 8″ oly screws/construction adhesive
- Calking for windows and doors
- Loft floor joists
- 2×6 rough sawn window/door bucking
- Windows and door
- Deck framing
- Roof framing with OSB sheathing
- Porch posts
- Porch framing with OSB sheathing
- Milled 3×2 handrail
- Dormer framing with 1×6 tongue and groove siding
Cost: $8,781.00 (plus 6% Utah sales tax)
The Deluxe Package includes:
- All of the above items
- 1×6″ tongue and groove soffit
- Batt insulation
- 1×6″ tongue and groove ceiling
- 2×6″ tongue and groove loft floor
- 1×6″ tongue and groove porch sheathing
- Tar paper
- Steel roof, trims, flashing and screws
Cost: $10,865.00 (plus 6% Utah sales tax)
Pine Hollow offers other log home kits, most around 1,000-2,000 square feet.
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Nicola Cabin
I think that some of the best cabin kits are coming from the Wilderness Cabin Company and Greystokes International. The Wilderness Cabin Company sells cabin kits to customers in Canada and Greystokes International sells the same kits to customers in the U.S.
A few years ago I started following the building process of Chris and Alyssa Thompson’s cabin. This is the first beginning to end documentation of a Wilderness/Greystokes cabin construction that I have seen on the web and the couple has posted some great photos of their Nicola cabin.
The Thompsons ordered their cabin and blueprints through Greystokes, and the supplies arrived on a semi truck about one week after their building permits were issued. The shipment included basically everything needed to build the exterior shell of the cabin, including the doors, windows and decking. The exterior wood even came stained with the colors the couple had selected. The Thompsons provided the labor and the flooring, plumbing, electrical, insulation and drywall.
The planning and building process took more than five years, while the Thompsons dealt with the Ventura County permit process. They finished the house in 2005.
What I liked best about the Thompson’s Nicola cabin is that they personalized it with their own creative tile work and warm colors. The kitchen is cozy and utilizes the small area very well.
The cable channel, DIY, did a show on their cabin project called “Assembly Required” and included footage from the couple’s trip to the Wilderness Cabin/Greystokes company.
Wilderness Cabin Company and Greystokes International offers cabin kits in sizes ranging from 588 to over 2,000 square feet. Smaller cabins ranging from 192 to over 700 square feet are available, but only in groups of four or more and are called Resort Cabins. The Nicola cabin is 629 square feet.
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