Tiny House Blog

Guest Post by Jerry Hambley

In 2004, my wife and I decided to purchase 20 acres in rural Kansas about 45 minutes away from our suburban home in Overland Park, Kansas. With a daughter close to graduating from high school, we thought the best way to transition to the country might be to build a small cottage that would serve as my home office. I sat down and made a list of requirements for the office and decided it might be wise to add a small kitchenette and second floor sleeping loft just in case we wanted to spend the weekends at the farm.

Exterior of the cottage after roofing

After a good deal of research, I settled on a set of plans called the “Weekend Warrior” by Robinson Residential. Using those plans as a guide, I expanded the footprint of the cottage by three feet and added a full second floor sleeping loft. Continue Reading »

{Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Tammy Strobel. It was originally published in Blissful Reflection: A Little Book of Letters.}

A few people have asked me why I love my little house so much. I’m sure I’ll continue adding to this list, but for now, here’s a quick response. What follows is in no particular order.

I love our neighbors. They’re warm, funny, and welcoming. I’m enjoying getting to know them better.

I love how the kittens learned to climb the loft ladder in less than 24 hours and how Elaina looks like a little sumo wrestler as she goes up toward the loft, throwing one leg over at a time, with her belly swinging below. On the other hand, Christie is a little ninja. She’s light, quick, and silent as she slinks up and down the ladder steps.

I love watching the bike commuters ride by our house every morning. Logan and I sit in the window nook and watch them zip by, all bundled up and ready to face the day.

I love how the afternoon light spills through the French doors and how the sun casts a glow onto the orange leaves, making them sparkle.

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This weeks tiny house is a photo taken off of the coast of Uruguay. This little house is rather rundown, but I bet in its prime it was very nice. It is low slung in style, most likely in defense of the wind that is prominent in coastal areas. Uruguay enjoys a long coastline from the Atlantic border with Brazil, down to the mouth of Rie de la Plata, and up river to the border of Argentina.

I don’t have any photo credits so if any of our photo researchers can find out anything about this photo please let me know and I will post it on the blog.

Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell who has been guest writing for the Tiny House Blog interviewed me about the tiny house movement and the blog back in July for a Mother Earth News article she was writing. Kerri’s article recently was published in the latest issue of Mother Earth News Magazine and the Tiny House Blog is mentioned it it. Thank you Kerri!

Kerri and her husband Dale live in a small 480 square foot house. The house is located in the Arkansas Ozark Mountains on Bull Shoals Lake. They built the little house as a retreat but it’s now their full-time home.

You can view Kerri’s blog at Living Large In Our Little House and read the complete article in Mother Earth News.

Photo credit to Kevin Pieper and Mother Earth News.

Guest Post by Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell

The temperatures are dipping and the weather forecasters are predicting frosts – if you haven’t see them already – and it’s time to start cranking up the heat again.

For those of us who live in smaller sized homes and have access to wood to feed the wood burning stoves, though, it’s time to breathe a sigh of relief, as we won’t be paying the high electricity bills for the air conditioning of summer.

When we built our Little House, we intended on using it primarily in the summer, so we didn’t go to the expense of installing a central air system, as we figured we could use a window air unit and a wood-burning stove in the winter – along with space heaters. I did want a beautiful rock fireplace, but given we ended up living in The Little House full time, I’m glad we went for efficiency, rather than beauty.

For four years of using The Little House as a weekend retreat and mainly over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, we never used the wood-burning stove. Even during the first year we lived here full time, we only used a space heater, as the place is so well insulated, it used relatively little energy. As well, having just moved and the transferring of jobs didn’t allow my husband the time to cut wood.
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