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)
A Year in a Car
The reasons for living in your car run the gamut. In college, I knew a few students who lived in their cars so they could afford to go to school, and this article talks about how hard times have forced some people to live in their cars. Jessica Spaulding is doing it..for no apparent reason.
Jessica decided to pursue a life of adventure and has been living in a Prius for past few years. She works about half the year for a public radio station and spends the rest of her time on the road, exploring, writing and photographing her travels.
Jessica Spaulding lives out of her Prius
What I found most interesting about her blog was how she modified her car for living and sleeping. She has also written a few articles on how to live on the road, including:
- Getting comfortable sleeping in “public.”
- Showering
- Modifying your vehicle for comfort
- Saving money
- Staying warm and keeping cool
Whether out of necessity, or to simplify your life, living out of your car seems to be more accepted. More and more information is being posted these days on how to live out of one of the tiniest houses of all.
Her modified Prius
By Christina Nellemann for the (Tiny House Blog)
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Lives in a Van
The sad news these days seems to be centered on people losing their homes and maybe having to live in their car, truck or RV. Dave Thorsrud has been living out of his van for over a year, but he is doing it in an effort to live a simpler life.
His website, Lives in a Van, chronicles his year of living richly on the road in his Pleasure Way van. He writes:
“Ironically, I left the full time job to travel in a van because I wanted to maximize possibilities. With a full-time job, a house mortgage, a car payment and various other debts, my only option when the alarm shrieked was to go to work. This was true during the week and frequently true on the weekends. So I craved choices. I needed to know that if an opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime experience came my way, then I could grab hold with both hands and embrace the new path.”
In order to find his more authentic life, he quit his job, sold all his belongings in five days and packed anything left into his van. During his search, he has traveled across the U.S. and parts of Mexico, met interesting people and has documented it with prose and excellent photography.
Dave lists the best aspects of living in a van as having no daily commute, the overall cost of living is low, all laundry can be done in one load, and every day is a new adventure. He also lists his rules of the road, which can be a metaphor for any simpler life:
DAVE’S RULES OF THE ROAD
- Avoid drive-thru value meals at all costs.
- Take photos of everything.
- Sing along to whatever is on the radio–even talk radio.
- Exercise whenever possible.
- Take care of the vehicle.
- Meet people–especially strange people.
- Drive slower.
- Never hesitate to take an exit, get sidetracked or get lost.
- Take the backroads when possible.
- Take notes, write daily, find the inspiration.
Photos by Matador Travel. Schematic by Lives in a Van
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