Tiny SMART House
Out of many of the world’s tiny homes, the Tiny SMART House has one of the nicest sleeping lofts I’ve ever seen. It’s open and airy with two windows and enough space to even put a few pieces of furniture. The 200 square foot Tiny SMART Houses are built in Albany, Oregon with quality materials and are finished with special details including French doors, wood floors and a tongue and groove ceiling. The homes are mobile and can be delivered to your building site.
The SMART House can be custom designed with several different styles and floor plans like the Oregon Trail and the Montana Cabin and exteriors such as cedar plank or Hardie Plank Lap. You can choose between several different doors, windows, wall styles and extras such as solar panels and a rain catchment system. Company owners Tor Barstad and Nathan Light designed the homes with college students in mind but have been requested to build their homes as guest houses and vacation homes.
The SMART House starts at about $20,000 for the base model and the upgrades for size, materials, design and bathrooms are extra.
Mandala’s Tiny Bonsai
I recently became acquainted with the Mandala Custom Homes company located in Nelson, B.C., Canada when they featured a small round cottage home on Facebook. I got in touch with Rachel and discovered that along with the cottage they also had a tiny house design. One had even won a design contest recently.
The Bonsai has not been built yet, but there is a lot of interest and hopefully it will soon go from a concept to home. Rachel shared some information about it with me and I thought I would pass it on to you. Maybe you will be the first person to build this cool tiny house.
The Bonsai 104/150 square feet (with a loft). Though Manadala specializes in building round homes, they are excited about this design. If the building is not used for a residence, but used for a studio, it may not require a building permit. We suggest you contact the building department for details. On many levels this home is more accessible to more people. Continue Reading »
Why I Love My Tiny House
{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.
Ted’s Tiny Pop Camp Trailer
by Ted Morris
My family and I love camping; we started taking our girls camping when my oldest daughter was only seven months old. When went on a trip to Detroit Lake one year in a tent and the day started off beautiful, but one night it rained and it leaked through on my wife and daughter. We were miserable the next morning we woke up and broke down camp in the mud. It was at this point I said never again; I said we needed a camper. But being on a budget and not wanting to buy a cheaply made older camper I decided to build a tear drop.
My thoughts were we needed something to keep us off the ground; something small enough to fit in a single car garage and easy to tow. A tear drop was a perfect fit; but the typical teardrop wouldn’t work because I needed something to fit a family of four and I’m 6’7″. So I scoured the internet for inspiration and ordered a templet and built one that was five feet wide and nine feet long with no plans.
It had a bunk bed that floated in the air that my girls slept on and worked great; with all of us snug as a bug. Eventually though they out grew the bunk and so we sold it to move on to a tent trailer. It was great but on the maiden voyage we blew a tire and packing it was tricky because folded down you had to really plan on how to pack it. I never felt comfortable towing it since the blow out and just found it a lot more work to set up compared to the good old tear drop I once made.
Finally this last year I decided to build another one; but wanted to do something no one else had done. I liked the shape of some of the other tiny campers that had a more square shape. So searching the internet I combined different campers in to my own design. I was inspired to build one that had a easy manual pop up roof with a loft; and again I built with no blue prints just figured it out as I was cutting. So with it being a foot wider combined with a pop up roof I figured the girls would have their own separate sleeping areas and they wouldn’t outgrow it until they became teenagers.
That’s my story and if you would like to see pictures of the builds of both of them I would be honored to accept your friendship request so you could see more. Thanks again for your interest of my story. View construction photos by clicking here.
Tiny Houses without Lofts
There has been a lot of requests lately for tiny houses on wheels that don’t have lofts. Older people do not wish to deal with this issue and it is an idea that should be taken seriously.
Most of the designs we see out there resort to the loft for a bed. This saves precious floor space for living. However, this is not ideal for everyone. Unfortunately, at this time I only know of a few designs that take an alternative route to the loft – so I thought I would do a post to highlight these houses. My goal is to inspire others to design more homes with alternative sleeping quarters other than a loft.
The oldest version of a tiny home on wheels that I am aware of is the vardo or gypsy wagon. These homes were designed with a bed that sits up high and has storage below. You still need to crawl up a little to get in, but it is nothing like climbing a ladder. There are not many plans out there for this type of home. The only one I know that is available the “Don Vardo” by Portland Alternative Dwellings. While it is not a complete house I think the plans could be extended to make it into one with a kitchen and bathroom. Dee Williams from Portland Alternative Dwellings and I once talked about this revision and she may have even completed the plans by now. You can get an idea by looking at the picture of the Don Vardo here and a vardo picture I have included above in this post.
(Dee just sent word that she has the 12 foot vardo available which features a bathroom and kitchen. The plans are now available here for only $30. They are in the process of having one built out in Florida and I will share photos, etc. as soon as it is completed.)
12 foot Don Vardo Floor Plan
Wolverton Tiny House
My name is Steve Wolverton and I’m currently working on a tiny house. My house measures 14′ x 14′ with an addition that measures 10 x 8, so I have about 280 square feet of footprint.
I started the house over a year ago, and moved into it only after a month of starting construction. I’m still doing all the finish work – the devil really is in the details.
I built the house myself. I hammered every nail with a hammer (I still haven’t figured out why I didn’t purchase a nail gun – sadist I guess). I framed it, even raised the walls working alone, did the plumbing, electrical, etc. I enjoyed every bit of it, but those 100 degree Texas summer days were brutal. The worst part was the roofing. I’m afraid of heights, and working on a 12/12 roof laying shingles isn’t the best way to spend one’s time. Continue Reading »
