Marylu’s Freestone Guesthouse
Marylu Downing is a mixed media artist living in the tiny community of Freestone in Sonoma County, California. In the back of her beautiful property in the foothills above the town, she has a tiny guesthouse that has served as a respite for out-of-town family and vistors to this area of Wine Country. The guesthouse reflects the colors and textures that Marylu uses in her colorful and quirky paintings.
The tiny cottage was originally a shed and contains just a bedroom and a full bath, but Marylu is interested in putting in a small kitchen. The rooms are decorated with splashes of paint, comfortable furniture and Marylu’s paintings which are inspired by this bohemian community and the local beaches of Bodega Bay. Continue Reading »
Dennis’s Tiny House
Guest Post by Dennis
I have been following the Tiny House Blog since 2008 and love all the info you have shared over the years. I live in the Black hills of South Dakota.
I have already built two tiny houses (very tiny) 64 square feet and 80 square feet. Now I have built a 144 square foot tiny house and I would like to share it with you.
This tiny house or shed is completely built from native ponderosa pine. We went to the forest, cut the tree,s and milled all the lumber ourselves. Continue Reading »
GreenOx Sheds for Tiny Houses
by Jim
I was driving past my Lowes in Littleton Colorado and saw the attached GreenOx shed.
Do you know much about them? Seems pretty new but they are introducing a 12 x 16 model soon.
The price for that 8×8 model is $2,800. A bit pricy maybe but a trade off with ease of assembly and insulation factor. I am sure the fire proof shell adds to that cost. With all of our dead pine trees and already dry summer, the fire proofing is getting a lot of talk here in the dry West.
I went inside the model and seems very solid. Not a lot of Information on the Internet yet. One YouTube video on the assembly.
Would love to know if others are seeing them and trying them.
Here is some basic information from their website and Jim’s photo. Continue Reading »
A Shed with Shade
The latest issue of The Family Handyman has a beautiful house on the front cover that happens to be step-by-step plans on how to build an Arts & Crafts style shed with a front porch. I think with a little tweaking, and the installation of electrical and plumbing, it could make a very nice tiny house.
This particular shed is 8×16 feet with a large sliding door on the back that runs on a track, three windows that let in plenty of light and a front door with a wonderful front porch that brings the total area of the shed to 16×16 feet. The structure can be built in four or five weekends with the help of a few people. The cost (not including the concrete slab) is about $3,800, and the skill level needed is intermediate. Experience with framing is helpful, but not necessary. Because of the sliding door (that opens up the living area) this structure will probably work best in warmer or milder climates.
Tuff Shed Tiny Houses
Most people are familiar with Tuff Shed’s storage sheds and garages, but now the 30-year-old company is designing and manufacturing structures that could be used as tiny homes. Tuff Shed’s speciality structures come in a Modern style and a Weekender style and each of them feature several different sizes (including custom sizes) and options.
The Premier PRO Studio comes in three standard sizes (8′x10′, 10′x12′ and 12′x16′) and has a more modern look. The structure features a single slope, shallow 3/12 pitched roof and 12″ and 24″ overhangs. On the tall front wall, high-end, low-e transom windows and a tempered, full glass residential style door are included. The 8′x10′ costs about $4,069, the 10′x12′ is about $4,749 and the 12′x16′ is about $7,549. However, depending on how far your location is from a Tuff Shed dealer and whether the structure is painted, prices will vary.
One Project Closer
The guys over at One Project Closer have been putting together expert how-to guides by shadowing contractors on actual job sites, and they call these articles “Pro-Follows.” If you’ve ever wondered how a professional contractor would build a concrete patio or finish a basement, check out their website. They only have a handful of Pro-Follows thus far so be patient as they build up this resource. Here are some pictures from a recent Pro-Follow for how to build a shed. Visit that link for the full story, and if you like what you read, consider subscribing to their feed.
The Foundation
The foundation was built by digging out a space a few inches larger than the shed, and lining the perimeter with pressure treated 4×6′s. Next, they set 10 columns of concrete block on undisturbed ground and back-filled the area with crushed stone. This type of foundation allows them to set the subfloor directly on the concrete block and provides an exit path for water and moisture. Continue Reading »
