Tiny House Blog

by Matt Scott

I have been researching and following the movement for 2 years now. I have come across a company here in my area that is building tiny cabins that look amazing. I took the liberty to call and get some information on the cabin as well as most of the specs on it. I have some pictures attached and hopefully this can make your blog.

The cabin is build by ProBuild in Rapid City, South Dakota. It’s size is 160 sq ft. inside. It has a 2 sided deck that adds 4ft to front and side for a total foot print of 14 x 20.

Following are some specs on it. It has tongue and groove pine sourced locally in the Black Hills. It is 2×4 construction and has been spray foamed. It resides on 2 x 8′s underneath and has been foamed underneath the structure as well. It has a sky light by Velux. The windows are Jeldwen. Delivery within 100 miles of Rapid City, SD would be somewhere around $400.

The cost of the cabin is approximately $20,000. There was very little expense spared. This is not your typical shed converted to a cabin, this is a livable unit with fireplace insert as well. The contact that I spoke with regarding the cabin is Terry Jensen and the phone number for ProBuild is 605-343-1115.

“Oh Snap! Homesteader Postcards, the Facebook of 1906″ an article written by Heather Murphy at the Slate website features some really unique tiny homes built by homesteaders out on the prairies.

The images in this gallery were gathered over a period of 20 years by snapshot collector Michael Williams. They are featured in his book, Who We Were: A Snapshot History of America and at The Life and Death of Buildings, an exhibition currently on display at the Princeton University Art Museum.

Williams who spent over 15 years gathering these pictures at flea markets, antiques stores, and postcard fairs. The images were taken in South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana. Improvements were required by the homesteaders and those improvements were made using, tar paper, sod, bricks and wood. It just had to be sturdy enough to stand.

Click here to read the full article and see the slide show showing closeups and explanations of each postcard.

Introduction
Blake’s Tiny House (www.blakestinyhouse.com) is a website documenting the design and construction process of his tiny house from beginning to end.  One of the many goals of the website is to not only promote the tiny house movement but also to provide a online public forum where anyone can download the designs as 3D SketchUp models and explore their own ideas of what Blake’s Tiny House could be.

Who are you guys?

There are four team members involved in Blake’s Tiny House Project: Blake Dinkins, Lance Cayko, Alex Gore, and Sarah Schulz.  We met in college at North Dakota State University in Fargo where we were each pursuing master’s of architecture degrees and in the same class.  After graduation we have kept in touch off and on.  Blake works as an intern architect in the Black Hills of South Dakota, Sarah works for an architecture firm in Fargo.  Lance and Alex both worked at architecture firms, but were laid off during the economic downturn and they now they own and operate a multi-disciplinary design firm, F9Productions (http://www.f9productions.com/) based in Longmont CO. Continue Reading »

Thank you Rene for sending some new photos. This is an old mill located somewhere in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Though not a tiny house it certainly could work as one and I really like the stonework and the neat little window.

It appears someone is using it in some way as the little red lantern seems to be in use and it sure adds character to the nostalgic look of the old mill.