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.

The house is stick frame. I used 10′ boards for the walls so I could have extra 2′ upstairs before the roof angled. I use hardi-siding on the exterior. I have built also constructed a 14′ x 8′ deck that houses a few chairs and grill.

The house is about 90% complete on the exterior (still have to put siding on the addition) and about 75% complete on the interior. I’m currently doing drywall (I hate drywall!) and trim.

The house has a small country house look from the exterior, but I wanted modern on the interior. I actually went for a modern/industrial look on the inside of the house.

The upstairs loft is the full size of the house, with the only cutaway being for the 36″ wide stairs leading down. The stairs go up the north wall of the house, reach a platform, and turn on the west wall. The front of the house faces East.

• The exterior pic of the house was taken this summer.
• The cabinets are Lowes cabinets that were painted black and I installed brushed aluminum inserts.
• The ceiling on the downstairs is corrugated metal cut to fit between the upstairs joist. I then trimmed with 1×3′s.
• I have a 92″ projector TV screen on the north wall of the house above the staircase. I also have surround sound, and subwoofer plus all hometheater hardware (HTDV satellite receiver, Xbox, DVD) installed under the staircase. The HD projector hangs from the ceiling on the south side of the house above the couch. It fires the picture above the couch and below the ceiling fan.
• I used 1/2″ aluminum conduit to make a shelf between the cabinets to hold pans as to free up my cabinets for food. I also hang cooking utensils there as well.
• I have low wattage flood lights illuminating my photos on the south wall above my couch.
• I have a small bar sink installed on the right side of the cabinets facing the front door.
• The upstairs loft contains a queen sized bed centered in the house with small drawers on either side and lamps. I also have a 24″ ceiling fan upstairs.
• I have an L-shaped computer desk on the west side of the wall upstairs.
• The bathroom and utility room is the 8×10 addition on the back of the house. It contains the washer/dryer and shower/toilet. The addition is only 50% complete.

Back in January of 2009 I covered Gratitude Millworks and builder Kent McCaffrey and his quality Park Model Style home. Kent contacted me recently to share his latest project called the Holly Pond Cottage. Following is his description of this neat little building. You can also learn more by visiting the Gratitude Millworks, LLC website.

The Holly Pond Cottage is really beautiful inside and out with lots of light and yet a real cozy secure feeling inside. Notice the pressure treated timbers used for the foundation frame. 2X6 exterior stud walls. R19 plus (with extra pocket airspace) in floor, walls, and ceiling.

Full bath with shower and on demand continuous hot water heater. Closet with washer/dryer hookup. Kitchenette with two burner cooktop, sink, under counter refrigerator space, custom cabinets and custom corian type counter. Digitally controlled heat and air conditioning. Built in bookshelf that doubles as a ladder to loft. Loft has a triple window that looks down on the timbered porch.

*** The measurements of the cottage are:
Outside size – 12×24
Porch – 4×8
Great Room – 10×16
Bathroom – 6×6
Loft – Fits a twin mattress
Wall height – 7 ft. 3 inches
Electric hookup – 200 amp

$24,000 plus delivery charge based on mileage. Call 256-339-1478 and mention you heard about it on the Tiny House Blog.

The great room has hand planed heart pine flooring with chair rail and wide base trim throughout and beaded board wood walls and ceiling. The french doors open to the back waiting for a mountain or lake scene to look out upon. The front porch is protected and substantial.

This is my home-built trailer using classic and modern building techniques and style. Based on traveler’s and “gypsy” wagons from Britain and France as well as sheep wagons from the western U.S. I am keeping this to the absolute minimum in size and weight. I don’t plan to live in it so it can be thought of a base camp. I have mulled it over for a very long time and was torn between this style and a teardop design. Each have advantages but this just seems to suit me better.

My final design is certainly not perfect but fit within the very tight parameters I set for myself. Small, light, and relatively cheap were important as were ascetics and traditional building techniques. Unlike modern RVs where people may spend large quantities of time inside the structure, I want this to be used more like early pioneer or “Gypsy” wagons where most of the actual living is done “outside”. The teardrop RV community has taken this to heart, often with a very modern and high-tech design, including microwave ovens, television and entertainment centers, and very modern kitchens.

Here’s a panorama of the inside from the doorway. Its difficult to get a good perspective through the camera lens. Above are few views around the interior.

To learn more visit George’s blog and his Instructable page to see how he constructed his vardo.

I’ve always enjoyed figuring out ways to beat the system. Now I’m not complaining about how life has treated me over the years, but know in my heart there are other ways that might be better, more fitting to an individuals needs or desire when it comes to living space. A big house with lots of rooms might be cool for a while, but as we all know the rooms tend to fill up with stuff, as nature and houses both abhor a vacuum. So small is good right? Now, I admit this “8 wide stand up loft cabin” isn’t as small as many of you tiny housers go, but hey, I’ve got stuff too! The cabin is LARGE when concerning the rig that can pull it. Tipping the scales at 13,200 lb. it is on the verge of being too heavy to pull with a 3/4 ton truck, and though I have, a one ton would be better. I will say though it has exceptional balance and tongue weight, so if you go slow and there is only a light wind it can be moved safely. By the way I didn’t design it to be pulled any great distance, except occasionally and with a larger rig, and so the weight wasn’t going to be a issue as long as it didn’t become too heavy. Enough said about the weight! On to more important things like how is it built, and will I be warm in the winter, and how much is it?

Built as a show cabin and for the occasional trip down to the river for a weekend, the cabin sports a lot of great features and innovations. Let me walk you through it.

Built with conventional building materials, the cabin presents itself as the look that RPC- Rich’s Portable Cabins, has become know for. Combined with what I call the “underslung floor system”- my unique approach to solving the height issues encountered when building functional loft cabins- and the steepness of the roof, the cabin height is well under 14′ and will go most places without a problem. Be aware that the cabin is a low rider, a street rod of sorts, and may drag on the rare tall speed bump.

The under side is protected from the critters with heavy sheet metal adhered to some osb, and offers protection from the elements too. Insulation in the floor cavity is 10″ thick and has an R value of 38. I guarantee there is no cabin anywhere that has more insulation than that in the floor. R 13 in the walls and R30 or so in the vaulted ceiling. Loft has less because of the rafters, but still I don’t think it will be a problem to heat it when it is 10 below outside. The steel frame and axles contribute significant weight to the cabin and could have used smaller steel, but it’s what I had on hand at the time.

The framing is always fun and relatively easy, but one needs to pay attention to framing and design details so everything fits, and we all know there is hardly nothing worse that going backwards! One thing to remember when building larger cabins is that steel bends, so be sure to consider how the steel beams will react to weight. Sorry, the only way to know how much camber and where to put it in the frame is by experience only. Camber is applied by using a large stick welder at about 300 amps.

Next is bracing and sub skin. To keep the cabin walls straight requires straps, sheathing or a combination of both. If there is one thing I’ve taught my crew its this: Stand back and look at what you’re doing on occasion, line up the lines and develop a good eye for verification that all is well. It’s easy to nail a stud on the wrong side of the layout line, and if a fellow can catch it right away, it’s so much easier rather that having the boss catch it!

Pine interior is a pleasure to work with, but pay attention to loose knots and bad color. We always put two coats of water based lacquer on the interior to give it added protection and shine. It will make the walls easier to clean and won’t hold the dust as readily. The wood is 3/4″ thick and though heavier than 1/4″ paneling, it is far superior. Put a nail anywhere to hang your pictures. A word of caution: don’t drive the nail more than an inch deep, because you never can tell where a wire might be, and a nail could short out the wires.

Speaking of wires, this cabin is fully wired to NEC and has numerous outlets. Plenty for all the electronics and other stuff. It also has an inverter and batteries for when you need to be off grid, and even has a solar panel on the roof for gentle charging of the batteries. If you need to run a generator to power the cabin its easy to plug it in, and with the built in charger on the inverter, the batteries will be charged at the same time.

The bathroom is large due to the design, but firmly believe there is nothing wrong with a bathroom big enough to dry yourself off in without hitting your knuckles on the wall. The shower is huge at 36″, and has a glass shower door. The toilet is a low flush RV type toilet, and dumps into a 32 gallon black water holding tank. The shower, washer/dryer and the kitchen sink drain into a gray water holding tank, also 30+ gallons in size. The cabin has 40 gallon fresh water tank and a 12 volt pump system for when you’re off grid. The hot water is provided with a on demand water heater so you never run out of hot water.

The stand up loft feature is an element I’m very proud of. I developed the concept and lead the industry with this feature and because of the design, can accommodate a person who is well over 6′ in the loft trough. There is lots of storage beneath the trough floor, and even has a stand up utility room beneath the stairs for the systems.

Appliances are: medium sized propane fridge with freezer, 40,000 Btu propane forced air furnace, propane range, microhood, Eurotech washer/dryer, Rinnai tankless water heater, small ac in the loft. Has custom lighting as well plus a ceiling fan.

The exterior siding is tongue and groove cedar with two coats of oil based stain, and since the cabin is house wrapped, there should be no issues with moisture or water damage to the structure. The roof is metal and is screwed into Doug fir 1×4. The fir wood really holds the screws well, and won’t back out after a few years in the sun and winters. Windows are of the typical vinyl variety, but have low E for extra insulation value.

The cabinets are assembled and installed, interior walls installed, flooring goes in and finally on to the trim. And if you are like all the rest of us, by the time you get to the finishing touches, you’re ready for this grand adventure to be done. Let’s get on with the next cabin shall we?

There are a lot of steps in between that I didn’t mention, and if you decide to give cabin building a try, be prepared to spend hundreds of hours for a cabin of this nature. Or have me build it for you. The price on this cabin is $42,000 www.richsportablecabins.com

Guest Post by Gwen Powers:

Back in October, some friends and I decided to head up to Vermont to participate in a Tiny House Workshop, run by Peter King (check out the website – and look for upcoming workshops – here).

I wrote an earlier, much shorter post on this right after the event, but I’m hoping to be able to give a more thorough report in this one. While this may not end up containing more information, memory being the finite thing that it is, it will definitely contain more pictures!

Photos by Gwen Powers, please contact her for permission to use them.

This is Peter King, giving us an intro talk about why he does these workshops. Peter feels strongly that building a place to live is not rocket science. Housing gets expensive and complicated when we decide we “need” extravagant amounts of space, and complicated structural and decorative details. But if we are willing to redefine that need, and pare it down a bit, than being intimately involved in building the most important structure in our lives is well within reach.

Peter claims – and I believe this, after the weekend – that anyone can learn how to build a simple structure. All it involves is basic math, and basic tools, and a few easily learned rules.

The second aspect of his involvement in these workshops is that he feels strongly that housing is just too darn expensive – we should be able to own the house and the land we live on, and not have to loan it from a big corporation.

After this discussion, and after getting a quick summary from each of us – eight participants, including the owner – on why we were there, we got to work.

The first task was framing out one of the walls. The building was 12 by 20, and the two long walls had to go up first. Khumpani (the owner, who is an herbalist who is currently living in an even smaller tiny house on the land) and Peter had finished the foundation earlier in the week, in spite of the miserably cold and persistent rain, so that we could get as much of the main structure done over the weekend.

This photo is just prior to getting the wall up – this is the most complicated tool used that day, and only Peter was allowed to use it:

And Peter in action:

And the first wall, going up!

Getting it level:

Then the rest went together relatively quickly. Unfortunately, the nail gun was not in use, as apparently these contraptions are picky about the types of nails that go into them, and we had the wrong kind. So instead we got to do lots of hitting of things! Which was fun, but much slower. When someone like Peter is sinking a nail, it takes him three hits. When rookies are sinking nails, it takes us anywhere from 8-20.

Also, we were learning about king, queen, and jack studs, as well as what cripples were and where they were supposed to go, so there was a lot of “Peter? Do we hit this one in here?” followed by pauses for measurements, re-measurements, and explanations.

Our progress near the end of the first day:

Cutting out windows:

One of the tools we were allowed to use, a speed square:

The other tools we could use included hammers, and measuring tapes. And chisels. All simple hand tools, which did the majority of the work.

By the middle of the second day, the roof was going up:

Some inside shots – this is from the entrance door, looking to the south. Khumpani planned for passive solar gain, which is why all the windows are on this side, and why they are enormous.

From the door, looking north – the kitchen will be going against the back wall, under the windows. The door that is framed out will eventually open to a deck.

From the kitchen windows (and the future deck) there’s a lovely view of the meadow where Khumpani is currently living, and the mountains beyond. See:

And one more inside shot, from the kitchen looking back:

The ladder over on the right goes up to the loft. He had planned for a dormer, to have another window and some headroom up there. I don’t know what it looks like inside at this point.

Here is what it looked like at the end of the second day – you can see the gap on the left where the dormer will be:

Peter’s ability to manage the project was remarkable. He was constantly juggling the roles of teaching and project management, and I thought he did a tremendous job. He somehow managed to keep track of all the little jobs that had to get done, kept everyone moving, paused to answer questions, and got a team of total novices to frame a house in two days. It was also fun to chat with him at meal times about his views on housing and lifestyle – he had really helpful things to say about finding land, books to read, and skills to acquire.

Overall, it was a fantastic way to spend a weekend, and we lucked out with a crew of lovely, thoughtful, interesting, fun and hard working people. It was also really great to meet and work with Khumpani, who is living his life with an inspiring level of dedication to his ideals and to the earth.

After we left, Khumpani continued to work on it on his own, with a little bit of help from friends and family, and I believe that Peter also returned to help him finish up the plywood sheeting, etc. Khumpani recently sent the participants an email with photos of the current progress – this is from the middle of November:

The inside is sheetrocked, and it’s almost ready to be moved into! I’m hoping to get updates as the inside gets finished. I think it will be a lovely space to live in.

Please be sure and check out Peter Kings website for more workshops. I will also try to stay in the know and let you here about them on the Tiny House Blog. Thanks Gwen for such a great report on a wonderful workshop. Visit Gwen’s blog here for more great reading.

It is a 12 foot wide 24 long rustic cabin with rustic pine lap siding. Fully insulated and finished with pine tongue and groove beaded car siding, has hardwood laminate flooring. It also has a 6 foot by 12 foot loft. It was a custom plan for Jorgensen and is placed off-grid. No plumbing or electrical was installed.

Scott says if anyone is interested he would sell you one for $9,500 picked up in his yard. If you live far away you would need to work with Scott on delivery. If you are interested call Scott at 870-213-5310 or eamil him ozarksbest@yahoo.com and Scott is located in Mountain View, Arkansas. Be sure and tell him you heard about it here.

It reminded me of one of the smallest houses I’ve seen in my life. It was back in 1992 during one of my trips through Switzerland when I saw this barrel with a man living in it. He lived there the whole summer and it contained a bed, a table, storage space and even a tiny kitchen. Unfortunately I was young and didn’t have a great camera, so the attachment is the only picture I have of it. The barrel is located in Madulain, in the Engadin in Switzerland. It’s next to the train station.

Daan Vogel www.daanvogel.nl

I aim to create spaces that have a sense of warmth and character. It is very important to me that my caravans are built with natural, healthy materials and that they are designed in such a way that is mindful of the client’s needs. I spend a great deal of time in the planning stage thinking about how the space will be used and, with that in mind, how to use every bit of space in the best possible way.

I certainly want the caravans that I build to be beautiful but I think even more importantly I want that certain magical quality that you find in buildings which are made with creativity, attention to detail and an appreciation for the materials being used. My aim is for the customer to feel a sense of wellness and comfort in my buildings. If they do then I’ve accomplished my goal.

It all started with the British version of Country Living magazine. That’s where I first saw pictures of gypsy vardos and fell completely, madly, deeply…well I really, really liked them alot. Even the most simple caravans have such charm to them. The ones I have visited are really the most lovely, warm, inviting little spaces i’ve ever been in. And so I was hooked. But still, it took a while for my interest in caravans to turn to thoughts of a career since I was pretty happy and comfortable making my living as a clay artist. And then one day it just seemed silly not to make caravans, after all it combined so many of my interests and previous experiences in building, art and design.

So here I am building caravans, with the help of my husband Lawrence Nyberg, who lends a hand when it’s needed, acts as a sounding board for my ideas and is a great support in general- he is a very fine luthier the rest of the time. We live on Hornby Island, British Columbia, which is probably the most beautiful place in the world, with our two young kids, Finn and Lily and our two dogs Meili and Kaya.

Be sure and visit the Hornby Island Caravans website and contact Michelle if you want to learn more.

This building is built rustic with a quick design and built with readily available materials. It is very well built, fully insulated, wired and plumbed with full kitchen and bath. All in a small space and at a very reasonable price. Following are more pictures of the Jadyn McKenna.

These pictures were taken before all the trim, electrical and carpet was installed in the loft. Scott is asking $6,500 for the Jadyn McKenna and he can be reached here:

Slabtown Customs
Scott Stewart
870-213-5310
Mountain View, Arkansas
Email: ozarksbest@yahoo.com

Please mention you learned about this house on the Tiny House Blog.

The Jadyn McKenna is an 8′ wide and 12′ long house built on skids, not a trailer, old school style with hardwood verticle siding on the exterior, full bath and kitchen, full loft sleeping quarters, like I say I wanted a design that is quick and easy to build as well as utilize materials that are readily available, it truly is an economy house, listed at $6,500 with the usual delivery up to 200 miles from Scott’s Arkansas location.

No interior photos yet as it is still being built. To give you an idea of the layout, when you enter the house to your left will be the bathroom entrance which is a rustic door that looks like an old outhouse with the half moon cutout, the bathroom has the toilet in the left corner, shower in the right corner which is a 32″ x 32″, there is a small sink/vanity between the two.

Along the bathroom wall in the living area is a small kitchen which will have a small stainless and black fridge with freezer top, microwave and toaster convection oven mounted under the overhead cabinets that span approx. 4′ over the base cabinets which will have a sink and two cook top burners, 19 gallon water heater, window type heat/air unit, full loft with ladder access with a pretty spacious sleeping area, rustic inside and out to be quick and low cost.

Hardwood laminate flooring in the living area, vinyl in the bath, carpet in the loft, 36″ entry door, window in living and three windows in the loft provide lots of natrual light.

Slabtown Customs
Scott Stewart
870-213-5310
Mountain View, Arkansas
Email: ozarksbest@yahoo.com