Stick Built

The Future of Tiny Housing and the IRC

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Likely by now you’ve heard of the proposed tiny house code for IRC 2018. But what are its implications for the future of tiny housing in America? Andrew Morrison, the tiny house luminary behind this historic effort, recently joined us on Tiny House Expedition Radio to discuss the nitty-gritty of the … Read more

A Tale of Zoning Happily Ever After

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Groundbreaking Zoning Ordinace for Tiny House Communities Once upon a time in the small, forward-thinking city of Rockledge, Florida, some of the most progressive tiny housing zoning ordinances in the entire US of A were approved, in record time and with great ease. You see, the forward-thinking City Manager had an eye … Read more

Experience the Tiny House Jamboree

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Tiny House Jamboree

Tiny House Expedition captures the essence of the Tiny House Jamboree 2015 experience. The tiny house tribe takes over Colorado Springs for an inspiring, epic weekend. Featuring highlights from this historic tiny house community gathering. Over 35,000 attendees flocked from for all 50 states & many countries, to learn, connect & build community during this 3-day extravaganza. There were 28 tiny houses of all kinds on display, creating an energized temporary TH village.

The first of five videos from #TeamTinyX on the THJ 2015- stay tuned!

The Jamboree videos include advice & insights from tiny house community leaders. Plus, full-length presentations from tiny house luminaries Jay Shafer, Andrew Morrison & Zack Giffin.

One video to be released per day over this week!

Wolverton Tiny House

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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.

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Holly Pond Cottage

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Update*** measurements

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.

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.

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George’s Mini Vardo Update

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Back in January George one of my readers shared his vardo project that he was in the process of building. Recently George sent me an update on his completed vardo and shared that he had been using it regularly. Following is an update from George.

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.

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Portable Cabins by Rich

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Guest Post by Rich Daniels

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.

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Tiny House Workshop with Peter King

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Gwen Powers and her husband completed a Tiny House Workshop with Peter King, which she only knew existed because of the Tiny House Blog. Gwen says the workshop was excellent and has posted about it on her blog. She is letting me repost it here so more people will see how neat Peter’s workshops are.

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.

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Jorgensen 12 X 24 Rustic Cabin

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Scott Stewart is a busy builder if you hadn’t noticed and he keeps sending me these cool projects he is working on. This one he just finished and delivered to an off-grid setting. It is a 12 foot wide 24 long rustic cabin with rustic pine lap siding. Fully insulated … Read more

Tiny Little Swiss House

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tiny swiss house

Stumbled upon your blog a couple of days ago and I really fell in love with it! What a great collection of tiny houses! 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 … Read more