2 More on Watt Farmhouse

Kelly and Pam have been redeveloping properties since 1998 and are most well known for their 8 on Center project, but their most recent projects are getting some attention for their tiny size, aesthetics and green design. They have won local awards for historic preservation, environmental design and community improvement.

“Just because a place is small does not mean it should be lacking in style, quality and affordability,” Kelly said.

They were kind enough to take me on a tour of their wonderful little projects which are all within a few miles of each other.

2 on Watt

2 on Watt

One of their designs is the 2 on Watt project. These little twin houses stand side by side down a back alley in the Old Southwest part of downtown Reno. They are cottage style, with private back yards and public front porches. Both homes have washer/dryer combos, custom tile, beautiful mahogany floors and an abundance of light.

2 More on Watt Front Cottage

The 2 More on Watt project is down the street and contains two farmhouses from the early 1900s. When Kelly and Pam purchased the property and began to tear down the walls of the smaller farmhouse, the newspapers used for insulation had the date 1915 on them. Some of the newspapers were also in Italian and contained want ads from New York City. Kelly and Pam figured that the houses once belonged to members of a group of Italian immigrants who came to the Reno area during that time.

The smaller farmhouse at the 2 More on Watt location is 160 square feet with a full bath and a studio living and sleeping space. A one piece kitchen unit from A.J. Madison forms the tiny kitchen. The larger house in front is 450 square feet.

HabeRae strives to keep their designs looking like the local aesthetic, but prefer the modern, clean look. They also strive to reuse and recycle everything on their sites including old building materials and rocks and stumps used in landscaping. They even turned a large, discarded satellite dish into a beautiful planter.

SoDo 4

SoDo 4 Interior

SoDo 4 Interior

One of their other designs, the SoDo 4 (SoDo means South of Downtown in Reno-speak) consists of four brick cottages that were once used to house train engineers who worked on the old Virginia & Truckee Railroad that ran through Reno in the early 1900s. The three studios are 276 square feet with a sleeping loft and the one bedroom house in the back is 350 square feet. They are used now as rentals, but with each project HabeRae designs and builds in private outdoor spaces and gardening areas.

Their latest project has been converting a firehouse from 1953 from a run-down homeless shelter into an urban living and working space that is truly redefining this part of downtown Reno. The 11 at the Firehouse has nine studio units that are 350 square feet with a sleeping loft, full bath and kitchen and stackable washer and dryer. They have attempted to keep as much of the original Art Deco structure as possible, and the original tile floors are still being used. The tenants are a professional group ranging from college professors to attorneys. The bottom floor of the 11 at the Firehouse project is filled in with a funky beauty salon and a deli and coffee shop.

Pam told me that they really want to create another living unit from the hose tower of the firehouse. It would be a single unit with stacked rooms and windows looking out onto downtown and the mountains.

11 at the Firehouse Apartment Interior

“Our belief is that small, meaningful, well thought out urban infill can infuse a blighted area with wonderful energy. Small places to live and work on a small footprint leave a small impact on this precious earth.”

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

In a Tiny House, space matters. Your choices about what you put in that space matters even more. One of the bulkier items, that we often find we simply can’t live without is seating. While we spend 8 hours of our day sleeping, we fill the rest of our day with work, leisure and socializing, a lot of which, we do sitting down. As humans, we are by nature social creatures, which mean that not only do we need seating for ourselves, but others too. Having a dinner party, meetings or game night in a Tiny House can be interesting when it comes to providing chairs for everyone. Here are a few ideas of how to balance the need for seating, while conserving space.

This chair was designed by Marina Bautier, with an integrated stool/table. While not in use it is able to be stowed within the foot print of the other. With a natural wood finish, it blends well with a Tiny House interior and one is able to double your capacity with no extra square footage.
Source: http://www.lamaisondemarina.com/

This is an interesting concept where a chair can also be a coat hanger. Designed to fold flat, you can actually hang jackets on it in the closet or just store on the hanger bar for future use. Though an interesting idea, I have yet to figure out what you do with all of your jackets when you need to use the chairs, but I might be over thinking it. It is a very simple design that can easily be done as a DIY with the right skills. http://www.philippemalouin.com/

This concept isn’t very new, but one way to make a seat count more is to have it be a double duty item. Ottomans can be used for seats, tables, footrest, and storage all in one package. They are easy to make or can be purchased in all shapes, colors and sizes.

Finally this concept is also a double duty item. With a quick flip, it changes from a chair to a table depending on your needs. Designer Aissa Logerot came up with the design to meet the needs of those living in smaller spaces. Wood finish and a sturdy, stainless steel frame make for a nice piece.
http://www.aissalogerot.com/#/projects/xy/

For more articles like this as well as many others about Tiny Houses and Tiny Living.
Visit TheTinyLife.com

The temperatures are dipping and the weather forecasters are predicting frosts – if you haven’t see them already – and it’s time to start cranking up the heat again.

For those of us who live in smaller sized homes and have access to wood to feed the wood burning stoves, though, it’s time to breathe a sigh of relief, as we won’t be paying the high electricity bills for the air conditioning of summer.

When we built our Little House, we intended on using it primarily in the summer, so we didn’t go to the expense of installing a central air system, as we figured we could use a window air unit and a wood-burning stove in the winter – along with space heaters. I did want a beautiful rock fireplace, but given we ended up living in The Little House full time, I’m glad we went for efficiency, rather than beauty.

For four years of using The Little House as a weekend retreat and mainly over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, we never used the wood-burning stove. Even during the first year we lived here full time, we only used a space heater, as the place is so well insulated, it used relatively little energy. As well, having just moved and the transferring of jobs didn’t allow my husband the time to cut wood.

All of that changed last year during the terrible ice storm that struck Arkansas and cut its way south. We suddenly found ourselves without electricity for a full 8 days. We fired up the stove and used it for not only heat, but to cook on as well.

By this time – since my husband had been laid off from his new job after being there just a year – I was all about saving money and I was watching the electricity we used. I noticed when the electricity came back on, how fast that meter added up the units we were using when we had the electric space heater on. We decided then to use the wood-burning stove as our only source of heat.

It’s worked for us (with the exception of not yet figuring out how to regulate it so it doesn’t run us out sometimes).

Here’s some tips that have worked for us in converting from an electric space heater to the wood burning stove:

• If you’re just installing a wood burner, make sure you choose a good, quality efficient unit. My husband complained at the time we built The Little House that we could have had a whole central heating/air unit installed for what we spent on the wood burning stove and the installation. He’s glad we did that now.
• Make sure you check with codes in your area, or the manufacturer’s recommendation for installation space away from walls. We had to install so many feet of tile on the wall and floor around out unit.
• Hire a certified installer. I’m not sure our construction manager did and last year we had to secure and level the stove before we could even use it as they also didn’t bolt it to the tile properly.
• Take into consideration if you will really save money by using a wood-burning stove. I understand a cord of wood can run somewhere between $200-$300 now, depending on the area in which you live. We have access to all of the wood we need due to a few storms that have unfortunately, toppled some of our biggest trees. Our only cost comes in the form of chain saw blades and a lot of sweat.
• Wood burns dirtier than fuel, so the consideration of the effect on the environment was a concern for me. However, given we are not off of the grid, and obtain our power from the electric company, which gets it from a nuclear plant hundreds of miles to the south, we figured using a wood burning stove couldn’t be worse.
• Also take into consideration the time spent maintaining the stove. Of course, the ashes have to be taken out daily and the glass has to also be scraped and cleaned at least daily. Between working our jobs and other home projects, we have to make time to cut and split the wood and load, stoke and maintain the fire during the winter. This wasn’t a problem for us last winter when my husband was laid off, but now that I’m the one working from home, the responsibility falls on me and I’ll have to fit that into my daily routine. Also, if someone wasn’t home during the day, I doubt I would trust leaving a fire burning.
• If you’re using an existing stove, I can’t stress enough the importance of having the stovepipe (or flue in the case of a fireplace) inspected and cleaned annually by a certified specialist. We didn’t do this in the bigger home we sold and when it was inspected before being sold we were told we had a flue fire and didn’t know it. We were lucky the whole house didn’t burn due to that damage.

I would be interested to read your stories about wood burners, or wood burners in comparison to pellet burning units.

Tara, one of our readers brought this cool kitchen idea to me that I thought could be integrated into a small or tiny house design. Here is what the company has to say about there product.

The revolving concept Original Circle Kitchen® offers intelligent kitchen comfort compressed into the smallest space but with a storage capacity equivalent to 12 cupboards and a bench top length of approx. 3000 mm, equipped with refrigerator, dishwasher, ceramic hob, oven with microwave, range hood, sink and waste bin as a conventional kitchen.

This kitchen creation can be placed anywhere in the room, also space saving centrically in between walls and in angled corners or recesses and it can be harmoniously integrated with other key living spaces.

Equipped with sliding doors the kitchen work area can favourably be hidden in open plan spaces and commercial buildings. Especially for architects and interior designer arise new planning perspectives through the new “room within a room” concept particularly where space is at a premium.

Through open style this kitchen concept is easily accessible and extremely user friendly. Deep cupboards and annoying doors in the way whilst working belong to the past. Appliances and kitchen contents are clearly visible. As this is a rotating kitchen, the complete work area may be reached from a sitting or standing position.

Mobile and without alteration, the circular kitchen can easily be taken with you when relocating. The Original Circle Kitchen® is available in different dimensions and models depending on equipment: Model Apartment, Office/Foyer and Motel.

You can learn more by going to the Original Circle Kitchen® website.

Photo Credit: Original Circle Kitchen

by Kent Griswold (Tiny House Blog)

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to our feed

Pallets are really Michael Janzen’s specialty from Tiny House Design, but I happen to like them too and enjoy seeing what can be built with them also.

Craig one of our readers, sent me a couple of cool links to chairs that are being built with pallets and if you know of any more I would appreciate you sending them my way.

The chair above is designed and made by studiomama, a while back we featured a beach house designed by the same company. As we all know wooden shipping pallets are usually thrown away after each use but this comfortable chair has been designed to recycle them. Plans are available at studiomama so you can make your own. The next chair pictured below is also designed by studiomama.

The chair at the bottom of the article was designed by Andrew Montgomery of Falls Church, Va., a fifth-year architecture student in Virginia Tech’s School of Architecture + Design, did. He designed a chair with a single shipping pallet and it won the Green Stewardship Award from Design Within Reach.

Montgomery said, “Once a pallet is used and discarded, no one usually looks past its original purpose to ship goods. But underneath all the mistreatment during its initial use, there is beauty.” You can read the full article here.

Copyright © 2009 Tiny House Blog

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to our feed

One of the questions that comes up often with regards to a tiny house, especially one of the tiny houses, like Jay Shafer’s Epu is how do you do your laundry? Jay says that he uses the laundry mat. That is ok for some, but is there an alternative?

My sister-in-law lives in Thailand discovered a neat tiny hand powered wash machine that I think would work perfectly in a small space, and when not in use could be stored away easily. Plus the price is right at only $50. Here is the company’s description:

If you’re looking for a greener alternative to washing your clothes, it doesn’t get much greener than our hand powered laundry machine (well, laundry washer, it’s not really a machine if you crank it yourself!).

This portable washing machine requires no electricity, which saves money in energy bills. It is also portable, which enables you to use in places that don’t have electricity.

When you’re in a hurry to wash a few items, this washing machine easily solves the problem of having to wait around for your electric or gas washing machine to complete a full load of laundry or feel bad about only washing a few items at a time.

Made of plastic with no mechanical parts, the hand powered washing machine comes assembled. Just attach the handle and go! It can last a lifetime and requires no maintenance.

Because this washing machine is so small, it’s easy to store and move from one place to another. This is an ideal washing machine to have with you in an RV, on road trips, at weekend sports tournaments, in apartments, especially those with limited access to laundry areas, on camping trips and those who want to make their lifestyle more energy efficient.

This small washing machine uses less water and powder detergent per load of laundry. The washing cycle is also extremely fast (from 10 seconds to 2 minutes) saving you an extraordinary amount of time.

If you work in the yard or outside frequently and don’t like to put your really dirty clothes in the wash with your other clothes, this washing machine allows you to easily separate them and get them thoroughly clean without staining other clothes.

How it works:

• Insert your dirty laundry along with a measured amount of water and soap (instructions are included that list the appropriate amounts and temperatures)
• Secure the lid, but do not overtighten
• Turn the handle approximately one turn per second
• Once the washing is done, release the pressure of the lid by slowly turning the knob
• Rinse your laundry either in the portable washing machine after draining the dirty water or in the sink
• Then hang the clothes to dry!

Five pounds of clothes is equal to approximately 10 shirts or 2 pairs of jeans.

This tiny hand powered portable washing machine can be bought from Clean Air Gardening for $50, so if this fits your needs go check it out.

The Crank

Washer with Clothes

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to our feed

Darrell pointed me to these modern Murphy beds that would work really great in a very small space.  These are European designed, functional change furniture. They use a unique “intuitive Lift Mechanism” and are easy and safe to operate. They are made of strong metal and wood frames support a comfort mattress.

These modern Murphy beds are made in Italy and shipped to Denver, Colorado at a company called Flying Beds. These Murphy beds are not cheap but would be a very worthwhile investment for your small space.

The Tama Desk Bed above is made of embossed aluminum metal frame houses wood slat foundation for mattress. Just one simple movement without moving anything from the swinging shelf, lowers the bed. (Even the computer can rest while you sleep.) Wall fastening is mandatory. It comes in Double and Queen size.
 

Mr. Hide Sofa

The most unique Sofa in Europe. Comfortable to sit on or sleep in. The sofa seats three comfortably and transforms into a bunk bed when required. A simple intuitive and safe mechanism permits super imposing the second bed on the sofa.
Cushions come with fully removable fabric covers for easy cleaning. Embossed aluminum color metal structure has slatted base and incorporated ladder. The sofa features a practical storage compartment for bedding.
 

The Twirly Bed

This is an amazing bed that stores into only 22″ depth! That allows for 9″ deep shelves. When the table is lowered, it becomes almost 5 feet in length! The mattress is European in firmness. Shown here in Walnut melamine.
Straight from Hollywood. Queen bed disappears and becomes an extra length work table. Bed is stored away fully made. Inutitive lift system is fingertip ease operation.Wall fastening mandatory. 

The Computer Bed "The Tale"

The Computer Bed “The Tale” is in the popular computer bed format. The advantage of a metal bed frame and wooden slat foundation. Operation is from gas assisted pistons often referred to as intuitive in nature. In reality the gas piston dampens the natural action of weight transfer from bed to desk to bed. We love this transfer of responsibility. It is the Murphy Bed concept to perfection.

To view more Murphy beds go to FlyingBeds.com.

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to our feed