Tiny House Blog

I have been getting this question a lot lately. How can I convince my spouse/partner/significant other to live tiny?

I have featured several couples who have made this choice and are very happy that they have, but most of us find ourselves in a situation where only one person is totally convinced. So, I have decided to broach the subject with you, my readers, and hope you will join the discussion in the comment section below with your suggestions.

I, personally, still live in a small home, around 1200 sq ft. Our son is in college, but comes home fairly regularly and our daughter’s room has become the guest room/office/workroom.

Our goal is to downsize when the both kids are completely out. However, I don’t see us moving into an extremely tiny house (130 square feet like some couples have). We are getting older and a loft is out of the question and we each need some private space for work or play. I see us eventually in a smaller home of 400 to 700 square feet as our answer.

What is your answer and how will convince your partner to downsize with you?

Photo Credit Tammy Strobel

Guest post by Paul Mittig

I built my 10 x 20 house in 2005 for about $10,000 in materials, including all furnishings. It is built on six poles set two feet into the ground, that support the floor and roof. There is no framing in the walls except at the door and the large window. The walls are rigid foam insulation, R21, covered with ½ inch sheetrock and all glued together. The ceiling has R38 fiberglass insulation, and the floor has R19 fiberglass insulation. I spend about $100 a year on propane for heating, cooking, and water heating.

The house is located in the hills of Northern California. I live in it full time. The house is set up for one person, but you could easily put a double bed by the door where the tall bookcase stands. If you did this you might want to move the window. Continue Reading »

This week’s Tiny House in a Landscape was taken by a fellow tiny house enthusiast Hugh Wolfe. Hugh has become a friend via the Tiny House Blog Google+ social network. I have discovered that Hugh and I share some common interests. Hugh is a very good photographer and enjoys shooting old buildings in Texas where he lives. I also enjoy photography. Hugh also is a Mini Cooper buff and enjoys driving his while out shooting pictures. I am a big Mini fan and have the car on my wish list. Anyway, enough of that and back to today’s photo. Although it is not a house but a barn, I think it can provide us with inspiration.

Hugh says: Late Saturday afternoon I was headed home from a day of shooting and spotted this Lilliputian barn off to the left up on a small rise with nothing around it except for a few trees. After having a look at the original I decided to experiment with NIK Softwares Silver Efex Pro 2 converting to B&W and then selectively adding in color.

I’ll have to make another visit soon as I’d like to catch the morning light from the opposite side. For those interested here is the location per Google Maps, 33.342473,-96.809085, just north west of Celina, Texas.

Thanks Hugh for sharing these photographs. Please continue to take more.

Photo Credits: Hugh Wolfe

Continue Reading »

Guest Post by R Blank (this is a repost from his original blog)

My wife and I have now been living tiny for several months. For those who don’t know, tiny homes (living units under roughly 200sq’) have become increasingly popular in the past couple of years. When we researched many options for different types of tiny homes, we found a lot of information — but very few first-person accounts of the experience.

And, after all, that’s what tiny living actually involves — a fundamental shift in thinking about consumption and space utilization — the rest (what type of tiny home, whether its mobile, how its built, etc) is all just details.

Our Shipping Container from LEED Cabins, in Place, with the Completed Porch and Privacy Fence

Given the increasing popularity of tiny homes I thought it might be valuable to someone out there considering the same to read some of my thoughts on what this experience has been like for us.

In our case, this isn’t a tiny home, so much as a my home-office. But we decided to place this small office structure on the land first, before building our home. Our land is 30 miles away from the nearest town (where ‘town’ is quite loosely defined; we’re literally 20 miles away from the nearest service at all, which is our post office), which makes development quite challenging. So we started small, so we could establish a base of operations without too much trouble (that it took us a year to even get this far, is an entirely separate story). Continue Reading »

Guest Post by Joe Chipman

Since 2009 I have been designing and building two tiny houses for my own use. The Bunkhouse and the Hermit DeLuxe as seen in past posts on tinyhouseblog.com. http://tinyhouseblog.com/tag/the-hermit-deluxe/ and http://tinyhouseblog.com/stick-built/the-little-bunkhouse-in-the-woods-plans/ The Bunkhouse is complete with two twin beds, a 4 ft wide 2 ft deep closet and a 4 ft wide writing desk with a view out a window all in 64 sq ft.

Based on the Bunkhouse design, I am building and very near complete the Hermit DeLuxe a 160 sq ft tiny home on wheels. The Hermit DeLuxe sleeping arrangements has two bunks above the workbench and bathroom with a ladder access to three foot tall loft and a twin bed loft arrangement with a desk below on the other end of the Hermit DeLuxe.

Because I am nearing 50 years old and overweight I can forsee problems with these sleeping arrangements. In light of these problems I am planing to build a 24 ft – 30 ft caravan style tiny house on wheels in the future with readily accessible sleeping compartment based on my past designs.

These drawings are just the last 64 sq ft of a unfinished design called the Captain’s Getaway. I favor designs based on built-in furniture and using every inch of space like in wooden sailboats. Continue Reading »

Hi, I’m about to begin construction on a tiny house and I’m hoping to find someone in the Los Angeles area who wants a chance to build their own tiny house at reduced cost, and, if needed, to have someone (me) to team up with, lend each other a hand, or help guide them along.

I’ll be using SIP construction, which is ordinarily quite a bit more expensive than stick-built construction but much faster, much easier, much less work, and a lot more “green” (better insulation properties, less weight, and less consumption of natural resources).

However, I have a one-shot opportunity to get some SIP panels at a heavily discounted price (around the cost of doing a stick-built house!), but I need to buy the whole lot, which is twice as many panels as I need. If someone wants to split the order with me, we can each save a ton of money, labor and time. A tiny house built with SIPs could be put up in a weekend, whereas stud framing takes most tiny house people months of weekends and evenings. I’m talking about a house that’s at the exposed plywood stage; ready for siding, plumbing, electrical, windows, etc. Youtube has lots of videos showing how SIP construction works and how quick and relatively easy it is compared to stick-building. Here’s one I found:

As a bonus, if the person wants someone to team up with, or guide them, I’m knowledgeable about construction and very experienced at building things. So if the person doesn’t understand construction, or the ins and outs of building with SIPs, or even feel confident in how to do a project like this in the first place, I’d be happy to help. If they lack resources, I have all the power tools required (and then some), a garage workshop, and a half acre backyard with room where someone could construct their little house while I’m doing mine. I offer this assistance for free, partially because I strongly believe in helping others, empowering people to do things they think they can’t accomplish, and making new friends; and partially because I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get my SIP panels!

Visit my blog here: tinysunhouse.wordpress.com

Thanks,
Chris
tinysunhouse@gmail.com