Tiny House Blog

Ben Wheeler visited Cannery Row and the Aquarium in Monterey, California and shot a few photos of some worker’s shacks that were on display.

A chorus of cannery whistles, each with its own unique call, summoned the Cannery Row workforce. Men and women in rubber boots and oilcloth aprons showed up to clean, cut, pack, cook and can the sardines that were a major part of Monterey’s economy for more than three decades.

The work was dirty and hard, cold and wet, and the smell was terrible–but it was the smell of prosperity. The stench of sardines, reduced to fertilizer, fish meal, and chicken feed, permeated the Row. Continue Reading »

It all started last summer with the near completion of the Bunkhouse. Wanting more of a little house on wheels and using the designs I use with the bunkhuse the Hermit DeLuxe was born. Working last winter on two different designs I finally decided on one and got it up and ready.

This spring I relocated the solar panels and the related equipment from the 20 ft camper trailer and temporarily installed the equipment on site at the solarcamp. Then with help from a expert in building camper trailers we demoed the camper, took the scrap to the scrap yard, trash to the transfer site, and saved everything I possible could use for the Hermit DeLuxe.

Now down to the frame, I sandblasted and painted with free tractor paint. Then I set up the clean camper frame at the solarcamp on blocks and leveled it ready for construction. Needing a dry storage space at solarcamp for the larger construction materials I added a temporary tarp tent behind the solar panels.

After a month or so delay for some jobs I was working on, I started the floor, Aluminum flashing under a 2″ x 4″ frame, 3″ of Styrofoam R9 insulation and a OSB flooring with a heavy coat of exterior deck paint. Framed up the walls laying down on the deck when completed I arrange a house raising work party with all my friends and anybody else I could sucker in and raised the walls, installed the roof rafters and sided. After waiting out the rain and delivery of the roofing, I than roofed and constructed and installed custom door and frame.

I should complete painting and trimming of roof in the next few days. after completion of door and wheel tubs the building will be weathered in and ready for winter. I will be continuing to work on the Hermit DeLuxe as money and weather allows. I believe that anyone can build the Hermit DeLuxe with ease. as long as you have the funds, time and patience you can build the Hermit DeLuxe of your dreams.

You can purchase Joe Chipman’s plans here. Anyone who buys the plans now will receive a free update of the plans with photos when the Hermit Deluxe is completed.

The Hermit DeLuxe $27

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Keith Stonebraker has recently developed an interesting take on a log cabin. I want him to share his design idea with you. I’ll turn it over to Keith.

I have always wanted a log cabin, just some little place to get away with my thoughts and relax. I had helped a friend with the building of his log cabin back in Michigan and found out how difficult it could be with the heavy logs to move around and get into position. This wasn’t anything that I wanted to attempt on my own.

After doing a lot of research on the web I soon found out that a simple log cabin wasn’t exactly what I call cheap and nothing was available locally if I wanted to do it myself.

When I saw the laminated log cabins, suddenly a light went off in my head and I wondered if it were possible to do that myself with ordinary lumber. The next day I put a few boards together to get a better idea of what it would look like and then my idea really took off. Continue Reading »

***Update below

Scott Stewart, who I have featured quite a few times lately because of his fine quality and affordable prices has been bouncing the idea of an American made Cube. The French Cube post was one of the most popular and I think their might be enough interest to build something similar here in the U.S. Here are Scott’s thoughts and he would enjoy feed back from you on the subject.

I am attaching a rough draft of a cube that is 11x11x11, these are inside measurements, I wanted to go with a size that stays under the 12′ outside dimension for permit purposes, once over 12′ escort cars are involved and this raises the costs and slows down delivery. This also gives much more room inside over the French version which is 10′ x 10′.

I have changed it up a little, I placed the door on a different wall, across from the kitchen, I thought I could offer a murphy type bed/entertainment center on the wall to the right of the door, between the door and kitchen, the loft access comes up quite a bit for older folks, this would be an option, I also turned the bed area 90 degrees putting it over the bathroom/kitchen area, I thought this makes good sense since you really don’t need much headroom there anyway, this allows dropping the ceiling there to give more room in the bed area.

I plan to use octogon or even regular window instead of the round windows in the French version, they do look good but are expensive, hard to trim and hard to buy or replace. Window placement can be anywhere, I only show a couple on the drawing but will be glad to install anywhere.

As for pricing, I am thinking $10,500 for the completely finished version, $4500 for the dried in model which would look totally finished on the outside but would just be a shell. I will as usual include delivery within 300 miles of Mountain View, AR and will include crossing into one state , any other state crossings and or extra mileage will be extra, $3 per loaded mile plus permits for each added state.

Scott would also like your input on size and I have put together a small poll below and would appreciate your response on this. Also please add your suggestions and ideas through the comment section.

***Update: Be the first to buy a Slabtown Customs American Cube and I will do a series of posts with photos of the build, your experience dealing with Scott, and the delivery and final setup of the Cube.

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French Cube 10' x 10'

Steve Auth contacted me recently about his Wollywagons and I thought you would enjoy his story about them.

While always having an interest in the old west, which Indiana was once considered the west frontier, anywhere west of the Missouri River to me is the old west these days, and nomadic living in small quarters such as mountain mans cabins, Native American tipi’s, wickiups (a Native American lodge built of sticks and bark) and sheep herder wagons, sheepwagons, (A wagon on wheels with small living quarters, the idea brought to the United States by the Basque people of Northern Spain’s mountain region employed by many a sheep rancher of the west, and I suppose they immigrated here also for a better life as well with all the open range we had at that time.

So after watching the movie The Woolyboys with Peter Fonda and Kriss Kristoferson that takes place on a sheep ranch out west, I said to my wife the only thing wrong with those wagons with living quarters is their a bit small, so I set out and built my first wagon I dubbed the “Woolywagon.” Continue Reading »

Way up a holler between a couple of prominent knobs, below Panther (pronounced “Painter”) Knob, we’re building a log cabin.

My tiny house is a log cabin. I’ve built bedroom additions, renovated spaces like a garage, and built a 2-story, 200 square footprint workshop that would make a very nice dwelling, if I didn’t make stuff downstairs and store things upstairs. But I’ve always wanted to build a log cabin. And I like projects. And hand tools.

You can read more about my motives and methods, this region, and its (the cabin’s) progress and eventual use on my blog, coldholler.blogspot.com. I love to receive comments or questions there! Continue Reading »