Tiny House Blog

If a Moroccan tent and a trailer had a baby, and that baby went to charm school, it might look just like the Opera. The Opera is manufactured by the Netherlands-based Your Suite in Nature (YSIN) and was designed after the Sydney Opera House. The trailer travels around as a nondescript pop-up, but then transforms like a swan into an elegant and luxurious camping space.

The Opera has been designed for people who don’t want to tow around larger, heavier campers or fifth wheels,  but still want comfortable amenities while still enjoying the outdoors. The Opera offers what most camping tents don’t: two electrically adjustable beds that can be transformed into one, a private ceramic toilet and two sinks, a 36 liter (9.5 gallon) top-loading refrigerator, a 30 liter (about 8 gallon) water tank and water pump, LED lighting and even a teak veranda. The Opera also has a boiler that supplies warm water to the outdoor kitchen and the exterior shower, hot air heating, two cupboards, and a wine storage cabinet as well as baggage and clothing storage. Continue Reading »

Sixteen-year-old Celina Dill (“Celina Dill Pickle” on her blog) of Whidbey Island is not only building her own tiny house from her own plans, but she’s cutting her teeth on architecture and building with Ross Chapin. Celina is an intern for the Pacific Northwest architect who is famous for his small homes and “pocket neighborhoods“.

Celina decided she wanted to build her own tiny house after living in 15 homes with her parents. Since she is close to moving out on her own, she figured a tiny house on wheels would be the perfect solution to having a place of her own at a cost and size that she could handle.

“I think tiny houses are in the future,” Celina said. “Living with less.”

She designed her 10 foot by 18 foot house with Google Sketchup after reading a book recommended by Chapin: “A Pattern Language” by Christopher Alexander. Continue Reading »

Many tiny house dreamers want to build their own tiny house, but may be deterred by their lack of construction skills. In addition, fully customized tiny homes can be more than many people’s budgets. Tiny House Builders builds and sells simple, fully completed, mobile tiny houses that allow the owner/builder to customize the house to whatever style they want at an affordable price. The company accomplishes this with three levels of each of their products. Level One is a complete set of building plans instructional narrative, and step by step instructional photos. Level Two consists of a complete modular building “kit”. It arrives at your door with the completed floor system mounted on its own mobile chassis and the building shell in “panelized” form. Level Three is a complete building shell that can be further customized by the owner.

The first product sold by the company is the Wallowa. This tiny house is 8 feet by 12 feet and includes 2×4 framing, a standard home size entry door, two windows, double wall construction, cedar lap siding with cedar trim, and metal roofing guaranteed for 35 years. The interior clear ceiling height is 6 feet 8 inches, and the interior loft height at the peak is slightly over 3 feet 8 inches. The overall height with the building on its mobile chassis is 13 feet 5 inches, just under the legal limitation. Level One ($429) includes a complete set of detailed building plans, actual photos of construction and an instructional video. Level Two ($9,850) and Level Three ($15,975) allow the owner to design and build their own interior including wall covering, floor covering, plumbing, electrical, appliances and cabinetry. Continue Reading »

A reporter reflects on the Tiny House Movement

By Sarah Protzman Howlett

I’ve always, always loved small spaces. As a kid, I’d scoop up my dolls, Walkman, blanket and pillow, and move into the half-bathroom, settling into the tub with a Beverly Cleary book. It sounds silly, but it was freedom: I could fit every thing I needed into that room. Years later, when I moved to New York City, I was largely unfazed by my 7-by-11-foot bedroom. (It only took 60 seconds to Swiffer—what’s not to love?)

So last fall when I found myself in Boulder with filmmaker Christopher Smith and his 130 square feet of freedom, I couldn’t have been more excited to talk tiny with a kindred spirit for an article in Denver’s 5280. The duo’s project will become a documentary called Tiny: A Story About Living Small, out this spring. When it’s complete, the house will sit on five acres near Fairplay, Colorado.

Smith and his girlfriend, Merete Mueller, invited me to observe as they labored under a steamy sky one Sunday. My hand stuck to my notebook as I wrote furiously, recording everything about the house. Red paint on the outside bids you welcome; the indoor wood siding feels and smells like your favorite uncle’s cabin. Though only the exterior was complete at the time, Smith showed me where the bathroom, lofted bed, and built-in shelves would go, and told me about their sustainability efforts, such as using beetle-kill pine. What surprised me about Smith’s tiny house is how even with exposed wires, sawdust on the floor, and camera equipment strewn about, the space already felt like a home. Continue Reading »

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

From The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again by by J.R.R. Tolkien

 

For the lovers of that hole in the ground, take a look at these little, wooden houses with the quintessential round door made very familiar by the Lord of the Rings books and movies. Wooden Wonders, in Unity, Maine, custom designs and builds these little wooden structures that can be used as playhouses, saunas, writing nooks, guest cottages, yoga or meditation rooms or maybe even a tiny house.

The structures can be integrated into your own landscaping and flower boxes can be added onto the back. The structures can be customized with different colors, additional materials, windows, dormers, interior shelving and other decorative features. Wooden Wonders also features a “heavy duty” package with double doors that allows for storing a lawn tracker or an ATV. Continue Reading »

Tiny House Blog readers who have perused the book “Teardrops and Tiny Trailers” by Douglas Keister may have seen the delightful little Swallow’s Nest trailer owned by Lowell and Janice Vivian. This trailer was originally built in 1961 by the German trailer company, Knaus. For its 50th anniversary, Knaus is selling the redesigned Schwalbennest in a limited edition retro design.

The diminutive trailer is just over 12 feet long and about 7 feet high. It weighs about 1,245 lbs. and has a maximum load capacity of about 400 lbs. It includes an awning, three windows and a skylight, outdoor lighting, integrated blinds, lights, a two-burner stove and sink, a fold-out work surface, a refrigerator, a four gallon water tank and a gas heater. It sleeps two people on the 4.5 ft. by 7 ft. fold-out bed. The trailer also contains a full wardrobe, storage under and behind the benches and above the dining area. Continue Reading »