Tiny House in a Landscape

Walt Barret's wood working shop

Walt Barrett, who has shared several stories about the tiny homes he has built and lived in, sent this photo of a tiny house he forgot he had. I’ll let him tell you more. I don’t know why I never sent this photo to you a long time ago. This … Read more

Walt’s Micro Home Plans

Walt Barrett, who has designed and built a micro home and also guests posts here on the Tiny House Blog has recently made available his Micro Home plans and is letting me sell them to you on the Tiny House Blog. The plans are for a micro home that is … Read more

Locating Your Micro Home

Guest Post by Walt Barrett We need to tackle this land, and location problem head on because next to raising the money for the building materials it seems to be the most difficult problem based upon the feedback that I am getting. There are two separate paths to choose from … Read more

Maintaining Solar And Other Storage Batteries

Guest Post by Walt Barrett A few weeks ago I was visiting a US Coast Guard Station where I looked at small solar battery charging installation. It was built to government specifications, and was an excellent example of a perfect solar installation. One of the companies that I have owned … Read more

My Parent’s Micro Home

Guest post by Walt Barrett (Be sure and watch the video at the end of the post)

I have been writing about micro homes, solar, and energy efficient homes for 35 years. People never really paid much attention to any of it, and my Internet Blogs have gone virtually unnoticed for years. Recently, however, I have started receiving email from people who have read my articles about solar powered autonomous micro homes. Many of them are simply looking to down size, which I happen to think is a great idea, unless you have tons of money to save towards your future. The other people that have written to me have no place to call their own at all, and very little money either. All of these people are seeking as much information as possible about building micro homes, and also the support systems needed to make them a comfortable place to reside.

When you build a micro home the savings really add up quickly. First of all, if you are handy enough you may not need a mortgage. That alone is huge! A tiny well insulated home is less expensive to heat and cool, another major savings. Because of the LED lighting systems we have developed, solar lighting is relatively inexpensive. The electricity saved on lighting enables you to downsize the number of solar electric modules needed to power the home. Believe me, this is not rocket science as some people would like you to think. I like to keep things simple.

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Composting Toilet

Following is a guest post by Walt Barrett. I promised that I would write an article about the composting toilets that we build, so here it is. It includes my idea of a sliding adjustable urine separator. The customers that we have using this toilet are very happy with it. … Read more

The Micro Home Market

Marketing An Inexpensive Micro Home Trying to make a difference in America Guest Post by Walt Barrett It’s not like the “Micro Home” is a new idea that was recently invented by some modern day genius. New England is loaded with them. I would venture to say that the micro … Read more

Underground Micro Home

Guest Post by Walt Barrett part 1. Here in New England it gets pretty cold in the winter, and the temperature hovers around the freezing mark. We have already built a 128 square foot micro home to use as a test bed for our energy saving products, and now we … Read more

Walt Barrett’s Solar Pump

Walt Barrett who developed the Micro Home has a new invention called the Barrett Solar Pump that will be developed to help bring water to Cambodians and others around the world. The unique design allows solar-power to harness the stiffling midday heat and generate kinetic energy and draw water from … Read more

Micro House Office

Back in March Walt Barrett introduced us to his 8×8 Micro House. Recently they converted it into a garden office. Walt sent me a video and some photos to show you what they have done in making the Micro House into a garden office. The loft will be made into … Read more