Tiny House Blog

*Note – Site is rented so is no longer available.

If you are looking for a place to park your tiny house in the Northwest, Sandie contacted me recently and let me know that she has a spot available in the Bellingham, Washington area. Here is her ad.

Full hook-up available for RV or Tiny House on Wheels.  My property has great soils for gardening + orchard.  View of Mt. Baker & Twin Sisters Mountains.  My property is on Bellingham Bay in Bellingham, Washington.

*Note – Site is rented so is no longer available.

Orchard View

View through orchard

Buck in Orchard

Mt. Baker at Sunset

Twin Sisters Mountains

Peter has been living in an extreme tiny house, the size is 4′ x 7′ which measures out to 28 square feet. Peter recently started a blog and goes into the details of living this small and I am going let Peter tell you a what it is like to live in these small quarters.

I have now been living in my little trailer for almost nine months. Eight of those months have been parked next to my friends house in Washington State. With an extension chord running from the garage it is essentially like a detached bedroom.

I have power for my space heater which came in handy this winter when it got down to about 10 degrees. I also keep my laptop charged and am able to recieve a wifi signal from the house. Lighting is handled by battery powered LED lights. They do a pretty good job but are not quite bright enough to read by. As I may have mentioned previously, I have a small fold down table, a decent sized closet/cabinet, and my bookcase full of books. All in all, quite cozy.

As far as the not so stellar aspects of tiny trailer living. It can seem a bit cramped at times. Much of my possessions are stored in my friends garage. I did purge a lot of my stuff before this adventure began, however I still have a lot of work to do. It does fit into ( and on top of) my truck but isn’t very accessible. My trailer is pretty easy to get into almost any camp site and I’d like to keep it that way, so I am leaning against a bigger rig. Which means I will need to get rid of even more of my treasures!

Read Peter’s complete story at his IttyBittyHouseTales blog.

Brian spotted this on Craigslist and then it was removed. I grabbed the pictures early on and he had snagged the copy. It may still be available but I’m not sure. It is really a cool little home though maybe a little expensive for most. Here is the description and some great photos of the barge.

Teak House Barge for Sale in Seattle Area – $85,000

Have you ever pictured yourself living on the water, in Seattle, or the lovely San Juan Islands? Are you looking for a permanent waterfront fixture or a wonderful getaway? This beautiful, new, all teak exterior house boat built in Seattle, Washington can satisfy every lifestyle. It is craftsmanship at the highest level.

• 28.5′ long
• 10.5′ wide
• Plywood-Fiberglass Hull
• Teak Exterior
• All New Cabin
• Insulated Aluminum Windows
• Fir Hardwood Floors
• Propane Fireplace
• Tiled Stand-In Shower
• Closet Space
• Electric Toilet
• One Bedroom
• All Douglas Fir Interior
• Stainless Steel Countertops
• Propane Stove
• Storage in Hull Area
• All New Plumbing and Wiring
• 50 Gallon Sewage Tank

Transporting can be discussed. Financing and Moorage is available. Located in Seattle, WA. Contact Bill (206) 910 0957. Continue Reading »

Tim Lawson from Port Townsend School of Woodworking contacted me about an upcoming workshop starting in January. A three month Foundation course that includes furniture making, cabinetmaking and Gypsy Wagon (or Tiny House) building as focus areas for the project part of the course.

Tim says: “We’ve always wanted to teach longer courses as part of our curriculum. We’re going to take that plunge and offer an intensive residential course starting January 2011. This will be a three month/twelve week course that will give any woodworker a very solid grounding in the array of skills they’ll need to develop as a furniture maker, cabinetmaker or (dare we say it) as a maker of Gypsy Wagons.”

He goes on to say: “We’re planning to push the envelope here and offer students the option of choosing to focus on one of these areas in the final part of the course. This would be a way for somebody with carpentry skills to transition to furniture making or finer finish work. For the avid hobbyist to develop a broader range of skills. Or for the Romany at heart to build the skills to complete a Gypsy Wagon.

We believe that this course can change your life. The course will give you woodworking skills that will last the rest of your life whether you make furniture for fun, rebuild your kitchen or plan to finish that gypsy wagon. Through the design part of the course we may uncover hidden passions or flair that help you grow as an artist.”

To get the full details visit the Woodworking website and see if this course if for you.

Logan, Tammy Strobel’s from the Rowdy Kittens blog husband brought this new company to my attention recently. I have been in touch with Maura a partner in the business to learn more about this unique timber frame pre-fab product.

FabCab designs and sells pre-fabricated and kit-built environmentally-friendly homes and accessory dwelling units (ADUs).

Maura says: “We launched our company in March and we have had an outpouring of support and interest in our products. We are passionate about designing environments that marry “green” design, design that supports people with a range of ages and abilities and prefab design. Therefore, our environments are designed to be flexible, open and easy to use and live in.” Continue Reading »

Andrea Lippke from the New York Times writes an article about a Seattle women named Michelle de la Vega who takes on the conversion of a 250 square foot garage into a tiny home after a divorce. To save money she takes on the job as the contractor and with lots of reclaimed materials converts this old garage into a beautiful home.

“At that time I was coming out of the ashes,” she said, “and knew I needed to come up with a good survival strategy for starting over as a single person.”

Read Converting a Seattle Garage Into a Tiny Home at the New York Times website.
Photos: Ira Lippke for The New York Times

Michelle de la Vega, a visual and performance artist, turned her garage into a 250-square-foot house for $32,000.

Continue Reading »