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.

“Before reading the book, I had a few ideas for the layout,” she said. “But as I read, the design unfolded in wonderful ways. As I spent days and weeks thinking about it, everything seemed to find its place in my small space.”

The house will be 14 feet tall with a gambrel roof and will be built with Celina’s version of SIP panels (outer plywood wall, small studs, ridged insulation, inner plywood and paper maché). It will include a sleeping/working loft, large windows, a bathroom and an outdoor shower that Celina wants to build out of an old British phone booth. Her wish list (besides help with electrical) includes a crystal chandelier, a pedestal sink, a SMEG fridge and a comfortable leather chair. She acquired her chassis foundation for $250, a 1950s Dixie RV stove for $20, a pot-belly wood stove for $75 and a farm-style kitchen sink for $175. She got her water heater free from a demolition project and salvaged some wooden beams and logs to be used in the construction. Celina wants the bottom part of the house to look like a French Country kitchen. She plans on building a small bistro table, and will build some rolling chopping blocks.

She decided to build the house on wheels since her family does not own property. Her goal is to purchase some property, park her house and also have a little farm. Most of her money is going toward the truck that will tow the house.

Celina, a 4.0 grade-point average student, decided after three semesters of high school that she wanted to learn on her own and is currently “unschooling” herself. She’s using the welding skills she learned in her metal shop class, and is adding skills from her carpenter father. She earns her money by teaching dancing at her family’s dance studio: “Everyone Can Dance”.

Photos courtesy of Celina Dill/My Tiny Abode

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

After graduating from college, the couple lived communally as organic farm volunteers in Europe. As a child in his native Belgium, Cedric lived on a 38 foot steel sailboat, and after school he lived in a re-built 27 foot sailboat in Charleston Harbor. So the 200 square foot home they are building will not be a far stretch. The couple (Cedric is a seasonal bicycle tour guide and Andrea is a Spanish teacher) also knew that they did not want to go into 30 years of debt for a home during an uncertain economy.

“People my age, people I talk to that don’t want to be indebted, people that are coming out of college in an economically unstable time…many are interested,” Tremols said to her local television station.

When complete, the home will have a kitchen with a stove, a small refrigerator and a sink with an on demand water heater. There will be a bathroom, a composting toilet, shower, a living space and an enclosed loft. The couple based their design on a photo they saw of a Protohaus, and most of the materials for the house came from the Sustainable Warehouse in Charleston. The house design utilizes cross ventilation without air conditioning and will eventually be hooked up to solar power. When the summer heat and hurricanes converge on Charleston, Andrea and Cedric plan to move their tiny home into the mountains.

The Protohaus design that inspired Andrea and Cedric

Photos courtesy of Andrea Tremols and Cedric Baele and Protohaus

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

The prices are as follows: $150 for four tires; $400 for two axles with a frame ;$250 for each tongue ; Modular school houses $20 per square foot.

http://www.m4structures.com/
Contact Information:
M4 Homes, LLC
1200 Valley House Drive,
Suite #182
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
p: 707.795.5457
f: 707.795.5472
reed@m4homes.net or call Gordon Walker at 415-302-0232

Mike, who rides a bicycle instead of owning a car, appreciated the green aspects of the tiny mobile home but was a bit concerned about having to pick it up from Oregon and bring it back to his home in Connecticut. So, he looked at it as an adventure, bought a van sight unseen in Washington and towed the house across the country with his son.

“We had a hell of a good time,” Mike said. “It was the best time of my life”.

He and his son explored the country for several weeks and slept in their new little house. Mike was worried about driving in windy areas and under overpasses, but he said the house did great. He was pleased that he could park the house in cities across the country and spend a few days. He was also thrilled that he had no issues with police officers, and that people showed genuine interest and wanted to take pictures of the tiny house.

Currently, the house is parked behind a rental property that Mike lives in and manages. He bought the house fully finished but with no interior divisions. He wants to keep the kitchen simple with a foldout stove and no plumbing and he has his water delivered and uses a shower at a local health club. He will be purchasing a composting toilet, solar panels, batteries and a generator for power and a Vermont soapstone vented propane stove for heat. So far, he has experienced no issues or inconveniences with not having a bathroom or plumbing. He also recommends that a tiny house should have as many windows and glass as possible to let in light and give the illusion of more space.

“The skylights and the glass door make a big difference, ” Mike said.

After his changes and additions, Mike spent about $25,000 on his tiny house. Mike is working on getting the house parked on a piece of borrowed property near Hartford, Connecticut. So far, he has had nothing but upbeat and excited responses from his neighbors and friends and is looking forward to slowly transitioning into his tiny home.

“I don’t want to work as much and give away my hours anymore, ” he said. “Right now, people are working as hard as they can to clean and maintain their homes instead of doing what their hearts desire.”

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

When I first saw these huts on wheels, they looked a bit like an alien vehicle from Star Wars. The more I looked at them though, the more I fell in love with these sleek little houses.

Designed as a modern alternative to camping by Tom Kundig of Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects in Seattle, the Rolling Huts are available for rent in the Methow Valley of Washington state. The huts are several steps above camping, while remaining low-tech and low-impact in their design.

The huts sit lightly on the site, a flood plain meadow in an alpine river valley. The owner purchased the site, formerly a RV campground, with the aim of allowing the landscape return to its natural state. The wheels lift the structures above the meadow, providing an unobstructed view into nature and the prospect of the surrounding mountains.

The huts are grouped as a herd: while each is sited towards a view of the mountains (and away from the other structures), their proximity unites them. They evoke Thoreau’s simple cabin in the woods; the structures take second place to nature.

Each hut comes equipped with a small refrigerator, microwave, fireplace and Wi-Fi. A sleeping platform is perfect for two, and the modular furniture in the living area can be reconfigured to sleep two more. Each hut has an adjacent portable toilet, and full bathrooms and showers are housed in the centrally located barn a short distance away. There is a water faucet outside of each hut and a picnic table in front of each hut that seats 12. You can stay in one of these huts for about $80-$100 a night.

By Christina Nellemann

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