Tiny House Blog

Dan Louche of Tiny Home Builders and Michael Janzen of Tiny House Design have collaborated on a new website called TinyHouseMap.com. This is a map-based classified listings site in which the goal is to connect the tiny house community and to take it to a local level.

You can list yourself on the website and find others in your area who have the same interest. If you have an open house, workshop, or are a builder you can list that too.

If you do not want to much information about yourself online you can limit it but it is nice to have a way to contact you if possible. If you have a website or blog you can list it as well.

Check it out today!

Guest Post by Andrew Morrison

As you may know, my wife, 12 year old daughter, and I recently sold more than half of our worldly belongings to fund our adventure, let go of our large rental house, and spent the next 6 months in a quest to reconnect with each other and with what really matters in life. Most of that time was spent in a 150 sq ft pop up tent trailer in Baja, Mexico where we were able to live off grid and to essentially unplug ourselves from our “normal” day-to-day lives. What we learned was that in living with the least, we gained the most and that in finding the stillness that comes in not busying ourselves, we reclaimed our joy and inner calm (to read more about this journey, please visit www.SmallHouseRevolution.com).

One of our favorite topics of conversation since embarking on this adventure has become housing. What defines a home, what are the things that are essential in making a home a wonderful space, what do we want in our own dream house, etc… Being that the professional focus for most of our adult lives has been straw bale construction and green housing, we naturally have been exploring the merits of this mode of building as a solution for those of us that are wanting to build affordably, to tread lightly on the planet, and to be involved with our own home’s creation. We now see, more than ever, that straw bale construction is an amazing building technology fully able to fill those needs.

The idea of stacking straw bales to create a super insulated and natural shelter first appeared on the Nebraska plains over 100 years ago and some of these original homes are still in use. The technology has advanced significantly since those early builds and today, two major styles of straw bale construction have been developed: Load Bearing and Post and Beam. Load bearing construction uses no structural frame (such as framed 2×6 walls) to support the roof. Instead, the bales carry the load. Post and beam construction, on the other hand, uses a structural frame to support the roof while the bales act as insulation within that frame. Whichever system is implemented, the benefits of building with bales include: 3 times the insulation value of a conventional wall; 3 times more fire proof than a conventional home (yes, you read that right!); lessens pollution by using a waste material that normally contributes significantly to the pollution cycle; ideal building system for the owner builder; incredibly sound proof; able to withstand natural disasters (earthquakes, high wind/tornado) significantly better than a conventional home; aesthetically beautiful. Continue Reading »

Kent, this was tough- ALOT of good contributions, and I tried to keep in mind that while I’ve heard and seen some of the applications before, others might have not. Some tips are “tried n’ true”, but often overlooked by others….I really had to read through the entire thread of almost 120 entries THREE times and take so many things into consideration (my eyes are going to fall out of my head!)- “newness” and creativity, uniqueness, actual potential and logic, and so forth…..man, this was NOT easy….

The one’s we’ve picked (Kent and Deek) Kent will be contacting the winners today and shipping the books.

So the winners……

Leigh- storage in pull up floor spaces…..I’ve always wanted to do this in a home, and have contemplated it in my Vermont cabin- it just makes alot of sense if done properly, and if insulative factors are still preserved.

Nik- old ladder on the ceiling as a pot rack, or the back of doors as a coat, mitten, etc holder…I own an old ladder that I’m going to make into a wall hung bookshelf.  The ladder can be used to stow/stack containers/items too, if fixed in place (not hung from a chain). I see wooden ladders tossed ALL the time too, so this project is basically free! Same ballpark, but Nik has a cool, door-storage spin on it- and the pot rack, while not a new idea, would make for a great conversation piece.

Photo Credit Dairy House

Alison Joyal. I based this choice on the sheer volume of good, practical tips- one’s that she’s actually applied in her situation/camper. I felt her entry had more than a few tips that people could truly put to use and learn from. Not rocket science, but some really good advice that makes perfect sense- and saves space in not ONE case, but in ten or more.

Again, thanks all! Some of your tips may just be shared, so that many more can learn and benefit from them, in some of the upcoming Tumbleweed Tiny House Workshops I’m teaching- one in Miami (April 14-15), and another in Boston, MA that will soon be announced. Tumbleweed Cambodia is also in the works! No, not really….I’ll also be at the Seattle Tumbleweed and I look forward to meeting some of you out there perhaps.

Thanks again to all who submitted ideas, congrats on winning a copy of “Humble Homes, Simple Shacks“, and we’ll have more copies to give out down the road- and Thanks Kent!

PS- anyone can email me if they want a signed, doodled-on (tiny cabin sketches- each one different) copy of the book. kidcedar at gmail dot com. If you buy an amazon copy and send it my way with a pre-stamped return, I’ll gladly sign it (thereby lowering the value of the book) for you. Not sure why you’d truly want my signature, but a few have asked, and I’d be more than happy to do it.

Also- Both my book and Lloyd Kahn’s have been doing VERY WELL- thank you all, and him and I, when we’ve spoken, both can’t believe how this scene is growing, and how very supportive it is. THANK YOU!

-Deek

Photo Credit Dornob

Guest post by Paprika Clark

There’s a new tiny house company in town, and our name is Bungalow to Go (www.bungalowtogo.com).

Hi, my name is Paprika Clark, but a lot of folks call me Pepper. Although I only named it a few months ago, I started my house design company in spirit when I noticed an ad for a new subdivision in the newspaper at the age of six. Next to an elevation sketch was a floor plan. I couldn’t take my eyes off it. The rooms were named. I could recognize an overhead view of a toilet, and the distinct round burners on the stove in the kitchen. I created a three dimensional projection in my mind and walked around “my new house” picking out my room and figuring out where we would put our couch. It was magical and I was hooked.

I started drawing my dream house then and I’ve never stopped. In the beginning they were huge and often strange, with lavish impossible features. Ponds with lily pads, indoor pools, waterfalls, tree houses, cave complexes, three story libraries with enormous rolling ladders, fireman’s poles, secret tunnels, maze gardens, green roofs, greenhouses, orchards, fire pits, dance floors… my houses had it all. Continue Reading »

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company has posted their 2011 workshop calendar. These workshops are taught by Jay Shafer and span 2-days where you learn how to design and build a tiny house of your own. You can choose to attend both days or just one. I have had the privilege of attending one of these workshops and I learned a lot and highly recommend them to anyone serious about building your own tiny home.

Day one focuses on the construction process where you learn about topics like the tools you’ll need and the special needs of a house that can be pulled down a highway. Day two is focused on tiny house design where Jay goes into detail on how he makes tiny homes comfortable and functional.

You can learn a lot about what it takes to build your own tiny house online, but taking a workshop from someone like Jay can really help fill in the gaps and I found it really worthwhile. Visit the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company website to learn more and register. Here are the dates and locations:

• Sebastopol, CA Nov 6-7, 2010 (last 2010 workshop)
• Orlando, FL Jan 22-23, 2011
• Santa Fe, NM Feb 5-6 2011
• Nashville, TN Mar 5-6 2011
• Honolulu, HI Mar 26-27, 2011
• Jackson, NH May 21-22, 2011
• Olympia, WA June 25-26, 2011
• Washington DC July 16-17, 2011
• Chicago, IL August 6-7, 2011
• Los Angeles, CA Aug 27-28, 2011
• Portland, OR Sep 17-18, 2011
• New York, NY Oct 15-16, 2011
• Santa Rosa, CA Nov 5-6, 2011

For next summer, I’ve been looking at taking a cob building workshop to update my building skills, learn some natural building techniques, and get closer to the natural world. The process of building a tiny house out of earth and found materials is very appealing. While doing my research, I came across a few tiny cob houses that I thought epitomized how warm, human-scaled and friendly they can be. Some of these were so beautiful, I just had to share.

Continue Reading »