Pre-fab

Cabin Fever

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Clean, green and eye-catching. For fans of prefab tiny houses, these three words describe the beautiful designs of Cabin Fever, based in Irvine, California and Miami, Florida. Their prefab designs encompass everything that you need in a tiny house including green design, customization, various size options and simple but elegant details. The prices are not bad either.

The Cabin Fever cabins are built in the factory, then disassembled, packed and shipped to the customer, to be reassembled on-site. This process (along with the permit process) can take about five months. Their cabin packages contain pre-built wall sections, an engineered roof and precision cut components. All hardware, nuts and bolts, screws and nails, and a full set of engineered architectural drawings are included. Depending on local soil conditions, codes and site grade, cabins can be built on a concrete slab or a wood timber foundation system.

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International Dome Houses

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The Japanese know a thing or two about living in small spaces. Additionally, Japanese designers and architects also have to know a thing or two about how to design homes for a country with high land prices, strict building codes and numerous earthquakes. These futuristic prefab houses from the International Dome House Company are built from segmented slices made of expanded polystyrene that claim to be superior to wood, iron and concrete.

Japanese Dome House Website

The company is located in Japan, but the dome segments are made in their factory in South Korea. Several small “villages” of various sizes of the dome houses have been built in Japan, where the design has been approved by the Japanese Ministry of Land and Transport. This building system can also be adapted for small businesses, storage areas or bathhouses.

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weeHouse Studio for Sale

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Fans of Alchemy Architects and the weeHouse now have a chance to purchase the weeHouse studio that was used as the Saturn Sky convertible touring companion. The cost for the original house was $65,000, but Alchemy is offering the studio as is for $48,000.

Download the sales PDF here.

The 27×12 foot weeHouse was an integral part of the Saturn marketing campaign linking high-end cutting edge design with their automobile. The weeHouse shipped 100% complete, and features a special steel frame with forklift pockets and removable casters to allow the house to be easily handled by hand or forklift on standard flatbed trucks, thus significantly reducing shipping costs.

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Lakefront Log Cabins

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Now is the perfect time of year to curl up next to a woodstove in a tiny lakeside cabin. Lakefront Log Cabins, located in beautiful Lake Tahoe, offers customized precut cabin kits in several different sizes ranging from 12×16 feet to 18×32 feet. These cabins have been built for weekend getaways, hunting cabins and primary residences.

Lakefront has sent their cabin kits all over the country including Alaska. They are also working with customers in Canada and Panama. Each standard cabin kit is created from fresh milled logs and then precut by Amish craftsmen in Kentucky.

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Blu Homes Origin

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There has been some recent news for fans of Michelle Kaufmann and her beautiful prefab homes. Michelle’s company, MKDesigns, has been acquired by Blu Homes, a privately owned business that builds homes with quality design, sustainable materials and leading technology. Michelle will be serving as a design consultant to Blu and they will continue to work with her designs including the Glidehouse, the Lotus and the Breezehouse.

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The new MK designs will use the Blu folding technology in their building construction, and will be available nationally. Blu is unique in that they ship and set their own homes with teams directly from their factory.

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The P-POD

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With a nod to Eastern style and philosophy, and an eye on ecologically sound and environmentally sensitive design, Tim Cornell of Polehouses.com has created a tiny house kit that is appropriate for any climate and location. The 576 square foot P-Pod is climatically appropriate, durable and recyclable.

P-POD Exterior

Tim explained that the P-POD housing is a “building system” more than simply a specific house design. His system is a uniquely engineered “kit of parts” and space frame grids, that can be adapted quickly for any and all housing regimes, programs, and designs desired. P-POD units can be stacked 2 or 3 tall, or spread out in any configuration such as townhouses, duplexes, apartment buildings, etc.

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Better Built Portable Buildings

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For anyone with vision, a few building skills and a great set of tools, several of these portable buildings by Dix Enterprises in Wichita, Kansas can become a personalized tiny house. Better Built Portable Storage Buildings by Dix are outdoor storage sheds, barns, garages, cabins and offices that are built onsite in Kansas and then delivered by truck. At that point they can be customized by the customer. Dix claims all of their portable barns, sheds, cabins and garages are built to hold up under heavy use and provide a lifetime of service. Most of the buildings are for storage, livestock and gardening, but three of their designs may make a great tiny house: the Lofted Porch, the Portable Casita and the Mini Cottage.

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Burlington Microhome

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Moonlight in Vermont? Sunlight might be better for this tiny solar powered home built by Alex Carver and Christopher North of Northern Timbers in Vermont. The Burlington Microhome is a 100 square-foot modular house that is off-grid and ready for additional modules to be added to it if needed.

Northern Timbers built the microhome with design help from landscape architect and metal artist H. Keith Wagner.

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Much of Northern Timbers’ work reinterprets the traditional Vermont vernacular by introducing new applications of diverse materials into the residential setting, resulting in homes with a practical yet creative aesthetic.

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Solar Decathlon 2009

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Craig one of our readers had the opportunity to go to the Solar Decathlon in Washington DC. and wanted to fill us in on this exciting event. Here is what Craig has to say about it.

Sorry to take so long to get back to you on the Solar Decathlon houses on the mall in DC.

I’d taken pictures, but they didn’t turn out so great what with all the crowds. As it happens, the solar decathlon webpage has some great videos for each house on the front page that do a far better job of showing off the houses than I could.

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Team Germany was just announced the winner, though my favorite was Team Louisiana’s Beausoleil house. They plan on marketing the houses as modular homes in the next couple of years with a price around $120,000 including the solar panels.

The maximum size limit for the houses was 800 square feet and they all had to be off the grid/independent.

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Mule Drawn Tiny Home

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13 months in a 21 square foot, Mule drawn Tiny Home Bernie Harberts of River Earth recently bought a set of Sonoma Shanty plans and when we were communicating by email because he is wanting the shanty on wheels version, I discovered his website and learned about his interesting story. … Read more

Rolling Huts

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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 … Read more

Alternative Building’s Fiberglass Yurt

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Sorry no longer in business! Mike one of our readers sent me a note about this yurt option that is both easy to assemble and affordable. These fiberglass yurts range in size fron 15.4′ diameter (181 sq.ft.) to 51.3′ diameter (2011sq.ft.) pre-insulated. Pricing ranges from $15.00/ sq.ft to $20+/sq.ft. Here is … Read more