Small House Feature

StrawBale’s Applegate Residence

I am excited to introduce a brand new small house straw bale plan. I have been involved with Gabriella Morrison wife of Andrew Morrison of Strawbale.com to design a straw bale home for the Tiny House Blog readership. The new home has been named The Applegate Residence. These plans are … Read more

New Avenue Homes: Clean Energy Showcase Home

by Kent Griswold

Kevin Casey from New Avenue Homes and builder of the Berkeley Backyard Cottage was featured last year. He has since introduced a new home called the Clean Energy Showcase Home. I wanted to get this up ASAP as it is being featured at the Pacific Coast Builders conference this weekend June … Read more

Hill Country Texas Cabin

by Kent Griswold

by Sue Moak

Our little cabin is in the Hill Country area of Texas. We have 50 acres, so we live large outside but cozy inside! It has one main room that is 20 x 20, an 8 x 8 bathroom, a front porch and an 8 x 12 screened porch on the back. One half of the main room is the kitchen. The island is from IKEA but we widened the top and tiled it to make an eating area. We made the kitchen shelves from lumber left over from the cabin construction.

The opposite side of the main room is used for both seating and sleeping. We have a queen size bed on one end and a trundle daybed on the other end. When we have guests, we slide the chairs back and fill the floor with air mattresses! The fireplace is made from limestone, which is plentiful in our area. The mantel is a solid piece of mesquite wood. This is a native Texas wood and has a beautiful red color to it. It is held up by two cedar posts that came from our property.

The New-Old, Little-Big Cottage

by Kent Griswold

by Amber Rouleau

***Note photos below are not from this plan but from another home to give you an idea of what it could be like.

Real estate professionals often use terms like “cozy” and “charming” to oh-so-cleverly disguise the fact that a house is small. In the case of this 648 square foot cottage from Connor Homes (www.connorbuilding.com), the size and style of this home need no disguise – it’s authentically charming, due in large part to its historically-inspired roots.

This design, called the Samuel Whitlock Cottage, can best be described as a southern regional vernacular one-and-a-half story Georgian cottage. It is a one-bedroom, one bath cottage, and the key design features include a gable roof with dormers, an exterior end chimney, wide beaded weather boards, board and batten shutters, and flush rakes with applied soffit caps.

Sharon’s Small House Story

by Kent Griswold

My husband and I have been living in a small home rental in Portland, Oreogn for the past year and a half. Our cottage is about 450 square feet. It feels quite spacious to us. Both of us grew up in very large homes full of family, friends, and fun and we loved it, but prefer a smaller space for ourselves.

We got married in Maine (we used to live in Boston/Somerville) and packed our small Honda Civic with all of our possessions and leisurely road tripped to Oregon.

We found this house on Craigslist soon after moving to the area. Because we only brought our clothes and some personal items, we wanted to find a small place that would be easy and cheap to furnish. It took a few weeks, but we were able to get everything in our home (except TV and bed side tables) from Goodwill, Craigslist, and garage sales. It was quite an adventure!

Bruce’s Sad Small House Story

by Kent Griswold

This is a sad story.

This small house is falling to wrack and ruin on a Maine island. I was told it once housed a (year-round) with kids. The current owner uses it as a large storage shed.

The dimensions were taken on the outside walls. The roof actually is larger than the dimensions shown as it overhangs.

I also went inside to get a sense of the layout. The ceiling is 6′ 9″ high on the ground floor. I did not take inside dimensions as the rooms are full of stuff and it was impossible to go into the shed addition in the back.