Tiny House Concept

French Cube is coming to America

One of my most popular posts was the Carre D’etoiles French Cube. Now for the exciting news… the CUBE is coming to the USA/CANADA in 2010! Daniel Jean-Jacques Inversin from Carre D’etoiles French Cube emailed me yesterday to tell us the following: We are currently planning on manufacturing the CUBES on … Read more

Green Line Architects Tree House

by Kent Griswold

Steve from Green Line Architects had commented on the Old Time Tiny Houses post and I happened to click on his link and discovered this cool tree house. Steve said I could share it with you, so here are the details.

This treehouse was designed for relaxation and contemplation, a meditative space for kids of all ages… It was originally conceived as a place for children to play, but its equally comfortable for adults.

It is ideal for a couple, on a romantic evening, or could easily fit a family of four. In a pinch, it could sleep up to 6 adults.

It’s fully insulated, which is a necessity in our cold mountain climate, with has a natural gas heater and electricity, and no bathroom, though the owner will be use a composting toilet in it from time to time.

The owner has requested anonymity, as well as keeping the cost a secret! (we can tell you that it was very expensive…)

It was designed collaboratively between Green Line Architects and David Rasmussen Design. David is a designer/project manager at Green Line and he built the treehouse, and designed and built the custom lighting fixtures. He honed his skills building handicapped accessible treehouses for Forever Young Treehouses.

Fiberglass Trailers

by Christina Nellemann

Let’s hold onto summer for a bit longer, shall we? Actually, many of these tiny fiberglass trailers can probably insulate you pretty well from the impending winter.

Fiberglass trailers first became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, but since then several dozen companies and manufacturers of fiberglass trailers have been developed.

A fiberglass trailer is usually built out of two parts. A top part and a bottom part. Each created from a mold or form and then attached together. The benefits of this is there are fewer parts to create and replace and the insulation is more effective.

Meditation Retreat Gypsy Wagon

by Kent Griswold

Tim Kasten wrote to me recently about his Meditation Retreat Gypsy Wagon, so I asked him to send me some pictures and tell us his story. I’ll let Tim take over from here:

I dreamed for a number of years of building a gypsy-style caravan on a 4-wheel 14-foot-long wagon chassis that I bought from Shiloh Wagon Works in Minnesota. Health problems eventually forced me to concede that I wasn’t strong enough to build it alone and that I would have to scale back the design considerably if I wanted to be able to tow it with a small car and maneuver it by myself.

The result was this little wagon built on a 4×8 utility trailer from Tractor Supply. I don’t know its exact weight, but I’m pretty sure it’s under 600 pounds. I tow it easily with a Toyota Matrix.

Family Sized Tiny Houses

by Kent Griswold

Barb contacted me the other day about some issues that have not been discussed here at the Tiny House Blog. Here is what Barb had to say plus some questions she had to ask… We are a retired couple in the process of adopting a family of four or five … Read more

John Labovitz Tiny Housetruck

by Kent Griswold

John Labovitz contacted me the other day to tell me about his tiny housetruck project that he is working on. The minute I saw the frame it reminded me of the Cable Car Trolleys that I worked on for a couple of years as they were built using the same steel tubing and looked very similar before being skinned and completed.

I’ll let John tell you more about his plans and his philosophy behind his choice of design and materials.

My overall values in designing the housetruck were simplicity, durability, sustainability, and mobility, which combine to liveability. Although I’ve been inspired by the tiny house movement, the biggest breakthrough was discovering the long tradition of gypsy caravans and British ‘living wagons.’