Designing for Small Spaces

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Nancy Mitchell from Los Angeles writes an interesting article over at Apartment Therapy on how as a child she always wanted to live in an RV. Recently, she discovered a unique caravan built by Caravanolic and decorated by Viceversa and she was inspired to write 5 tips about designing and … Read more

Tiny House in a Landscape

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Lesle sent me this photograph of a tiny building decorated for the holidays. Although the landscape is rather invisible because of the white out the building is attractive and the wreath is beautiful. I like like the pine boughs used to decorate the edge of the roof. No lights here, … Read more

Slabtown Customs Update

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Quite of few of you have been asking about Scott Stewart and Slabtown Customs as I have not reported on Scott and his work in sometime and his website was taken down. Scott and his business is still going strong and I have an update here of many of his recent projects. In this post I have put together several galleries and a couple of movies of what Scott has been up to. Here they are:

The Linger Longer, a Park Model

This custom unit is one of our park model builds, it is built perm. on a steel i beam frame with three axles and bumper style hitch (hitch is hidden under front steps) unit is 14′ wide and a total of 38′ long including a 6′ front covered porch with treated decking and vinyl porch posts and railings, layout includes bedroom in back large enough to accommodate a king size bed if needed, large closet, bathroom including a 4′ wide shower stall with seats, full size tall elongated dual flush toilet, sink/vanity, vent/light as well as vanity lights, high grade allure vinyl flooring in bathroom, kitchen includes hickory cabinets, full size fridge, induction cook top, toaster/convection oven, microwave, dual basin full size sink with custom cover that matches the counter top to cover one half of the sink to gain counter space if needed, cabinets include base, overhead and 7′ pantry. house is fully insulated wired and plumbed like a site built home with rv type connections to allow set up in an rv park, set up on 110v service, has two heat/air combo units, one in living area and one in bedroom, layout also includes two lofts, one 6′ storage loft over the front porch that has a custom installed stained glass window in the gable end that has a light behind it controlled by a switch next to the front door allowing the owners to light the stained glass at night for a very nice look,  house also has a large sleeping loft in the back accessed by stairs between the bath and bedroom, this loft is the full 14′ wide and just over 17′ long creating lots and lots of added sleeping/reading room, the side walls of the house in the loft area are 10′ tall with a 7′ tall ceiling below the loft in the bedroom and bathroom to gain headroom in the loft, the loft has railings but is open looking down on the living area below.

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Starry Nights

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Guest Post by Craig MacDonald

I have been a follower of the Tiny House Blog for a few years and was really intrigued by what it might be like to live in a small home. My wife and I searched for land for a few years, but could never find the right piece of ground. She was convinced that she wanted a place on the water and I was convinced that the only piece of land that we could afford near water would be the size of a postage stamp.

We finally found the perfect spot while exploring a part of our state that we had never seen before. While it is only 85 miles as the crow flies from our home in the city, and about 150 miles by road, it feels like we are in another country. It turns out we didn’t by land near water, but found 30 acres of heaven on earth of highland pasture.

I was at first determined that I wanted to build a tiny house like the Tumbleweed, but was convinced (coerced) by my wife and daughter that 100 square feet just wasn’t going to keep us all happy. I’m glad that I listened! We also bought property in a “development” which requires that homes be a minimum of 500 square feet. With some creative math we were just able to sneak over the 500 square foot threshold. The main part of the cabin is 320 square feet with a 100 square foot bedroom on the back of the cabin. We have two lofts which are connected by a “catwalk” which adds about another 100 square feet. We use a ladder to get up to the lofts and when not in use the ladder retracts into the bottom of the catwalk to give the main cabin more room.

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Kie’s Tiny House

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After following the various blogs about tiny houses for years, I finally decided to take the leap and begin constructing one of my own. As a 21 year old college student, this is not something that many other people my age are partaking in, but I felt that a tiny house would be the most cost effective way to live upon graduation and would give me the opportunity to pay off my debts from student loans as well as save some money as a nest egg for a rainy day.

I have always had an interest in construction, so my degree is going to be in construction management when I graduate this spring. For me, this was another reason a tiny house made perfect sense. In construction, you are generally assigned to a job and will work at it for a few years before moving on to the next job. The next job can be anywhere in the country. By having a mobile house, I am more able to adapt to wherever my job may lead me. This was very important to me because it would make very little sense to build a permanent structure when I may be leaving a place in a few short years.

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1926 Pump House Conversion

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Although this is not a tiny house, I think it is great inspiration so take a look and enjoy.

by Kevin Wilbeck

At 7 ft. x 8 ft. this certainly would be a Tiny House for people but it will be a nice space for the Bantam show chickens it will soon house. The building started as a coal mine pump house built in 1926 for the McElheney mine in central Iowa. We initially acquired it to become a kids’ clubhouse, but later decided to convert it to a chicken coop for some good friends. When we do building conversions at Farmhouse Life we always add style elements that link to the building’s history or portray a new purpose.

Before

In our Bunkhouse we used the hand carved Eastlake style trim from the house (torn down) of the family that donated the building to us. The three cornice blocks surrounding the curved- top door of the Playhouse and pays homage to the three sisters who donated it and who used it as a play house many years prior. The same is true of this building. The six diamonds in the gable represent the family members who we donated the building to. The star in the opposite gable honors the father that they recently lost to cancer.

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