***Update Floor Plan with Dimensions*** Jon Wesson is a big fan of the Tiny House Blog, and if he had his way, he would have a house 120 square feet in size. But, alas, he has two children and that just would not work. Instead, he built a smallish cabin (720 square feet) on Lewis Smith Lake in Winston County, Alabama – a large reservoir much of which is surrounded by national forest land. I’ll turn it over to Jon and let him tell you more about it.
We searched plans for a while and couldn’t find anything that worked for us, so we drafted our own design. It’s a frame built house on a block foundation with Hardiboard exterior siding (to protect from termites, carpenter bees and other varmints) and a tin roof (Galvalume).
We used local subcontractors to do what we could not and the rest we did ourselves. We found some artisans nearby to build and install the cabinets and they did a great job. The open cabinets on each side of the sink give the illusion of space. The lower cabinet drawers give ample room for cookware and other storage.
We placed a picnic styled table in the center of the kitchen and the benches slide underneath when not in use. My wife, Jackie, found the restaurant style sink with extra deep bowls at a store in Atlanta for around $400 – actually cheaper than a drop-in sink from Lowe’s. The kitchen counters and bath are white tile. Some friends of ours installed it and it is very beautiful. The flooring is hand-scraped maple from simplefloors.com in Atlanta also, which was on a terrific sale at the time. The total cost of the floor with installation was about $2,500.
We used recessed lighting throughout the cabin with dimmer switches in each room except the bathroom. This gives much more visual space which would ordinarily be taken up by standard light fixtures and ceiling fans. Here in the deep south, folks really love their ceiling fans and we received a lot of criticism for omitting these. However, we stand by our decision and the result really speaks for itself.
Jackie found a cool glass block window on the Internet for around $60 and we put it in the shower for some natural sunlight. It has a little screened section in the middle that opens to the outside. We also bought a ceramic niche for the shower for soaps and shampoos and this saves precious space in a 5′ x 7′ bathroom.
Given the small living area and children, we also wanted the rooms to be more soundproof than in standard construction. So we insulated the interior walls and installed solid core doors in the bedrooms, bath and laundry closet. These measures cost a little more but are well worth it. The laundry closet is next to the refrigerator and contains a stacked washer/dryer unit. The solid core door greatly reduced sound of the washer and dryer. For hot water, we have a tankless water heater that we placed beneath the house in the crawl space. The deck is 11′ x 16′ and in spring, summer and fall gives added living space.
The oven/stove is heated with propane gas and has a 250 gallon tank outside the cabin. For heating and air conditioning we have a two ton heat pump unit and we are very comfortable as long as we have electricity – power outages are very common here. We have an outdoor shower (hot & cold) next to the deck, however, the shower surround is another pending project we’ll hopefully finish before summer begins.
My wife and I (mostly my wife), with invaluable advice from my father-in-law, Bill – a retired homebuilder, acted as our own two-headed general contractor. We lost a little sleep but saved some money in doing so. The total cost of the cabin (excluding drive and stairway to the lake) was less than $40,000.
Thanks for letting us share. Jon and Jackie Wesson.