cottage

Brookside Cottage

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Brookside Cottage

by Christopher Stoney When I consider all of the hurdles and hassles associated with building a tiny house in this modern time of high land prices and restrictive zoning, I find myself extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to buy a small cottage. My cottage has remained essentially unchanged … Read more

Little House on the Prairie

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Guest Post by Jerry Hambley

In 2004, my wife and I decided to purchase 20 acres in rural Kansas about 45 minutes away from our suburban home in Overland Park, Kansas. With a daughter close to graduating from high school, we thought the best way to transition to the country might be to build a small cottage that would serve as my home office. I sat down and made a list of requirements for the office and decided it might be wise to add a small kitchenette and second floor sleeping loft just in case we wanted to spend the weekends at the farm.

Exterior of the cottage after roofing

After a good deal of research, I settled on a set of plans called the “Weekend Warrior” by Robinson Residential. Using those plans as a guide, I expanded the footprint of the cottage by three feet and added a full second floor sleeping loft.

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Mad Woman in the Forest

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Take a look at that window. That glorious window was the catalyst for the design of Laurie Halse Anderson’s cottage in the forest. Laurie is the author of several young adult books and historical thrillers and she writes in a small cottage in the forest. She expressed her need for a “room of her own in which to write fiction”, and her video from 2009 recounts the conception and building of her writing cottage. It was built over the course of a year by her carpenter husband and several of his friends. Laurie and her family wanted it to be off-grid, made with reclaimed materials and easy on the environment.

That amazing window (which Laurie called “a magic window”) was found lying up against a barn and turned out to be a church window from the 1800s. Custom glass was made for each round section of the window. She and her husband also perused the salvage yard and found old growth pine boards to use for the floor and chimney pots for the roof. Soybean based foam insulation was sprayed into the walls and the roof is Vermont slate. The house is powered by wind and solar.

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Home Care Cottages

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Last week, I made a trip down to visit with Stephen Marshall of Little House on the Trailer. He is introducing his new line of little houses and going after a new need in the area. It is called Home Care Cottages, Solutions for Independent Living. These homes are built … Read more

Tiny House in a Landscape

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This weeks Tiny House in a Landscape was a post back a year to two on the Tiny House Blog but this is a new picture is perfect for the fall season. The person who sent it to me called it the the perfect autumn weekend getaway cottage and I … Read more

Johnny’s Hawaiian Small House Story

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My story. I’m a self employed housekeeper/gardener/painter. Back in the 1990’s I set about buying a house. Can you guess what sort of reaction I got from mortgage bankers when I told them what I do for a living and how much money I earn?

I did all sorts of research with many weekend field trips and after a few years I found a piece of undeveloped property that I could afford with cash. I then I had plans for my home drawn up for a few hundred dollars.

I saved up for a septic system, a foundation, and then a shell, etc. I scavenged furniture from thrift shops and pulled things off the curb on bulk trash day. I’m not too proud for that. No Sir. It’s been twelve years now and the place is about as done as it’s likely to get. Looking back I could have made do with less space, but I love my little 480 square foot mortgage free cottage.

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