Kitchen - Part 2

1948 Trotwood Tiny House Project

by James Kinkaid I have been working on a tiny house project since June, when I found a 1948 Trotwood camper for sale alongside the highway here in Ohio. I purchased it, complete with original ice box, for $350.00 delivered. I renovated the inside first, then had my neighbor Tim … Read more

My Tiny House in Asheville

by Kent Griswold

by Marcus Barksdale I recently completed a tiny house for my personal residence in Asheville, North Carolina, and wanted to share a description, a few pictures, and a video of it with other tiny house enthusiasts. I include a lot of detail to help others learn from my thought processes. … Read more

Visual Tips to Help a Small House Live Larger + Master Bath Remodel

by Kent Griswold

Deb Durham blog #3 (small house feature)

Hi there! Last time I featured this home’s bathroom/laundry/soaking tub remodel solutions within the existing footprint of the home. I renovated this 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,200 sq. ft. all adobe home outside of Santa Fe, NM.

Now I’ll show you how to visually expand the space throughout a home with choice of materials, colors and furnishing selections plus one more remodel for the master bedroom space since many asked about the master shower and why I did not put the soaking tub there. Again, your idea of small may be smaller than this home, but these tips will apply anywhere you want to get a bigger bang for the buck out of your square footage.

A Ceiling Rack for the Small Kitchen

by Kent Griswold

Guest Post by Jakob Barry Just because a tiny home has a small kitchen doesn’t mean there should be any less of an appetite for entertaining, as a little creativity can go a long way in finding space for all the necessary items. To help pack in the cutlery, food … Read more

Wee Irish Cottage New Build

by Kent Griswold

Mike Irish just contacted me with an update. He says, “Last year I bought a big house to remodel and it seems to take lots of money and time. I think I like the wee houses better.

The good new is I have another Wee Irish Cottage almost finished. It is 8ft X 26ft with 8ft X 20ft insulated living space with loft, and a covered 8ft X 6ft trek deck porch, insulated windows and door. The outside is covered with cedar bevel siding and the inside is T&G pine with bamboo flooring.

There is a small kitchen with a sitting area and under counter fridge, 36 in. shower stall and composting toilet. Downstairs there is a hide-a-bed if you don’t want to use the loft. I am advertising the Irish Wee House on Portland Craigslist for $12,500.

Living Large in Small Houses

by Kent Griswold

1. Expand your inside-outside living by choosing colors that blend with nature’s surroundings

Guest Post by Deb Durham

Deb Durham, here. I am a 6 foot tall woman. Ironically, I have always been attracted to small spaces. And I drive a 2 seater roadster.

Since I left home, I have never lived in more than 1,350 square feet. Blame it on the half dozen ubiquitous 2–story and split-level suburban tract homes I lived in growing up around the country. Ever since I was a small child (well, I was never really a small child) my escape was the Swiss Family Robinson style tree houses I built or the family linen closet hide-away I turned into the perfect little nest.

Certainly, years of living in Manhattan apartments demanded I meet the challenges of small spaces. But I liked the coziness of them. To the shock of friends, I once entertained 80+ guests in the 350 square feet of my New York City abode.

So what is it about a smaller home that is so appealing? They typically have more charm and soul than McMansions. They are about human scale vs. trophy housing. Besides the emotional appeal, you can allocate more budget in finer materials, unique accessories. Practically speaking, there’s less to maintain. And how does one live large in a small house? Here are some tips taken from my 900 square foot cottage a/k/a The Topanga Tree House:

1. Expand your inside-outside living by choosing colors that blend with nature’s surroundings To blend with the rustic feel of the environment, I used stained pine boards for the walls and painted the house exterior and well as interior trim a soothing green. Lines blur between indoor living and outdoor space. Antique beveled glass French doors form walls of windows softened by sheer linen drapes not shown (IKEA). Imagine waking up to this every day!

Our Tiny House in the Hills

by Kent Griswold

by Neil Norton Here are some photos of our tiny house made from a storage building. We had been living in a 2,700 sq ft home, between upkeep and utilities we were constantly broke. A friend of ours offered to sell us a quarter acre of his property, so I … Read more

Slabtown Customs Office for Sale

by Kent Griswold

Scott Stewart from Slabtown Customs in Arkansas is selling his office as he needs more space. This unit is ready for you to turn into a tiny home or office. Scott says: It’s built like the tiny houses I build and could easily be set up as a house with addition … Read more

Save Thousands on Your Micro House Project

by Kent Griswold

Kevin Coy recently sent me a video on how to save thousands on your micro house project. In the video Kevin explains that buy buying a used RV, for a small sum, and then removing the important internals such as: heating, air conditioning, kitchen appliances, propane bottles, shower, toilet, and … Read more

Tiny House with Outdoor Kitchen

by Kent Griswold

Paul Wheaton does a lot of videos for his blog and asked me to share some of his tiny house videos with you. Here is the first of many that I will be sharing. This tiny house has a 100 square foot footprint. One gentleman, “Wizard” has been living here … Read more

The Perks to a Tiny Kitchen

by Kent Griswold

While there are more than a few things that take getting used when making the switch from a full size to small size home cooking is perhaps the most challenging.

Not only does the act of cooking take place regularly throughout the day, day-in and day-out, but also it’s one thing that we assume, “the more space available the better.” Who among us hasn’t crafted a meal in which both sinks and counters were overflowing with dishes? The oven stuffed, the burners full, and the microwave zinging while all remaining counters look slightly like a food fight just went down. If you have not, I applaud you. But, one of my favorite things about bunking down in a small space is the forced transition to very green and eco-friendly cooking which becomes a necessity, whether or not we always like it.

Rather than dread or complain about the fact that your kitchen may now be more of an “idea” than an actual, physical “place,” relish and embrace the new knowledge that you’re about to become one of the greenest cooks on the planet, or in your neighborhood for sure. Here are some of the easiest things to embrace and to look forward to if you’re just in the process right now.

You can’t Waste Much if You Can’t Store Much
Mega fridges and mega pantries are just destined to become sources of waste. We overbuy and overstock. And then things get buried and hidden and eventually expire. Events come up, forcing us to eat out and in turn we eat less of that fresh beautiful produce than we thought we would. And we waste. Small spaces mean small pantries (if you have them) and small fridges. Relish in the fact that you will naturally waste less because you just can’t fit that much in there anymore. You’ll be able to see what you have, and chances are good you won’t possibly be able to buy more until you’ve used what you have. On the other hand, there are perks to buying in bulk. So if you can, consider a small shed or invest in some heavy duty barrels where you can store things like 50 pound bags of flour outside of your home without worrying about damage.

Read more

Diana’s Innermost House

by Kent Griswold

Guest Post by Diana Lorence

*New photos added below of loft, kitchen and bathroom

This is Innermost House, my home in the coastal mountains of Northern California. It is the latest of many very small houses my husband and I have occupied over twenty-five years, all for the same reason–to make possible a simple life of reflection and conversation. I am delighted now to be a part of Kent’s public conversation with others who share my love of tiny houses, and I’m grateful to Michael Janzen of Tiny House Design for introducing us.

Innermost House is about twelve-feet square. It faces directly south beneath an open porch that shelters our front door. A hill rises to the north behind us and the forest lies all around. The house encloses five distinct rooms: to the east is a living room eleven feet deep by seven feet wide by twelve feet high; to the west the house is divided into kitchen, study, and bathroom, each approximately five feet wide by three feet deep, with a sleeping loft above the three of them, accessible by a wooden ladder we store against the wall.