Sailboat Living: the Tiny House of the Sea

There’s much learn from sailboats about the efficient use of space. In fact, you can clearly see the direct design inspiration in many modern tiny house designs, from the sleek carpentry, multifunctional features to the compact appliances. If you love the water, you may want to consider life aboard. 1984 … Read more

Contemporary Prairie Schooner

Libby Reinish and Tristan Chambers contacted me about a project they are working on and wanted to share with you.

My partner and I are building a bow-top gypsy wagon and documenting our progress on www.whittleddown.com. This is our first tiny house, and we will be moving into it in one month, when we depart our home in Santa Fe, NM and begin a cross-country move to New England. We plan to live in the wagon for the remaining warm months of the year, and haven’t entirely ruled out retrofitting it for winter living later. The wagon is based on a gypsy wagon design, but we like to think of it as a contemporary take on the prairie schooner.

Our gypsy wagon design meets our three main goals: 1) To build a home for just over what we currently pay for a month’s rent ($1500 total), 2) To build a portable home that can be towed by my Hyundai Elantra, which has a 1,000 lb tow rating, and 3) To find a design that provides all our basic needs (food prep, sleep, electricity, toilet) in a small space.

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