This 100 square foot tiny house which my girlfriend and I built is now our beloved home. We live on a farm with several other tiny houses in central Texas. For the construction of our tiny house we utilized only readily accessible and simple materials, such as roofing aluminum, plywood, and dimensional lumber. All of the framing and support lumber was reclaimed from a previous project we had worked on, and the bookshelf, desk and counter top are constructed from stud, loft and floor scraps.
The floor was made from 1x12s and the walls are simply painted plywood, excluding the plywood in the kitchen, which had aged in our friends back yard and we felt would add an interesting texture to the kitchen. We were really surprised at how it turned out. As for utilities the only concession we have is electricity, we do not utilize running water or indoor plumbing. The majority of our furniture is moveable because we do like to redecorate and change things up from time to time. We have braved the hot and humid central Texas summer and so far have loved every minute of it, now that the weather is becoming cooler I can only imagine our love for tiny living will continue to grow.
Downsizing our clothing was an interesting task, I never realized how many items I never really wore. Our rule of thumb for clothing was if it has not been worn in 6 months it can probably be donated. As far as our running water and indoor plumbing “experiment” is going, we have an outhouse on the property with a plumbed toilet, and we shower at our city rec. center. A yearly membership at the center is actually cheaper than having a water bill and keeps us active.
Having to collect water for our bottles and canister is somewhat of a chore, but is still nowhere near what some people in the world have to go through to get water and we realize now how those luxuries can be over looked.
I hope you enjoy the pictures, because we sure do love our little home.
Less is more and alot better in some ways. One can sure get a lot of junk over the years.
Sweet! I applaud you experimenting with living without running water though that is not a challenge I’d want to experience myself. Where do you wash dishes, pots and pans? Nice job on a cute house! Best wishes!
The farm has a pad site for a tiny house that has been there for a while and I would also have a pad site if we had not wanted to be further in the trees making it hard and costly to plumb that far out so long story short we haul water from the other tiny house pad site which has an unused spigot.
Love to see a tiny house that looks lived in! Thanks for sharing your photos and your story.
Looks cool and if you already know it I am sorry but you could do a solar shower with camp shower curtain for those times you just want a shower there at home. Also put some rain barrels out and collect or just use to fill up so your not out of water for a long time. Just a thought to help. Nice set up!
Rain water collecting is a wise idea. The tough part about reliability of supply is the severe to extreme drought that central Texas has experienced the last few years. Of course, it’d be overflowing after recent heavy rains.
A steadier option would be a well, but of course that requires money to drill and land ownership.
Kudos on the beautiful interior and your creative solutions to meeting your needs!
Liz
Liz,
My family lives in Long Beach, Washington and our soil is mostly sand and is very wet. I say this to start because drilling your own well depends on the type of ground you have drill into. For me we drill the well by hand in less that two hours. This is not to say that your property will permit you to do the same think. You will need to work with neighbors and local government representatives to determine where to drill. The is a lot of good information on the net I recommend you start here: http://www.drillyourownwell.com/ the surf YouTube for other information.
Those are some good ideas thanks for them!
You have done a beautiful job with your home. It is very tasteful and looks to be very efficient. Love the weathered plywood in the kitchen – did you seal it with a varnish or something when you put it up?
Thanks a lot Linda I am glad you like it, and no I have been meaning to coat it with something but have not gotten around to it and it has not seemed to be a problem yet, it is on the “honey do” list.
Just great!! Thanks for sharing~
Looks comfortable! We have been in our 19 ft. camper for 5 months. Never imagined we would “camp” for so long!
Is it not crazy how after a few weeks it just feels “normal”
Home sweet home 🙂
Totally sweet space.. nicely done. What did you use for the roofing material..
Thanks Johanna, I had some extra sheet metal left over from the narrow sides which turned out to be almost enough for the roof but it is the same material as the sides.
wow may be the best use of 100 feet Ive seen. I couldnt live without a bathroom but if I had to it would be in your place. Nice job.
I love this. As for indoor hot water, I have two suggestions for those who want to try something like this. While in Alaska, I would fill and turn on low, a 55 cup coffee maker. When we got home, we would have dish and hand washing amenities.
You can also have interior hot water as I did in an espresso drive thru’. We had the water holding tank inside the supply closet, plumbed to a pump then a 5 gallon hot water heater then to the sink. It was mandatory or we would not have gotten a license. But, if I ever live again where there is electricity and a real sink/faucet like I had, I will set it up again.
You did a great job and you should enjoy your tiny home for years to come. Congrats
Flexible, personal, nice!
I love that you found ‘visual space’ with the acrylic chair! I have a couple of those in my studio apt. Also a glass table-top and glass-and-chrome book shelves.
I really enjoyed your post.
It is funny that you mention the glass shelving I was wanting to do something like that but had 2ft scraps from the loft boards that I ended up using for the desk, and 1ft scraps from the flooring boards that made up my book shelf but believe me if those scraps hadnt been the perfect dimensions I would have gone with more glass/acrylic
For some reason the pictures are not showing up in the article.
thanks
Love your home! Thanks for sharing the photos and it’s awesome that you were able to create such a great space from reclaimed materials. Enjoy.
Nice place. I live in Central Texas too.
I would love to visit a tiny home community. Do you live as a community or just separate everything?
What part of Central are you located?
I am building a slab foundation home of ~800 sq.ft. in between Flatonia and La Grange.