If you’d like to design and/or build your own low cost tiny house, visit:
Tiny House Design Build Video Workshop
Other tiny house essentials (also listed in resources section of the manual):
- The Small House Book by Jay Shafer
- Compact Appliances (perfect for tiny houses)
- Portable Hot Water Heater (an easy tiny house shower)
- Big Tex Trailers (to find a dealer or compare specs)
Other recommended reading:
- Working Alone (good tips even if you’re not working alone)
- Think Like an Architect
- Building an Affordable House
- What Your Contractor Can’t Tell You
Other websites to get tiny house design ideas:
- Tumbleweed Tiny House Company
- Tiny House Design
- Tiny House Blog
- The Tiny Life
- Tiny House Living
- Jetson Green
The tiny house you see on this site was built to the following specs.
It has:
- 80 sq ft plus loft that could fit a king sized bed
- 6 energy efficient windows
- low voltage LED lights
- ample plugs (receptacles) and switches to manage your power usage
- separate 15A breaker and GFCI circuit (just plug the included extension cord in somewhere)
- swinging glass shower door and venting bath fan with light
- low maintenance, eco-friendly composting toilet (with hideaway shelf for showering)
- hot shower from a propane powered portable hot water heater (tank stored outside)
- full sized front door with screen
- average hall-closet sized closet
- modular kitchen – easily movable sink with fold away counter tops
- decent sized pantry
- capacity for conveniences such as window AC unit, dorm fridge, counter top stove, etc.
- enough porch for a couple of people to sit comfortably
- vinyl siding and flooring
- mold resistant drywall and paneled ceiling
- fully insulated walls, floors and ceiling – roofing felt wrapped instead of Tyvek to avoid condensation buildup
- running water from a garden hose hookup with grey water recycling capabilities
- all on a 16 ft double axle flatbed trailer (capacity 7000 lbs)
- includes 4 jack stands and cement blocks to give it a solid foundation when parked
- walls painted white ready for your favorite color – or okay as is
- extra uninstalled closet shelf and bamboo blinds to customize to your tastes
I’m interested in buying land and creating a tiny house village around the outskirts of Austin. If anyone has anything to contribute, please let me know! My idea would include
Hookups
Carpool Van to Central Austin each workday morning
Cheap rent
Community Center (for crafts, Movie Night, larger kitchen+deep freezer)
Storage Center
Pool + Rec courts (basketball, baseball field)
Community Garden
I’d like to know if there are any investors out there interested in the same idea, as well as those folks interested in pulling their tiny houses to the area and setting up.
Cara, it seems like there’s growing interest in this. The author of Tiny House Blog suggested organizing local meetups to network people together. I commented that I was willing to host one until I finish and sell the tiny house. His post is here: http://tinyhouseblog.com/announcement/tiny-house-meets/.
Alternately, look up Seattle cottages. They have a pretty interesting set up with tiny house villages though we’d probably want units costing less than half a million to start. Here’s one company that does it: http://www.cottagecompany.com/default.aspx
If nothing else, I’ll host an open house once I finish the tiny house. I was thinking at looking through the meetup groups to see which ones might be appropriate to invite.
Hey! I am TOTALLY interested in being part of a community of tiny houses. If this develops and we can bring it into fruition, I’m down!
Cara – My company has 10 to 60 acre tracts available near Austin if you’re interested in finding land. We own tracts in Manor, Elgin, Lexington, Giddings, and Bastrop. My number is 512-656-8870 if you’d like more information on those. We’ve been looking in to / encouraging this form of construction on our properties.
I often wonder if converting a mobile home park could work. Less zoning problems, potentially.
http://www.mobilehomeparkstore.com/texas-mobile-home-parks-for-sale/austin
That link is for three parks for sale near Austin, but there are others around the country.
I am totally interested in the village. I am moving to Austin in mid-July so I would love to hear from you all about this. I am looking to build a container house along the lines of a future shack though. Not necessarily a tiny house, the outside dimensions would be 40 long by 8 wide. Small enough though.
Joseph
Being a senior citizen, I would be interested in buying a tiny home with a small lot. I would like to see a tiny home senior community which would be a great service to the senior community. Currently I live in a senior apt. community and I love the quiet and my apt. but…the rent keeps going up and up in spite of the fact most seniors live on a fixed income. owning a small place where the payments stay the same would be a plus for seniors like me. It is impossible to find a small house anymore…like one or two bedroom and mobile homes are the pits plus the high cost of renting a lot to put it on. I would like to see a tiny home village happen…in the near future.
Louis,
I bought your complete course and I was amazed at how thorough it was. Can’t imagine anyone not wanting to buy a copy! Few questions though: Instead of using OSB and attaching tarpaper then siding to the outside, couldn’t I just use the black board you find in rigid 4×8 sheets and attach these to the studs and then attach 4×8 sheets of wood siding to the outside? Also wondering how you came up with the subfloor layout? It is like a shallow box frame but I don’t know why you chose that configuration? Is there a reason why it has to be boxed a certain way? Finally, if I could make one recommendation: you can buy 4×8 sheets of foam board that is blue. This insulation was first used in the making of caskets because the blue board insulates but does not retain moisture. I ran a company that made spas and we used it in many applications. This would likely be better than the insulation you chose. Can you tell me the city you live in, as I am in Dallas and made more than one trip to the trailer mfg. you bought yours from! Thanks again for a great course!
Thanks, John.
I’m not familiar with the black board you referred to. But yes, I would imagine you could use a number of different things for sheathing. The intent is to give lateral support to the framing and give a backing for the next layer to be attached. Of course you’d want to think about your vapor barrier too depending on your local climate.
I did the subfloor layout to try and minimize the number of sheets used as well as maximize the stability. The first layer wasn’t sturdy enough so I added a second. If I would have used 3/4″ the first time that probably would have been enough. Obviously there are better ways to do it. I think you just want the length to run across as many joists as possible just like vertical sheathing or roofing.
I saw the blue foam. It was something like R-2 which is really low. But it would definitely be better for thickness considerations.
I built the house in Austin. I’m currently living in Arlington but we plan to move to Richardson in the next few months.