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12-year-old to Build her own Mortgage-free Tiny House


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If you thought that a 15-year-old building a mortgage-free tiny house was amazing, now there’s a 12-year-old with her sights set on her very own mortgage-free humble home.

Austin Hay is the young man behind Mini House Builder. Today he’s 17-years-old in his senior year of high school is has just about finished his little home.

Now on the horizon is a 12-year-old who goes by the name of La Petite online. In her blog, Tiny Maison, she’s already begun to share her knowledge and passion for building.

In one of her recent YouTube videos, which you can watch below, she’s laid out the possible floor plan for her house inside her living room using tape. By the way, this is a great way to tour get a feel for a tiny house without having to travel very far.

Right now La Petite is in the process of creating blueprints and ideas for her house and by March of 2013 she plans on having acquired her materials and having started the construction process.

So far she’s already acquired some reclaimed building materials like her bathroom door, front door, and some windows. And she’s sketched out some of her design ideas which I’ll share with you in this post.

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12 Year Old Building Mortgage-free Tiny House

Here’s something La Petite wrote on why she wants to build a little home on one of her blog posts that I really enjoyed.

“Tiny houses, in my opinion, symbolize freedom and independence; you peel away all of the accumulated stuff (blog on stuff to come soon, you might want to set aside some time for that. I’ve got a lot to say.) and then there you are…the real you.”

She also drew up some bubble plans which is such a simple way to gather design and usage ideas for your future tiny house.

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To learn how to build your own mortgage-free little house on a trailer, download this construction guide by Dan Louche.

For more updates on La Petite, click here to visit and subscribe to her blog Tiny Maison.

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More Like This: Tiny Houses | Meet this Couple Living in a 204 Square Foot Tiny House | THOW

Sources:

  1. http://www.minihousebuilder.com

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Alex

Alex is a contributor and editor for TinyHouseTalk.com and the always free Tiny House Newsletter. He has a passion for exploring and sharing tiny homes (from yurts and RVs to tiny cabins and cottages) and inspiring simple living stories. We invite you to send in your story and tiny home photos too so we can re-share and inspire others towards a simple life too. Thank you!
{ 19 comments… add one }
  • October 24, 2012, 10:02 am

    LOVE that young people are into this. I built my first “non-fort” real cabin at age ten into eleven- heat, electricity, insulated, a bunk bed, one door, one window (all I could afford while mowing lawns), and it was a GREAT experience! I’m very glad to see more and more people opening up to this at such a young age!
    -Deek

    • October 24, 2012, 2:10 pm

      I remember building a fort out of wood when I was super young.. Like 5 or 6 with a couple of my cousins. It was just a shack for us to play in. We used wood fencing to build it after hurricane Andrew came through. It had to be destroyed shortly after we built it though because we literally built it right at the end of the road on grandma’s street. It was so cool. But yeah all it had was walls and a door. I had potential though! Haha.

  • Freddie
    October 24, 2012, 1:56 pm

    Great work so far La Petite; I’m looking forward to following your progress. You are sure to be an inspiration to a lot of people who would love to start a tiny house project, but may have thought it was beyond their abilities.

  • Patsy
    October 24, 2012, 2:49 pm

    I am so inspired by them!

  • Cal 20 Sailor
    October 24, 2012, 4:25 pm

    What’s this??? A 12 year old girl who writes a blog, makes herself a cup o’ coffee first thing in the morning, has tea at lunch, does bubble charts to plan floor layouts, schedules construction months in advance…??? Next thing she’ll be running for political office…not such a bad thing, come to think of it!

  • Cal 20 Sailor
    October 24, 2012, 4:29 pm

    And she’s bilingual, too? What a prodigy!

  • Dawn
    October 24, 2012, 4:40 pm

    This is the most ingenious thing ever!!! I love that she has planned it out on the floor with tape. This way she has a better idea of how much space she will actually have. How smart is that for a twelve year old?! Bravo!! Wonderful that younger ones are getting in on the movement! I love it!!! Can’t wait to see more as she progresses.

    • Liz
      October 28, 2012, 8:55 pm

      lines marked out on a floor does not indicate the walls all the way up over your head. lines and thin air can be stepped over and moved into, walls cannot!

      • Dawn
        October 29, 2012, 8:53 am

        Try not to think too hard on this one. It’s difficult to envision on a small peice of paper what a space is going to look like. However, laying it out with tape, closer to the actual dimentions is quite a bit more of an idea. Of course! You have to remember the walls go above your head and you can’t step over them! You’ve missed the whole point.

  • October 24, 2012, 5:43 pm

    This truly inspired me! Way to go La Petite!

  • TomLeeM
    October 24, 2012, 8:05 pm

    I think it is so cool that some one so young would build a tiny house.

    I like the idea of using tape to lay out the floor plan.

    • October 27, 2012, 8:37 am

      I agree! Laying out the floor plan with tape is a great way to get a feel for the space.

  • alice h
    October 24, 2012, 9:04 pm

    Oh boy, now my 8 year old granddaughter is going to be unstoppable with this kind of inspiration. She says she doesn’t want to be a princess waiting for a prince, she wants to build her own castle. Or tiny house. She’s got her own tools and helps her dad with working on his tiny shack in the woods. A good way to lay out your floor plans and wall elevations with tape is to do it on a sheet of poly so you can roll it up out of the way when not needed, or take it to your friend’s house or whatever.

  • Lisa
    October 25, 2012, 2:13 pm

    Amazing! Bravo! (And I really like the cat carrier pictured. Is that one of your creations too?)

  • Eric
    October 27, 2012, 2:54 am

    Although Austin Hay is mentioned in this post, don’t forget 16 year old Celina Pickle who is building her ‘Tiny Abode.’ Her story is amazing as well.

    http://mytinyabode.blogspot.com/

    • October 27, 2012, 8:33 am

      Thanks Eric I didn’t know about Celina yet! Awesome!

  • October 27, 2012, 11:54 am

    This young ladies got it on the ball land I will be watching closely as she see’s this dream come true.

    As long as she stays motivated, which should be no problem with sites such as this.

    Too bad all kids were not so motivated in their lives. 🙁

  • Lil
    October 28, 2012, 3:41 pm

    What amazingkids you have over there. Think this one needs to be forwarded to my daughter.
    Thanks yet again for sharing such inspirational stories.

  • leeney
    October 28, 2012, 4:50 pm

    some one should help her get on gofundme.com. perfect for her….love this

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