Article by Laura LaVoie
What is it about the “Do It Yourself” and the independent nature of tiny house builders that make us a little lenient about safety? Recently, Macy Miller of MiniMotives made waves across Facebook because she fell off the roof of her tiny house and landed in the hospital.
Because of Macy’s misfortune, I thought this was a good time to talk to the tiny house community about safety. Many of us, myself certainly included, are not professional builders and a tiny house is our first project. Matt and I did much of our building together, but occasionally he worked on his own and he is a bit more of a risk taker than I am. He would climb up on the top of the walls or the rafters on a regular basis. Neither of us ever sustained more than minor injuries like small cuts and bruises. I once had a drill dropped on me from the loft, but that was more startling than damaging. But us tiny house builders do sometimes put safety on the back burner.
I reached out to Macy to find out more about what happened. It all started because she found herself away from her house for a while. She over committed, thinking she would be further along with the project by now. When she got back to work on the house it was a little overwhelming and she felt the need to rush. Since she had been away from building for a while there was some cleaning that needed to be done before she could begin the work she had planned. “It was all going well with a washrag and a bucket of water but I continually had to go up and down the ladder to get new water every 2-3 feet or so,” she said. It was taking a lot of time so she had a seemingly inspired idea; “I brought the hose up on the roof with me, I stood-slash-sat up-slope from the water and cleaned the seams a thousand times faster. It totally worked! I got the seams cleaned in a fraction of the time.” That was when the trouble started. She told me she was being “Super careful and super aware,” but that isn’t always good enough when it comes to construction safety.
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This tiny house is not so tiny so I also threw it into our small house category.. Even though it’s really small.
It’s up for sale right now and they’re asking $85,000 for it (Update: sold). The property is in Maine.
Apparently it’s 186-square-feet but I don’t think that figure takes into account the loft space.
Inside there’s enough room for full sized couches and you’ll find a relatively normal sized kitchen.
The great part is that the sleeping loft has plenty of headroom. Enough for most of us to stand up in.
Another great feature of this small house is the generous front porch to hang out in which helps extend the space to the outdoors.
© Peggy Crockett
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Article by Laura LaVoie
Henry David Thoreau is often held up as the first tiny house adventurer; the Granddaddy of our movement, as it were. His history is complicated and interesting and to truly understand his place in the American narrative one must pour through Walden and Civil Disobedience. His philosophies are almost always shoehorned into those of his intellectual counterparts in the transcendental movement but he never quite fits there. If you’re willing to take some time to read his writing you can find plenty of inspiration for tiny house living.
Thoreau is often considered an important figure in modern environmentalism – he was an environmental scientist after all. When we put it into perspective we understand that he studied the environment in a time before cars, holes in the ozone, and the other crises we face today. Environmentalism was important to him and he not only studied it as a scientist but he revered it as a religion and a way of life. However, the motivation for building a tiny house on a friend’s land was about more than treading lightly on nature. In my estimation, his real impetus was to live deliberately.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
Living Deliberately is what I think the Tiny House Movement is all about. The common denominators for all of the people I’ve met and spoken to who have built a small house chose this experience because they want to live deliberately. We want to separate ourselves from our complicated lives. We tend to be very purposeful in every decision we make along the way. I think this is what Thoreau taught us with his experiment at Walden.
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Tiny Cabin on the River © Travis
“Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.”
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There are so many ways to live a simple lifestyle, especially when you decide to go off-grid.
When you’re in rural land, you’re often allowed to build a variety of structures. And many times- as little as you like!
So how about this tiny geodesic dome home on stilts with a view? It was recently up for sale with the land in Alaska but it’s no longer available.
Either way I wanted to showcase it here on Tiny House Talk and add it to the dome homes category because I thought you’d enjoy it.
Take a look and then share what you liked best about it in the comments at the bottom of this post. You’ll get a peek inside, too.
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Over at Hemmings Daily, you can see how to create your own free heat using custom made soda can solar panels.
That’s right- recycled solar panels- using almost completely free materials.
Thank you so much, Vanessa, for sending this article over to me.
With some 2x4s and plywood you create a simple box to house the cans.
The box was then sealed using caulk. Holes then have to be drilled strategically on the cans.
Then you stack the cans appropriately so that the holes all line up and you do this with caulk.
Once that dries up, it’s time to paint the cans black so that they can absorb as much heat as possible.
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Imagine your next stay in California in this beautiful treehouse.
Located just above San Fransisco it can be the perfect little getaway and a fantastic addition to our treehouse section.
Surrounded by Redwoods, Fir, Oak, and Birch trees. Location is about a 20-minute drive to San Fransisco. Perfect for a romantic getaway or a very unique stay in a micro home. I love it because it’s the perfect blend of a tiny house and a treehouse. Plus- you can book a stay in it anytime- through Airbnb.com but unfortunately, it’s no longer available.
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Tiny Treehouse Cabin Surrounded by Redwoods, Fir, Oak, and Birch Trees
Photo Credits Airbnb.com
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Say hello to this modern, Japanese-inspired tiny cube house. You should check out this other cube house too.
Created by Horden Cherry Lee Architects and was made available through Micro Compact Home. Just large enough for one or two people, but they can be stacked or arranged to create larger communities. It’s approximately 8.73′ by 8.73′ by 8.73′. So that’s about 75-square-feet. Pretty tiny, right? Much like all of the structures that we feature, it can be used as a guest house, a place to work in, student housing, or even a vacation cabin.
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Photos Credits Micro Compact Home
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Can you imagine living in an earthy tiny dome home in the woods like this one?
If you ever dream of living so simply- or at least having a little getaway like this for the weekends- then you’ll probably love this post.
Whether you wish for a tiny house on wheels, a little cabin in nature, or a backyard shed to work in.. This structure is sure to inspire you.
Meet Jeffrey the Natural Builder. After being inspired by Lloyd Kahn’s Domebook and getting to live in a 30′ dome for a little while he decided he would design and build his own.
The structure took the form of a geodesic dome, a structural form I had long been a fan of. My interest was first peaked by chancing on a copy of “LLoyd Kahn’s – Domebook” at a WWOOF farm I stayed at. I was then lucky enough to live in a beautiful 30ft dome that was hand crafted without power-tools in Dunster, BC. I loved the feeling of living inside a bubble, like something from the future, only crafted from beautiful wood over 40 years ago.
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The design is very small with just enough room for a desk, bed, wood stove, and a little bit of storage.
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Dan Louche has just released the first set of videos on how to build your own tiny house on a trailer step by step.
If you’ve been wanting to start your own project these videos along with his step by step construction guide and professional plans will help you complete your first tiny house.
I was fortunate enough to have a peek at the videos and I can proudly say they are outstanding. Very great quality all around along with focused information on every major step of the construction process.
There’s a lot to learn from these videos. This has to be the next best thing- if not even better than- attending a classroom workshop since you can watch and re-watch the videos as you actually go through the building process yourself.
Here’s a sneak peek into one of the many videos that are available for instant viewing right now over at Tiny Home Builders website if you decide to pay for access to the video library collection that’s constantly being added onto.
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Watch the sneak peek then learn how to gain instant access to the video library now below: [continue reading…]
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