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Custom Tiny House on a Foundation Built by Nanostead


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This is another custom tiny house on a foundation built by Nanostead.

How would you like to live in a cabin like this? If you could choose between a tiny home on wheels or one on a foundation, which would you prefer?

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Custom Nanostead Tiny Home on a Foundation

© Nanostead

This tiny house has a spiral staircase to the loft right by the dining nook.

There’s even space for a separate workstation.

The living room features a closet.

How would you reimagine this space?

Going into the next room…

Under the sleeping loft…

Hobby room?

The closet can be hidden with a curtain.

Deck-built into the cabin outside.

A full-size cabin…

What do you like most about it?

So nice to have outdoor space like this…

© Nanostead

Tiny on Wheels or on a Foundation? Which do you prefer?

So what type of tiny house do you prefer? One built on wheels or on a foundation? Let me know in the comments!

Learn more at Nanostead.

Enjoy these other Nanostead cabins…

Our big thanks to Jeramy Stauffer of Nanostead for sharing!🙏

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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!
{ 22 comments… add one }
  • Emily
    October 2, 2017, 4:34 pm

    This house looks like a Park model style. I like this style house. For me, since I am planning on down sizing but not planning on traveling with my home, I would prefer a small foundation home. You have to pay more in property taxes, but you get to have a flushing toilet. You also don’t have the Height and width restrictions. I have bad knees and can’t see myself crawling along the loft area of a house on wheels.

    • James D.
      October 2, 2017, 9:17 pm

      A THOW can still have a flushing toilet… The utilities and sewer lines will just be optional and not permanently affixed.

      While there are different foundation options, not all require the house be embedded into the ground… But you can also have a house that’s basically a foundation house but still has wheels so it technically can qualify as a mobile house even if it will never be on the roads, a THOW doesn’t really have to be road legal unless you actually need to be able to move it and thus you can still have one that’s two stories tall, 14 feet by 60 feet, etc… So just depends on how you want to work the zoning to your advantage and what’s actually allowed in your area…

      There’s also builders working on ways around the normal restrictions to make houses that can be both road legal but still offer a lot of space when parked…

      It’s mainly if you want to have a basement that then it has to be a foundation house… Just about everything else can be done with either option if you’re creative enough and have the budget for it…

  • Tom Osterdock
    October 2, 2017, 4:53 pm

    Nice but I would like it on wheels much more as long as it does not need to have permission to move on the freeways.

  • Nysha
    October 2, 2017, 10:03 pm

    If I ever go tiny, it will be with a foundation house. I want a house to retire to with a main-floor bedroom and the ability to make it wheelchair accessible if necessary.

  • Susanne
    October 2, 2017, 11:38 pm

    I really like the outside of this house. Wonderful

  • Diana
    October 3, 2017, 6:44 am

    I would prefer a foundation tiny home.

  • Johnny W.
    October 3, 2017, 9:24 am

    Personally, I prefer the foundation built homes. That said the THOW built have a lot of design ideas that I like as well. So it would be nice to have the best of both on a foundation.

  • jakespeed
    October 3, 2017, 10:41 am

    Thank you for showing more “foundation models,” bungalows and cabins. We currently live relatively small in a >1200 sq. ft. House. With retirement approaching, the idea of downsizing is an alternative that we are willing to look into. While there are many custom built (THOWs) mobile homes that have a design that we like, we wouldn’t considering traveling with a tiny house or the added cost of being mobile (a $60K Dually Pickup Truck) would add to the equation.

    • Alex
      October 3, 2017, 10:58 am

      You’re welcome! If you already haven’t, you should try our new Small House Newsletter where we focus on ‘foundation’ small and tiny homes: http://smallhousenewsletter.com

    • James D.
      October 3, 2017, 6:24 pm

      Tiny Houses on wheels aren’t always intended to be moved… Sometimes it’s just to get around the local zoning rules that may otherwise prevent people from living in a tiny foundation house. So they use wheels as a loophole…

      While others may consider it insurance, in case they ever do need to move but otherwise don’t plan on moving…

      There are people who travel everywhere in their Tiny House, but most usually stick to one location for at least a few years, if not longer…

      There’s also options that can allow tiny houses to be placed places you may not otherwise find either a THOW or a foundation house…

      Like Tiny Houses can be placed on floating platforms to turn them into house boats… They can be placed on pillar foundation so they can be placed on uneven terrain or even on the side of a mountain… They can be placed in trees and serve as a tree house home… They can be placed on top of another building… They can be placed on skids instead of wheels to still be transportable but not towable…

      So you can be nearly as creative on what you put the house on as how you design the house itself and the reasons for doing so can be quite diverse as well…

  • Juanita Joy
    October 3, 2017, 11:15 am

    I always appreciate knowing the square footage of any tiny house. My city limits a “shed” to max of 200 sf. I want for studio/ s-he shed / guest house, eventually to downsize into with family in ‘big house’.
    I too want to know if there is a ground / main level bedroom. Any loft, for me, is for storage and extra guests. Thank you for the great info and ideas.

  • Jo Ann McCracken
    October 4, 2017, 4:13 pm

    Personally I prefer the foundation. If I want to travel, I want to travel lighter than a THOW. I’M in My sixties, and definitely want to downsize but not to a bed in a loft. I don’t want a full kitchen, just storage, lighting, great ventilation.

  • Jacqui Sollenskog
    October 4, 2017, 9:45 pm

    I would choose one on a foundation, because I really love the concept but fearful of the idea of having to move it!

  • Sanjay Pitale
    October 4, 2017, 11:16 pm

    I like the inside & outside of this house. it is Wonderful.

  • Cynthia Hill Durham
    October 4, 2017, 11:37 pm

    Being older than the hills, I can remember when 16 ft wide mobile homes first came out, and in fact have owned two 12 ft. wide mobile homes. A 14 ft. wide by 60 feet long tiny house is a perfectly adequate place to live. You really don’t need a lot of stuff, and what you might wish to store extra can be done in a cheap outdoor shed. Just be sure to package everything in waterproof containers and up off the ground to prohibit water damage.

  • d vandame
    October 6, 2017, 11:40 pm

    A tiny house on wheels is just a camper. A foundation means real estate emphasis on real. It is not subject someone one crashing into it on the road and high upkeep.

    Both are subject to wind but the real estate would generally less susceptible to damage.

    Personally I have owned a house in Ypsilanti that was 625 sf, two bedroom. I currently own a mobile home with 700 sf. on an acre, but I live in 3900 sf home. The trailer (THOW) is a nice place to hangout but if it didn’t have a 24 by 32 garage it would be a tough place to live full time unless I couldn’t afford to live elsewhere. BTW I am 68 and I like my electronics, my machine shop, my movies, my extensive library, my harleys, my tools; these are what give my life meaning. If I were so inclined to give up my toys I would probably rent/buy a small place in Costa rica and keep the trailer (in central Indiana) as a vacation place which is about what it is good for.

  • DVanDame
    October 7, 2017, 3:29 pm

    I am sorry my comments weren’t Tiny house appropriate but I am pragmatic and call it as I see it. And when I look at these houses I am intrigued but what I see is a place to eat, sleep, and survive. When one is blessed with a expansive, curious mind what should they do? BTW thanks for the censorship; it’s obvious you only want happy thing. Alex, this won’t see the light of day either.

  • lauraine foshee
    October 26, 2017, 1:18 pm

    i would prefer a solid foundation..

  • Amy
    May 28, 2018, 6:39 pm

    I would prefer a foundation, but also would like to have something for traveling. So, guess I want both. lol Perhaps a converted van or bus for traveling

  • Cheryl Smith-Bell
    May 28, 2018, 9:27 pm

    I’m curios why more people don’t buy/acquire a trashed out mobile home, for nothing, but getting it gone, and use it for the base for a smaller house. There are lots of these old trailers around, many have been abandoned. If you took them down to the frame and set your pluming up, then rebuilt, what ever size you liked it would be mobile if you needed it to be, with permit, but think about the space, and if you didn’t want it all in living area you could use the extra as your deck, covered or not. Most are 14×70. you could easily have a 2/2 and still have lots of room, and a deck. The frames are very sturdy, under these, built to support lots of weight, and to haul down the road to a parking spot. If I didn’t have a home on a foundation I would seriously think about one of these.

  • Karen Blackburn
    May 29, 2018, 3:48 am

    We live in a mobile home that is 12’x40′, and has 1-1/2 bedrooms, the half originally being a child’s room. It may technically be mobile but it has been on this site for 20 years (originally for a widowed mum with baby on parents property). After the original owner inherited and moved into her parents house she kindly allowed us to move in. My daughter and son-in-law have the master bedroom and my husband manages to fit in the half bedroom while I have a bed in the living room screened by lge plastic storage boxes. We have been living in the mobile home now for 5 years and share with a house cat and house rabbit. Storage for 4 adults can be a problem but we rent a container for our furniture and seasonal things while lge plastic storage boxes are a great solution. We are hoping to move to 2 separate mobile homes but like anywhere it is finding the land and getting permission. You don’t need to be living in a large house, that just means lots of housework and unnecessary belongings and for 1 or 2 people our size mobile is ideal, the extra bedroom would ideally be used as an office. Even better would be ones even smaller and I could easily live in one 12’x24′, and that would include being able to work from home as a bonus.

  • Lynita
    October 11, 2018, 1:18 am

    I prefer foundation

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