• jjzack
  August 28, 2023, 4:19 pm

  This is lovely! The craftsmanship is very nice! Love the clean lines and useful spaces. I also love the living room/area of this house. The window seat with storage under is fantastic! The couch and dinette is also fabulous. It appears the table is movable, maybe it even unfolds for seating more people? Even so, this is a very nice arrangement.

  I know that many people, who aspire to live in tiny spaces look at this newsletter and make notes about things they like or don’t like, things they may want to do in their own spaces, etc. However, as a designer, I see things in some of these tiny houses that might need to be avoided, or at least strongly considered prior to construction.

  This is the perfect example of a beautiful home, but might need to address just a few things.

  1). The sloped “unique” roof, is very attractive, however, the slant right at the front door means that when it rains, 100% of the rain hitting that part of the roof is directly on YOU as you enter the house. There isn’t an overhang (due to the width restrictions, so it couldn’t be avoided) so all of the water from the roof will simply fall and splash on the siding (and you) so that the exterior will need paint a lot more often than a standard house and there could be rot that starts to happen sooner than later because of this. To fix this? add a small overhang, or once you are parked add a gutter to divert the majority of water or tilt the wall/roof to the opposite side. The house won’t be as cute if you flip the roof, though.
  2). The bathroom vanity. It is super cute and the storage/medicine cabinet is 100% needed. I just want to bring your eye to the small gap between the vanity and the wall to the left of the sink. This is where a whole LOT of “ick” will gather. Bathrooms are notorious for gooey/hairy/icky stuff and this gap will allow all that stuff to build up. If you drop your tooth brush, just leave it! It will be really hard to clean that gap, so to extend the counter to the wall would help, to place a small vertical piece of wood, painted to match the cabinet to fill that gap would help. That area, however, will get nasty even if you try to keep it clean, it will be hard.
  3.) Shelving at the staircase. These are amazingly beautiful. So many people love shelves, openness is great when you want to find something, but when moving, not practical at all. As a person with ADHD, I need to be able to see my stuff so I highly recommend shelving when the house is not going to be moving. If you store all your belongings in bins to sit on these shelves, those bins could be moved to the floor for a move, but this could be avoided if there were simply doors. So, though I consider this look a huge WIN for the looks as it is beautiful, but not so practical in a moving house. If you don’t plan to move often, go for it. But packing will be required in order to move the house.
  4.) The distance from the top of the stairs to the bed. Though I aspire to live in a tiny house (I have an RV and that is about this same size), I don’t desire to crawl on my knees to get into bed, or to get out of bed to go to the bathroom at night. I know this is a TON of space, so there is that, amazing space to keep some of your stuff. I think I might put the bed very close to the stairs (maybe the pillows up against the very end of the loft overlooking the lower floor so that I can easily get off the bed and onto the stairs, then my storage items/shelves can be toward the end of the trailer (where the bed is in the photos). I know from a “view” perspective, someone would probably see all my junk, so photographically, this is an amazing view of the bed. I suppose you could have some sort of knee pad/pillow things at the top of the stairs to use to scoot all around the loft so your knees wouldn’t hurt and they could pick up the dust, so win-win. I don’t really see this as a flaw, but just to point out the length of the space, (again which is bonus area, so a good thing to have).
  5). I don’t see a closet (may not be included in any of the photos unless that space beside the shower is a closet with linen storage all in one). That is great (I would prefer my clothes to be closer to the bathroom than up in the loft any day!). I’ve discovered that I don’t really need a huge closet, about 24″ of hanging rod and 18″ wide shelves is sufficient. So I hope this is a closet. MANY tiny houses don’t have enough hanging space and things like coats/jackets take up a bunch of room. Having the apartment size washer/dryer is amazing. Having it in the bathroom even better! Take off the dirties, throw them in the washer, put on the cleans hanging right beside the shower, again another win!

  So, I don’t mean to be negative, I really love this house, I just want unknowing people to consider some of these things as they consider moving into a tiny house (on wheels or foundation). I see, especially this vanity situation, ALL THE TIME in normal houses, houses that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars! An old vanity is removed and replaced by one that they set under the light/mirror, but which leaves a 2″ – 3″ gap between the vanity and the wall. It also appears that the toilet is not really centered under the window, and this may have been done to allow for the “prime pooping position”. If not, the toilet could have been centered with the window, the vanity moved over another 4″ or so, and some shelving could have been added beside the vanity, even though it may only be about 6″ wide, rolled towels may fit there and avoid the collection of guck to the left of the vanity perhaps. Just a thought.

  I still give this build a overwhelming fabulous review/love it, it is gorgeous!

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• Kate
  August 28, 2023, 8:15 pm

  I have more of a question… Is there a set distance the stairs going up to a loft have to be? For me, if I have a loft, I want to be able to stand up and have head room, don’t want to be crawling around when I’m already over 50.

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  • James D.
    August 30, 2023, 6:47 pm

    Loft height depends on what you have below it… If it’s a standing height space then it usually has to be about 7 feet headroom below the loft. Might get away with 6′ 8″ but that’s usually the guideline, which leaves what remains of interior height to be given to the loft.

    Since, the max interior height is usually no more than around 11 feet, and accounting for the thickness of the loft floor itself, then that usually leaves less than 4 feet for the loft.

    To get around this, typically, non-standing height space can be strategically placed below the loft to allow for the loft to be either placed lower or part of it lowered to provide a standing platform, which typically limits the loft to the bed.

    Often this is done by placing storage space below the loft and working any remaining standing space around the storage space(s).

    Though, this is mainly to conform with established standards and building code guidelines but designs aren’t limited to this if factors like resale value are not an issue. Like, if you’re shorter than average height, then you can adjust that standing height to fit and just not be concerned about anyone else using the space.

    There are also other work around solutions. Like seating spaces don’t necessarily need standing height to access them or the arrangement can be flipped and the loft is below and the standing height is above or there is nothing to share that space and it can be just a bedroom then or like a 5th wheel gooseneck, basically a lofted bedroom or other use space with standing height… Though, gooseneck’s are usually limited to about 6′ headroom or less but most people can stand with that amount of headroom.

    There’s also designs that just skid the issue, like a 2 story tiny house. One on a foundation or one designed to expand to 2 stories when set up could accomplish that but all designs have trade offs and cost considerations…

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