≡ Menu

Modern, Space-saving 20-ft. Tiny House


This post contains affiliate links.

Meet the Extea Cabera, built for Basque couple as their full-time residence! Modern Tiny Living customized their “Point” model which is a 20-foot loft-based layout.

This model has a smaller version of the signature MTL Social Area, which also becomes a bed and has oodles of storage underneath. If you look closely, I’m pretty sure that’s a 3-in-1 dishwasher sink to make cleaning dishes so much easier! What do you think of the home?

Don’t miss other awesome tiny homes like this, join our Free Tiny House Newsletter for more! 

Bold Blue Interior Built for Full-Time Living

The new owners chose this bold blue as an accent color

Front door with a nice large window for more light.

Floating shelves over the cabinet/eating space.

Sliding barn to the bathroom.

Here’s the nifty sink!

Space for the washer/dryer combo.

Lots of open storage under the stairs.

Incinerating toilet in the bathroom.

Cool blue pebble tile in the shower

Space for a king-sized bed in the loft.

I like the use of a bookshelf as a barrier.

View from the loft.

Social area turning into a bed.

Storage underneath each seat.

Mini-split for heating and cooling.

And some outdoor storage as well!

VIDEO: EXTEA CABERA: MTL’s Newest 20 Ft. Luxury THOW

Highlights:

  • Customization of the “Point” Model
  • Extea Cabera (meaning: House Cabera)
  • Named by the owners for their Basque heritage
  • Built for full-time living
  • Electric cooktop
  • Full-sized refrigerator/freezer combo unit
  • Custom tiled shower
  • Incinolet incinerating toilet.
  • Smaller version of our Modern Tiny Living social area
  • King-sized bed in loft

Learn more

Related Stories

If you enjoyed this you’ll LOVE our Free Daily Tiny House Newsletter with even more!

You can also join our Small House Newsletter!

Also, try our Tiny Houses For Sale Newsletter! Thank you!

More Like This: Tiny Houses | THOWs | Tiny House Builders

See The Latest: Go Back Home to See Our Latest Tiny Houses

This post contains affiliate links.

The following two tabs change content below.

Natalie C. McKee

Natalie C. McKee is a contributor for Tiny House Talk and the Tiny House Newsletter. She's a wife, and mama of three little kids. She and her family are homesteaders with sheep, goats, chickens, ducks and quail on their happy little acre.

Latest posts by Natalie C. McKee (see all)

{ 8 comments… add one }
  • JanneZack
    March 17, 2022, 12:38 pm

    I love this layout, space well appointed. If it were mine (and I’m OLD, so those stair rises would kill my knees), I would add a 1/2 step on the right side of each step to break it up and add some small cubbies to store a few things inside. BUT if you have knees, that wouldn’t be needed. I absolutely love the blue and white. Great contrast. You’ve definitely got a lot of storage, plenty for clothing and books, food and dishes.
    My only thought about the open shelving in units like this, tiny houses on wheels were dreamed up to be moved. By not providing closed cabinets or at least a good lip on the edge of shelves, you have to pack up everything before you move the THOW. Maybe you don’t plan to move often, but even if it were just every 6 months or once a year, I’d hate having to pack everything up.

    Really this wasn’t a criticism, just my personal thoughts about how I would be using the house. It is really adorable and I’m sure this is what the client wanted, which is why it is as it is. LOVE having a full size fridge and washing machine.

    ENJOY!

    • James D.
      March 17, 2022, 1:13 pm

      Well, for most, the wheels are more for getting around restrictions and they otherwise will rarely be moved. It was more about being able to have a home than to have it simply movable…

      However, cabinets don’t automatically mean you don’t have to pack as everything can still move around inside of a cabinet and doors can swing open and spew everything out if there isn’t a secure locking method in place. While you have to be careful when you get to a destination, when you open the cabinets as everything can spew out then. Along with anything fragile can still break inside the cabinets if they get banged around during the move.

      While open shelving can always have rope, elastic bands, and other methods to secure items that doesn’t require everything be packed up.

      Another consideration is residential appliances weren’t made to be put in moveable structures. So you may have to do things for the appliances as well to make sure they aren’t damaged by a move. This is why sometimes when a new build is shown before it is delivered to the customer that not all the appliances have been installed yet as it’s safer to install them after the home is delivered to where it will remain…

      Some homes are better designed for moving than others but generally, they’re not intended to be moved all the time like RV’s…

      • Eric
        March 17, 2022, 7:36 pm

        Interesting Comment: We had a situation last year, possibly year before, where someone was prosecuted for having a tiny(ish) home on some land. Council said it either had to go, or they were going to have to pay rates (property taxes). He dug his heels in and refused. So they took him to court and their case was it was a house so rates were payable. He protested that it wasn’t and refused. His argument was if it was a house it couldn’t be moved (well not easily) and his “house” had tandem wheels, plus it was registered as a trailer or caravan. It had number plates. It had a warrant of fitness sticker. But still council argued that it couldn’t be easily moved. So the judge said lets go have a look at in the real life. When they got there judge says “how do you move it?” He showed them, in under 10 minutes he installed tow bar, lifted them off blocks and drove it off site and back on. Judge said it’s a vehicle so council has no right to levy rates. That showed them uppity council. Oh, and it was in lil ‘ol New Zealand

        • James D.
          March 17, 2022, 10:30 pm

          Interesting but that’s basically convoluting a couple of separate issues…

          Legal recognition and whether it’s more important than avoiding costs and the normal issues of owning real estate property is one issue where some may prefer to not have their home legally recognized as a home, but when that can mean you can’t live in it, or have to be nomadic to do so, then there’s those who would prefer it be legally recognized as a home and why there’s a push to change the laws to recognize tiny houses as homes.

          This is further along in the states than in NZ, as there was a lot of restrictions and that has generally led to doing things like adding tiny houses to the building codes with the 2018 IRC update that added Appendix Q, along with various other changes to the laws and local requirements. Such as in California and Washington State that allow even a THOW to be recognized as an ADU but specifically won’t do that for an RV/Caravan.

          While, how it’s built and how it’s optimized is another issue as there’s trade offs between building something like a house versus building it to be easily mobile and optimized for recreational usage.

          This is more significant in the states because we have less strict restrictions on what we can built to than most other countries, including NZ.

          In NZ, the maximum dimensions a transportable tiny home can be built to on a trailer without the need for a special permit is 2.5m (8.2 feet) wide by 4.25m (13.94 feet) from the ground and 12.5m (41 feet) long. The weight must not exceed 3.5 tonnes… THOWs in the US, on the other hand, that go over 20′ typically go over 10,000 lbs (4.5 tonnes) in the US, unless they are very light weight construction and there are tiny houses that can go over 3 times that as well… For an idea of how different THOWs in the States and Canada are compared to most others around the world.

          Understandably, something that can weigh multiple times what a similar size RV/Caravan would weigh and is not aerodynamic to make fuel efficiency even worse than just dealing with the weight, will be much harder to use as a RV/Caravan for recreational usage or even to move regularly.

          Then there’s the issue of how different people can choose to optimize their design. Some builders like Tiny Idahomes caters to people who like the build quality of a THOW but still want to use it like an RV. So they more or less build hybrid THOWs/RVs/Caravans… Among other ways how they’re built can vary…

          But most THOWs are optimized to function more like a traditional house. The hookups for utilities can even be underneath where they are easier to hide and protect from the environment for more permanent hookup situations.

          Most THOWs, unless specifically built for off-grid use, won’t have water tanks or other common RV/Caravan features. Tiny Houses don’t even have to be permanently mounted to a trailer and even in NZ THOW builders offer removable trailers that may only be used to deliver the home to where it will be placed.

          There’s more but I’ve probably gone off on a long enough tangent as it is…

  • Nancy M.
    March 18, 2022, 9:12 pm

    I am assuming that the space next to the sink is a dishwasher? Nice design. Colors a little bright for me, though I could learn to live with them! As I am old, I would also have to forego the steps and sleep on the couch. But I guess I would have room for guests….. LOL!

    • Teresa
      March 20, 2022, 10:38 am

      I agree w/Nancy,,,i love the blue tho…guests w/get the loft 🙂

  • James D.
    March 18, 2022, 9:33 pm

    Good eye, it’s the hybrid sink/dishwasher that there was an article on not too long ago…

    So it’s sink > dishwasher > induction cooktop…

  • David Pedersen
    March 20, 2022, 5:35 am

    Even though I am not a fan of that blue interior, it makes it too cold, then I really like the craftsmanship and the layout. Well done. The colour can be easily fixed. Or you should add some green indoor plants to tone it down and give warmness to the space.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.