This is the story of Nancy’s 45ft ‘high boy’ tiny house on wheels that she designed and built with the help of Chandler Rogers of Small House Innovation.
Hi, this is my “Little House on Wheels”, built on a 45 foot high boy flat deck trailer.
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She Designed and Built a 45ft Tiny House on a Semi Truck Trailer
It was designed by me with much input from my friend, Chandler Rogers of Small House Innovations, and built by Chandler and myself.
My daughter, Mary and I had been living in my converted school bus for five years, off grid on solar power. The bus had been converted specifically to my needs, I bake croissants for local farmer’s markets, so the front half of the bus was dedicated kitchen, and the back part of the bus had two beds, storage, a shower, and space for batteries and solar equipment.
My business had grown, as had my daughter, and we needed more space, and to separate the business from the dwelling.
I purchased the trailer used and had it towed to Chandler’s shop. Construction started late spring 2017. By fall we were ready to move it to my homesite a few km away. We got it moved just before the snow came, and I spent the winter finishing the inside. We started sleeping in the house in January 2018, and I continued working on it through till spring.
Chandler and I spent a couple of months in the spring finishing the outside and the inside. The house was basically complete by May 2018, just in time for my busy market season to start again.
The house is 45 x 10 including the porch at the end. It features two bedrooms, full bath, full kitchen, living room.
I am off grid on solar power with six panels and eight deep cell batteries. I heat with wood and cook with propane, also a propane water heater. I am known locally as “Croissant Moon”, the croissant lady for the past ten years at the Kaslo Saturday Market, in beautiful Kaslo British Columbia.
I am currently living in Cooper Creek, a half hour north of Kaslo at the head of Kootenay Lake, where I live in my Little House on Wheels, and create delicious croissants in my off grid, solar powered school bus.
Small House Innovation is a small house design and manufacturing company that specializes in small homes and spaces. Focusing on prefabricated construction techniques, Small House Innovation offers a variety of solutions for homeowners dedicated to site specific design, and the art of wood craft. With a small group of dedicated builders, we tackle our projects one at a time, with an eye to detail, and a commitment to quality.
Video 1 (The bus)
Living in the buss~a year later
Posted by Nancy Moon Hoops on Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Video 2 (The Big Tiny)
The move
Small House InnovationPosted by Nancy Moon Hoops on Saturday, December 2, 2017
Learn More
Small House Innovation | Croissant Moon | Video Tour (Facebook) | Video Tour 2 (Facebook)
Our big thanks to Nancy AKA Croissant Moon for sharing!🙏
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This looks really nice and well built! I would love to see it live and in person! I am out in the Kaslo area on occasion
This is great. I love the innovation and the design. I am curious about the final cost. Good job and in a relatively short period of time.
Beautiful and creative build. I have never thought of using a semi flat bed trailer for building… very clever.
One question though… Most flatbeds are designed with a rather prominent arch in the structural steel to allow for heavy equipment hauling. Did yours not have that issue or did you develop a way to overcome it?
Thanks…
Usually the flatbeds for hauling heavy equiptment are a special design that sit a lot lower, have ramps on the end and may be also a triple axle. These ones would have the arch. The one she used is a tandem axle and would most likely not be used for heavy equiptment. I see lots of flatbeds here in Calgary that are used for pipes, building trusses or steel beams. These are totally flat.
We took the camber out of the floor by string lining a straight plane and adjusting the floor joist widths.
Thanks!
I was just wondering the same thing Brad. I have often looked at those empty trailers and thought what a great house they would make, but never could get past the arch. Wonderful build. Love the kitchen. Nice and roomy!
A house after my dreams – I could retire in this easily – warmth, wood, forests, warm fire. Just needed: Books and a cat or two.
It DOES sound lovely! Can’t imagine a better way to retire than a tiny home with my furry-family snuggled up along-side me but with a good book & a cup of tea, too! HEAVEN!
The problem here is to find a place to put them permanently, tons of restrictions in Canada.
This is more of an issue inside municipalities than it is in regional districts. Because it’s on wheels it’s considered a non permanent building. Regional districts are also beginning to offer alternative building permits for micro homes. Check out the initiative on the sunshine coast regional district.
This is neat, creative & the owner is a genius!
Nice in so many ways.
Especially making it 10′ wide really gives it room you can do far more with including using standard furniture for some.
This looks so comfortable, inviting. Love the style in side. The outside is really nice to look at. Nancy did a beautiful job.
I love the real plywood used as sheathing instead of the OSB that seems so popular now , I believe plywood is stronger and lighter than OSB of the same dimensions ( but more expensive )
Beautiful. I also am wondering about the toilet as well as food storage and food refrigeration.
Yes, it’s amazingly roomy! One of the nicest I’ve seen actually. Kaslo, the Slocan Valley….all is God’s country …. so the package is heaven on earth.
We (as in my wife and I are trying to do the same thing we have the land BUT the TNRD (regulatory Body) in our area says it is and will be Illegal to do so even if it is all according to building code ???? I find it absurd that in this day and age the government will prevent you from trying to live within your means and sustainable so that you don’t have to be a burden on society!!!
The house is designed to be Super efficient (S.I.P.) and only 580 sq.ft. virtually fire proof and of grid no power needed they won’t even allow compost toilets as far as I understand it is absurd, there are acres and 100’s of acres of bush.
Where is the LOGIC People, Is this really the government for us?
This best thing to do is to NOT ask permission from the local government! Just do what you need to do, go stealth if you have too!
I am in the same situation! I have land and have built several cabins. Getting along with your neighbors is KEY. Keep your property neat looking and respect and help your neighbors, you will usually not be bothered by the local government! It’s when locals start to complain about you, is when you start dealing with problems!
Their should be NO issues with using compost toilets or RV type holding systems! I would try to educate them first on how these work. If they still hassle you, fight them in court (represent yourself), but have all your facts about waste researched first. Remember “Knowledge is power”.
Thanks, D that has been the response from neighbors around here as well they have been very helpful and welcoming sofar with the same attitude so we feel we’re in a good place here. Now if we can build something as nice as this beautiful home we’ll have it made 🤩 .
Ed, it is all about the money. In most municipalities in Canada they have minimum squire footage for building a house. The property taxes are based on squire footage. There is a lot of control from the Government now days. We are not free people. We are slaves. Modern day slavery. All those codes and restrictions are not for us, but against us. They try to keep us in poverty and under control and push us to spend more money and sink deeper in dept. Canadians have the highest debt rate in the world. What happened to our “land glorious and free” as the lyrics of the national anthem go?
I would blame the Developers , tiny house communities would cut into their profits. Where i live perfectly good mobile home parks are being shut down so the land can be made into shopping malls or condos. The Governments at all levels should be considering tiny home communities instead of urban sprawl. But I guess they cant collect as much taxes then.
I agree. The developers don’t care, they just want to build houses and get paid.
The real issue though, is the land OWNERS. Those super-wealthy individuals who own hundreds or thousands of properties, and charge ludicrous amounts of rent.
The advent of micro, tiny, and small homes would greatly dilute the demand for their overpriced, in-city properties. This would hurt the ultra-rich the most.
So they lobby against it, and for a fact have even made financial ‘concessions’ to cities in exchange for a “no” vote on zoning and permit revisions for tiny homes.
I currently own a little over 4 acres in south central Virginia where until a few years ago I was living year around in a 45 foot fifth wheel camper with 2 slide outs. It is hooked up to full utilities water, electric and septic. What’s nice is I own the property outright, it’s unrestricted so small homes and campers are okay and the real estate taxes are only$100 a year.
I would love to see a floorplan. And I too was wondering where the refrigerator is. I love the tiny bathtub.
I’m suspecting that the refrigerator resides in the Croissant bus.
Its nice and everything but at this point you might as well purchase a single wide trailer, not that much different.
Oh Diana you are sooo wrong single wide mobile homes are build from poor cheap material are badly insulated and would not last in this country for more then a decade or two. I Bet you that beautiful Tiny house she build will out last that Mobile home 5 times or better!!!!! AND It looks Ten times Better !!! because no matter how you slice it Mobile homes look CHEAP and like the CRAP they are made of. sorry for the language! but that’s how it is.
Ed
I agree with Ed , those commercially built mobile homes are so cheaply built. This one is on a sturdy trailer and built to the climate. Also it is built to how the owner wants it , not for the masses.
That’s the real beauty of the tiny house movement. This project is an example that shows you don’t have to do what everyone else is doing, in this case, building on 8.5ft wide trailers. I love this one! And did you see that they also have a school bus conversion for her business? She used to live and work from it w/ her daughter.
I like the use of a trailer allowing two extra feet in width. The arrangement of furniture and the layout of the plan can be much more generous in size. Unfortunately the photos were dark and mostly taken down the center of the home leaving me to guess what and where items were. Loved the woodstove. It gives off a heat that warms you to the bones.
In the U.S. we have U.S.C. 1984 which states that is it illegal for them to use “color of law” which is what all zoning codes are ( they are not real law, but fake law) in order to violate personal rights. You have to make sure that you get this in the Federal Court under the violation of civil rights. If you allow them to get you into their county or local court then you are doomed.
Interesting… Thanks, Ken.
Beautiful home! I am so happy for you and your daughter. Just curious…can you bake in your home and then sell at the local market? In Michigan this isn’t allowed.
It very much depends on your state or even town. Some cottage laws do allow it, but only person-to-person or at Farmer’s Markets.
Beautiful home. I would LOVE the floor plans to this beauty if you are willing to share. I just lost my husband and need to downsize and this would be perfect. Thank you so much for sharing.
Love the house! It looks so spacious. built well, from what I can see and most likely will last a life time.
Manufactured homes/trailers its a case of you get what you pay for. I’ve seen many of these homes in parks and they’re 40 yrs old and still going strong. A lot of it is maitenance. Same with 5th wheels, they need yearly maitenance.
In B.C. most cities/towns do not permit tiny homes, but they do permit coach houses or lane way houses in cities, but then you are on some one else’s property. Regional Districts have different rules and in the Agricultural Land Reserve, if its on wheels, you’re going to be O.K. Usually if you have an “different” style of home, even if the by laws prohibit it, by law enforcement officers aren’t interested in dealing with them, until a neighbour complains.
Developers aren’t going to take kindly to tiny/small houses. it cuts in to their profit. Usually you have to make a case at city hall, so they re zone an area for the houses. If your city council is progressive and cares about people and the environment, they are usually more willing to go along with changes.
Again, love the house and Kaslo is beautiful country.
I remember reading an article about your bus and business. I thought it was so cool that you could work and live in the same place. This new house is amazing and so well built. It is beautiful inside and outside with so many unique little touches, like the stained glass window. I love the wood heater, too, and the proches are wonderful. I am happy you are able to keep your business, but move into a lovely separate and very spacious home. You both certainly deserve this treat!!
Thank you 😊
How very fabulous is this!!!