By Laura LaVoie

Building a tiny house started out as a very personal journey for me.  As time went on we were asked to help a small organization in South Africa build a shelter for kids. To be honest, volunteering with a non-profit organization had never been on my radar screen before but sometimes the right project comes along. A friend had moved to South Africa and was working with an organization there that helped orphans and other vulnerable children. Next thing we knew, we were making plans to travel to Durban South Africa to work with them to design a sustainable shelter using the skills we gained from building a tiny house. Fundraising has been continuing and eventually, we will be able to go back and build it.

Tiny houses are a great fit for a lot of nonprofit organizations. They are small, portable, and can be inexpensive to build. They can also be built by volunteers who may not have experience in designing or building. 

I am not the only tiny house builder who took my newfound skills and applied them to charitable causes. You may be familiar with Kendall of Nerd Girl Homes. She is a high school senior who is building a Tumbleweed Tiny House (the Lusby) to give to someone who needs a home or she will auction it off and donate the money to a charitable cause. So many tiny house builders build for themselves; it is amazing to hear about someone, especially in high school, building a tiny home for someone else.

Please don’t miss other exciting tiny homes – join our FREE Tiny House Newsletter!

Artist/Photo Credit Joni Beckner

[continue reading…]

By Robin Harrington

Extra bedrooms can serve multiple purposes. Not only do they have the potential to be accommodations for guests or a home office, they can also serve as extra storage space to help keep the rest of the house clean and organized. What happens too frequently, however, is people do not use the space optimally. Sometimes they attempt to cram too much into a limited space and end up with a clutter. Other times they over decorate and the room looks too busy. Spare rooms should be optimized so they can adequately serve any purpose they are needed for. Here are some tips for organizing your spare bedroom so it will serve your home well.

Minimize Clutter

Whenever you are looking to maximize space in any room, it is important to minimize the clutter. Having too many pieces of furniture, too many decorations or too much of anything will make the room look small and disorganized. When you begin to store things in the spare bedroom, choose wisely which pieces fit well in the room. Then, make sure you live by the rule: a place for everything and everything in its place.

[continue reading…]

This is Art’s SIP Tiny House on Wheels. SIP stands for Structurally Insulated Panels. They come pre-manufactured with insulation and everything. All you have to do is put the panels together. Don’t worry, at the bottom half of this article, you’ll see how it’s all done.

The outside of Art’s house was covered with 100-year-old reclaimed cypress from around the area in Louisiana. You would never know it was built with SIPs from looking at it, right? Much of the trim and structural supports for the structure are antique pine that was removed from barns and other buildings in the surrounding area.

Inside you’ll find fresh and locally milled tongue and groove cypress to clad the interior walls and ceiling. The flooring is antique pine salvaged from the surrounding area. When you walk inside it actually feels roomy thanks to the 11′ ceiling. The couch triples it’s service as a convertible guest bed while serving even more with storage underneath.

Be sure you take a look at the way Art designed and built his loft ladder because it folds up in a unique, space-saving way that’s great for tiny houses. Enjoy! To explore more amazing tiny homes like this, join our Tiny House Newsletter. It’s free and you’ll be glad you did! We even give you free downloadable tiny house plans just for joining.

Art’s SIP Tiny House on Wheels

Photo Credit Art

I encourage you to see and learn about the rest of this unique little house below:

[continue reading…]

This tiny bunk house is essentially a stick built travel trailer. It’s 8′ by 6’4″ and was just built in 2012 using a heavy duty trailer frame. The bearings, rims, and tires were all replaced and 2×3 construction was used throughout.

All joints and siding were glued and screwed and it has a brand new steel roof. Brand new LED trailer light set was installed along with five LED lights and LED lantern to use for lighting. Currently for sale with an asking price of just $5,000. This could be your next travel trailer, micro guest house, or who knows?

Don’t miss other super cool tiny homes kind of like this – join our FREE Tiny House Newsletter for more!

5k Tiny Bunk House on Wheels

[continue reading…]

Today’s topic is on heating in a tiny house overnight.. Do you leave the heat on or turn it off while you sleep? Since I was born and raised in Florida, I’ve hardly ever had to use heat.. So I wanted to direct this issue to the community (you). The question came up thanks to a reader, Kim. She brought it to my attention after one of our webinars.

Below is a photo of Christopher Smith, of Tiny: the Movie, installing his heater. He has an interesting post, too, on propane versus wood for heating tiny houses. I wonder… Does he turn it off before bed or just trust it?

Photo Credit Tiny-themovie.com

I encourage you to read our thoughts and then add your own below:
[continue reading…]

As much as we try to plan our lives it’s true that there will always be curve balls.

Events that put us in situations that we’ve never dreamed of.

Sometimes these happenings can be great gifts and learning experiences, but they can also be big burdens.

Yet those burdens are challenges we that we must face and overcome.

Wingston Churchill once said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

Meg and Joe built a beautiful tiny house for themselves and have been so happy because of it.

Since then they’ve created more free time along with plenty of discretionary income, both of which are amazing gifts.

They were saving so much, in fact, that they decided to cut their health insurance. What happens next was completely unexpected.

[continue reading…]

By Laura LaVoie

I just got back from Dragon*Con, the largest fan-run Scifi/Fantasy convention in the US, which is held in Atlanta every Labor Day Weekend. The convention is split between five hotels in downtown and there is always something interesting going on while you’re there. I’ve been attending for the last 6 years and even though I’m not a fan of large crowds most of the time, Dragon*Con is the one event I find myself breaking out of my shell and getting into it.

I’m sure by this point of the post you’re wondering why I am writing about this on Tiny House Talk. What does Dragon*Con have to do with anything? I got to thinking about it while I was there and realized that the tiny house community could use a large scale event – or two – to celebrate our culture and accomplishments.

Now, I don’t imagine there would ever be 55,000 people descending on Atlanta to discuss all aspects of tiny living. There won’t be tiny house costumes (I plan to dress as Laura Ingalls Wilder if that is the case – someone else should really do Thoreau!). But what there can be is a place for tiny house builders to meet and to share with the interested public about the tiny house movement and what we’ve done with tiny houses in our lives.

[continue reading…]

For the past four weeks, we’ve hosted a FREE Tiny Houses 101 webinar on Sunday nights at 9 PM EST.

Well… This Sunday night at the same time we’re doing it again and want to invite you.

The last few invitations were sent to Tiny House Newsletter subscribers and Facebook Fans.

Today you’ve got an official invitation. All you need is an Internet connection and a compatible computer.

We have room for up to 100 attendees, so register right now and then show up early on Sunday so you can be sure to get in.

Here’s just a little bit of what we’ll be covering and what you’ll learn:  [continue reading…]