Along with our solar power system, we have set up a relatively primitive water system in our tiny house.

I have mentioned our Berkey water filter before, but that is only one step in our water process.

It starts at a spring about 150 vertical feet down the mountain. Right now we collect water from the spring in aquatainers which we then carry up to the house.

We usually have to do this two or three times a week. We have considered pumping mechanisms but for now this works fine and it’s a reasonable way to get some built in exercise.

Eventually we are planning a rain catchment system so we will re-evaluate our needs at that time.

Photo by Laura M. LaVoie

Once the water reaches the house, we fill our Berkey. It takes about 3 gallons at a time. We also have a smaller commercially available Pur water filter outside which we fill for shower water and outdoor cleaning needs – we usually do dishes out on our outdoor kitchen surface.

I encourage you to continue reading below to learn even more about our off the grid water system.

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One of our readers and somebody who I got to meet at the Tiny House Fair in Vermont last month just sent me photos of her “just married” tiny house which is so awesome.

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While I was there I also got to create a video of Elizabeth’s tiny house which was on site. But anyway, I’ll let Susan explain below. Thank you so much for sharing this with us Susan!

Hi Alex,

We met briefly at Yestermorrow’s Tiny House Fair. I mentioned that my wife Emily and I had just married in April and promised to send photos of our Just Married Tiny House sign. Here they are. 

The heart in the upper window has an interesting back story. Every Valentines Day, the Valentines Day Bandit strikes, going around downtown Montpelier in the middle of the night plastering these hearts everywhere (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine_Phantom). We wake up to a world awash with red! These hearts have spread around central VT and many people and businesses have them in their windows.

Take care,
Susan

PS. Thank you for hosting the Tiny House Talk. It’s fantastic! I’ve been a fan for a long time.

It looks so beautiful! Well done. The windows are great and you got to love the heart up in the window for the loft.

You can see more photos below:

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So throughout this tour of my tiny house I have described how we live “off the grid” but I haven’t really described exactly how we do that. So, for the penultimate installment of the series, I present to you what it really means for us to live off the grid.

There are two main “systems” that run our tiny house. One is far more technical than the other.

The first, and more technical, is our solar power system. We have two 245 watt panels and a 45 amp Tristar MPPT charge controller. The whole system feeds three 110 amp hour AGM batteries. We have an 1800 watt inverter that converts the energy from DC to AC going into the house. (Some people advocate the use of DC within the house to be more efficient which is true and would be a better solution in many cases.)

Photo By Laura M. LaVoie

Please click or scroll below to read more about our solar system and how it works.

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Sometimes tiny homes are found in unexpected places.

It’s sad that in most of these places you’re no longer allowed to build so small.

Even so it’s encouraging to see these “grandfathered-in” small spaces because to me it just means that there’s still hope for codes to change so that we can allow these sorts of humble homes to continue to exist.

And not just to continue to exist, but to continue to be created because people (we) want them!

Photo Credit Devon Marie Stawkowski (source)

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My friend Lina from This Is the Little Life just sent me an email about the tiny house tour they just had in Portland, OR.

It attracted more than 100 people! It was in conjunction with the Pedalpalooza which is becoming quite a big deal in Portland.

For weeks there are different themes to celebrate the culture of bicycles in Portland.

You can see the many bicycles and a little house on wheels in the background in the photo below.

Photo Credit Billy Ulmer via This is the Tiny Life

I don’t know about you, but that looks like a great time! Scroll or click below to get the rest:

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Lots of people seem to think that tiny houses are just for young people but they’re not the only ones.

That’s not to say that all tiny homes are practical for someone who’s, let’s say, planning on going into their 70s, 80s, 90s, and 100s in one.

If you’re looking to go into retirement chances are likely that you’re looking into a lifestyle that just demands less of you, right? Because that’s what I would do.

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One of my favorite parts about tiny houses is actually visiting them and giving them a tour in person.

But that’s not always easy or possible. So the next best thing is drooling over photos of tiny houses online, right?

That’s why I’m so excited to show you the Almost Glamping Tiny House and introduce you to the folks behind it.

They just shared their most recent interior photos of the house and I really think you’ll enjoy it. Let’s start by showing you the exterior first though. 🙂

Photo Credits Almost Glamping

Isn’t it beautiful? I like how it’s perfectly symmetrical. To me, it’s so pleasing to the eye. 🙂

Let’s go inside below:

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You knew I’d end up here eventually. I am finally going to share some information about our tiny house bathroom.

Just like every other aspect of tiny spaces, bathroom layouts can vary wildly.

I wanted to share some of the decisions we made about our teeny bathroom so you might get an idea of what we’ve done.

Photo by Laura M. LaVoie

I encourage you to see and learn how we designed and built the bathroom in our off grid tiny house:

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