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This is Nate and Jen’s tiny home on wheels. It originally started out as a camper that Nate bought which they later dismantled, refurbished, and built this beautiful tiny home on.

The trailer is 8’3″ by 24’10” and he used 2x4s instead of 2x8s for floor joists to decrease the home’s weight. Isn’t it incredible how simple a home could really be if you go back to the basics, sort of like this?

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Living Simply and Free in a Tiny Home

Nate and Jen's Tiny Home on Wheels: Living Simply and Free in a Tiny House

Find out why Nate built it and see the rest of the photos below:
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Just got an email this morning from the folks over at Molecule Tiny Homes.

Remember their surfer’s oceanfront tiny house that they built for a client?

And their spacious tiny home with a flip down porch?

Another Spacious Tiny Home on Wheels by Molecule Tiny Homes…

I love Molecule’s tiny house designs and builds because they look and feel like I could easily live in them. Not sure if you feel the same way…

Molecule Builds Another Spacious Tiny Home on a Trailer

Photo credits Molecule Tiny Homes

But let’s take you on a photo tour below:

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Could this be the yurt alternative that we have been looking for? Were we even looking for a yurt alternative? Do you want to build a tiny house with just a screw driver? If you’ve ever wanted a plastic yurt this might be the answer for you.

Teal Panels from Teal International Corporation may not be the prettiest things to look at but they are simple and easy to construct. But what about the cost? Each panel costs around $200 so it really depends on how large you want your structure. For those of us looking to go tiny, it could be completely cost effective.

To explore more amazing small homes like this, join our Small House Newsletter. It’s free and you’ll be glad you did!

Image by Teal International Corporation

Image by Teal International Corporation

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Niall over at Humble Homes is celebrating St Patrick’s Day by having a one day only sale on tiny house plans.

He let me know this morning and I wanted to pass the word to you right away.

Athru and Turtle Tiny House Plans

Remember the Athru and the Turtle tiny house plans I featured recently? You can save on them today, if you were interested.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Below is a shot of Humble Homes’ genius slide out bed design in their Athru design. It comes out from under the kitchen!

athru-tiny-house-design-9

Click here to access the St Patrick’s Day One-Day Sale over at Humble Homes!

Click here to access the St Patrick’s Day One-Day Sale over at Humble Homes!

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I was never thrilled about composting toilets when considering tiny houses. I didn’t like the idea of human waste sitting around and having to empty the bucket. It seemed like a hassle with opportunities for ickiness.

When people ask about the tiny house, this is always one of the first things they want to know: What about the bathroom? Somehow saying that we were going to have a bucket for a toilet, de-legitimized the entire house and our lifestyle.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind Composting Toilet System

And it’s not like I was a stranger to composting toilets. I attended an environmentally-focused college, which hosted composting toilets in a couple of its dorm apartments. My partner, Henry, was even in charge of managing the composting system. But that was different. That was a central system–one where all the waste dropped into the basement, where it stayed until it was nuetralized, and was the consistency and smell of earth. It was a system that was easy to manage and had the air of being “out of sight, out of mind.”toilet

But it is not a system fit for a tiny house–for obvious reasons. Space is not one of our strong points.

Low-Flush RV Toilets for Tiny Homes

So, as we researched our options, we looked into low-flush toilets first. This is what I was banking on. Some tiny houses have these, choosing to operate as RVs do. But like RVs, we’d also have to have a holding tank and find some place to dump it when it was full. Seeking out dump stations would be inconvenient and I’ve been camping enough times in the vicinity of RVs to know this is quite the smelly, unpleasant process.

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Photo credit: Virginia Tech

The LumenHaus. Photo credit: Virginia Tech News

Every year, designers (and design students) are dreaming up new ‘prototypes’ for various types of buildings, from prototypes for disaster-relief to futuristic green homes.

Some of these prototypes are quickly forgotten (and often deserve to be). Others live on, and some even become highly successful. Marianne Cusato’s “Katrina Cottage”, whose models range from tiny to medium-sized, was a prototype for post-hurricane housing that is now a common sight along the Gulf Coast.

This week I start a four-part series on tiny house ‘prototypes’ that are outside the tiny house mainstream (if there is such a thing). None has yet become as common as the Katrina Cottage, but each has some important lessons to teach, about which I will ramble, philosophize, and generally fail to come to any clear conclusions. (You have been warned.)

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Recently I was made aware of a tiny house page on Facebook called Extreme Makeover: Tiny Home Edition.

I thought the concept was interesting at first but really didn’t think much about it at that point.

Next thing I knew I noticed some horrifically hateful things on the page that made me think twice.

Several people were referring to her page as a scam, “these people think that I’m trying to commit fraud with regard to the original ABC-TV show, using the show’s name to scam people out of their money. That couldn’t be further from the truth,” the page owner told me.

I emailed Sally Schrock, the tiny homeowner, to find out more and while I am sure I don’t have the whole story I do feel as though I know enough about her tiny house situation to speak confidently.

Photo by Sally Schrock

Photo by Sally Schrock

See below to read more about her project.

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If you’re a Fan on our Facebook Page you might have been a part of a conversation we had on tiny house loans on March 1st.

Since then we have come up with a simple solution so we can start creating financing for people like you.

Now We Are the Bank?

More importantly, it’s a way for us as a community to fund each other. That means we become the bank.

Hundreds of us can invest in each other’s tiny house projects. And interest goes to people like you and me instead of big banks.

How? We’re using a trusted 3rd party peer-to-peer lending network.

Loans for Tiny Homes

My favorite part about this idea is that regular people can get paid to help others start their tiny house projects. Whether that’s a tiny house on wheels, a small cabin on some land or just a teardrop camper for weekends.

Photo Credit Sarah Myers

Photo Credit Sarah Myers

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The other day a reader sent me an email with a few photos of a park model tiny house that he ran into while driving.

This park model tiny home had just moved into a trailer park where he happens to drive by regularly.

This excited him so much (I would be too) that he stopped and took a few photos (which I’m sharing below). Thanks for the pictures, Troy!

So this got me thinking… Whatever happened to the idea of park model tiny houses and communities? Don’t these already exist? Why aren’t we making something happen here? Why aren’t we at least talking about it?

Park Model Tiny House Communities

Park Model Tiny House Communities Photo by Troy B.

Photo by Troy B.

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