Guest Post by Michael Kelley – How I Converted My Garage into a Tiny Home for $6k
We live in a 600 square foot cottage in Ely, NV. We have plenty of space for everything except parties and overnight guests.
Our solution was to convert our humble stand alone garage into a party room/casita. Our home and casita project have been furnished and decorated from yard sales and hand-me-downs from friends.
The casita is approximately 380 square feet and features a separate sleeping area and a bathroom with shower. We wanted an industrial look so we used corrugated metal on about half of the interior walls.
A tool chest serves as a kitchen cabinet with drawers. All of the “kitsch” on the walls was obtained for less than $500.00. We did a lot of the labor but did use a contractor for the plumbing and electoral work.
An evaporative cooler provides cooling and space heaters are used for heat. A coffee pot, toaster, and an induction burner have been sufficient for our guests cooking needs. The remaining garage space is just large enough to house our golf cart.
Man Turns Garage into Tiny Home for $6k
Images © Michael Kelley
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I love when people start and complete their own DIY projects like this 144 sq. ft. Blue Door Tiny Home on wheels by Conrad Harley in Stanwood, Washington because it can normally be done for less than $20,000.
Who else do you know that has been able to build their own house for $20k or less? You might be lucky enough to know somebody who has, but most people obviously don’t.
And if you hire a builder or if you decide to order a tiny home from a tiny house company you’re normally going to be asked to pay upwards of $45,000 (or more).
Some of you have been lucky enough to have had your home built for $35,000 but that’s rarely the case these days because labor is just, well, expensive.. So a Do-It-Yourself project is the answer if you’d like to own a tiny home for less than $25,000.
And people like Conrad Harley are leading the way. Others, like Dan Louche, can teach you how to do it using his step by step guide.
Conrad’s Blue Door Tiny Home on Wheels
Images © Conrad Harley
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Tiny houses aren’t just for living. They can also be for hobbies and careers too. That’s why this husband helped build a tiny writing cottage for his author wife.
She’s an author of several books and desperately needed space of her own to create a distraction-free environment from her family, dog, phone calls, and everything else that was interrupting her from her writing projects.
Lucky for her, her husband is an artist in his own right. A very talented carpenter. And he was willing to help her dreams come true as you’ll see below.
Mad Woman in the Forest Gets a Tiny Writing Cottage
Images: YouTube/Laurie Halse Anderson
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Guest Post – WWOOF Gypsy Caravan Tiny House by Bianca Voyer
We are a fruit orchard and alcohol maker in Quebec, Canada. We’ve decided last year to start participating with WWOOF.
WWOOF is an organization where people from around the world decide to come help on farm while getting to discover a new country.
We host them, giving them somewhere to live and something to eat and in exchange they work with us in the orchard for 5 days a weeks, 5 hours a day and then they have 2 days of break to visit our country.
Family Builds Gypsy Caravan Tiny House for WWOOF Guests
Images © Bianca Voyer
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Right now I wanted to show you this awesome DIY mobile micro cabin also known as a gypsy vardo camper (trailer) that’s for sale with an asking price of just $2500. (UPDATE: SOLD)
It’s hand built with a cedar body, onboard marine battery, two windows, side door with lock, working lights, and canvas awning on a single axle trailer.
In total it has less than 1,000 miles on it according to the listing and measures 5′ wide, 9′ long, and 6′ high. Inside it’s about 4′ high and weighs approximately 750 lbs.
Gypsy Vardo Micro Cabin Travel Trailer For Sale
Images: Craigslist
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This morning I found out about another DIY tiny home on wheels called the Tiny Blue House so I wanted to share it with you.
It has a standard pitch roof with a side door entrance and it now sits in what seems to be the perfect little plot of land for simple living in a tiny home.
Another feature you might like is that they added space inside by building over the tongue of the trailer where you can enjoy better views of the outdoors thanks to the windows on all sides.
DIY Tiny Home On Wheels: Tiny Blue House
Images: Tiny Blue House
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Guest Post – How I Built the Cutest DIY Cargo Trailer (aka Micro Cabin) Ever
This project was done as a way to quickly and inexpensively enclose my 6’x10′ utility trailer to protect my cargo during transport to the Blue Ridge Mountains where I would start building my own tiny cabin. So I figured, “why not make it cute and practical at the same time?” I bought the trailer new and then built the enclosure around it for about $400 in materials and about a month of labor on my spare time.
I built it on the fly with no plans since it was only intended to keep the rain off my stuff and allow me to lock it up at night. If I hadn’t used reclaimed materials for much of it, I could have finished it a lot faster. But because I used reclaimed materials it took a lot of creative manipulation to make it all work.
Don’t miss other stories like this – join our FREE Tiny House Newsletter for more!
Micro Cabin Cargo Trailer Built for Move to Live Simply
Images © Barbara Diaz
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Guest Post – Garden Reading-Writing Room (Writing Shed)
My wife, finding it hard to write with me under foot, asked if I would built her a place where she could write without distraction. Given our small yard I knew that whatever I built would, by necessity, also need to be small.
I poured a concrete pad (26” x 52”), milled rough redwood 4×4’s and 1″ x 8″ fence boards, laminated copper onto concrete board and pieced together a room, of sorts, that serves the purpose and adds to the yard. I included an outlet and a light which makes the pearl plexiglass glow at night like a large Japanese lantern. In the day time the doors open up to the garden and the sun shines through a clear plexiglass ceiling strewn with marbles.
Awesome Husband Builds Micro Writing Shed for his Wife
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DIY Bow Top Vardo Office Cabin Guest Post by Blackfox Kindred
I live in the beautiful mountains around Blue Ridge, Georgia and needed space for my home office.
I explored several ideas about how to build it and decided to go with the traditional style of a bowtop vardo but built on a skid beam setup instead of a wagon frame.
I had seen the real thing as child and just had to build one after seeing some examples online.
I started with a 4’ft by 8’ft base and built up from there as if I were building on a wagon. I tried to stay true to the tradition and plced everything just as it would be if done back in the day.
I encourage you to continue enjoying the tour of my vardo office cabin below:
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