This 176 sq. ft. sustainable tiny house is a guest post by Kristen Edge – share yours!

This is the tiny house my husband, and somewhat myself, built. We used a 32′ trailer we bought from someone who was tearing down a mobile home park and put our house on it. The house is about 22′ x 8′, the deck is 9′ (still on the trailer), and the rest of the length is the tongue and our little shed in the back.

We used primarily reused materials including redwood from an old deck (which we sanded and refinished to become our deck) that we got off Craigslist. Some free old barn wood from Craigslist, the engineered, maple hardwood floor was project leftovers that we got on Craigslist, an old cedar fence from Phoenix as our siding, and most of our fixtures and other odds and ends from Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Please enjoy, learn more and re-share below. Thank you!

Couple Build 176 Sq. Ft. Sustainable Tiny House

Images © Kristen Edge

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This earthbag tiny house story is a guest post by Atulya K. Bingham – share yours! 

My name is Atulya K. Bingham. I never thought I’d build my own house. I hadn’t so much as considered it. As far as I knew, I didn’t particularly even like building. I’d never so much as banged in a nail.

Then one night it became clear. As a rain-laden gust of wind lifted the back of my tent clean off the platform, I realized I was going to have to make a home. If I didn’t, either I’d be washed off the Turkish mountain I was camped on, or dragged back to the dreaded day job.

As pools of water collected at the bottom of my sleeping bag, the decision was forged. A friend of mine a few hours along the Turkish coast had built some earthbag bungalows. He’d said the process was straight forward.

There were only two problems: I had just $6000 left in my account, and a month before deep winter set in. After a couple of days of online research, I took a deep breath and embarked on what became the earthbag adventure. It was an endeavor that by its completion had taken me to places I had no idea I could go, and brought in all kinds of on-lookers, doubters, helpers, and life-savers.

Today I’m sitting inside that beautiful handcrafted home. It’s small, 6 meters diameter, but it feels like a palace to me. Not one drop of cement was used and it is 100 percent solar powered. A house isn’t simply a shelter. It’s a life. My home has enabled me to leave behind a world of mind-numbing work and unhealthy lifestyle choices and has given me the chance to live my dream of becoming an author. Please enjoy, learn more and re-share below. Thank you!

One Woman’s Path to Freedom with an Earthbag Tiny House

Images © The Mud Home

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What does “living simply” really mean? That was one of the questions on Aldo Lavaggi’s mind when he set out to design and build his own tiny house on wheels. He purposefully chose a very simple design with no running water and no shower, curious about how it would feel to carry in his own water, and how difficult it would be to shower at friends’ houses instead.

But a simple design doesn’t necessarily mean a spartan one. He also designed a space for a collapsible hammock chair to provide “squishy comfort”, which can be rare in tiny houses with lots of built-in wood seating. He installed solar panels as his primary energy source, and used several large and interesting windows so the house could be heated by the sun as much as possible, a technique called “passive solar” heating, even in the cold winters of New York State. He also rigged a retractable stepladder to his sleeping loft, and added an external storage area over his trailer hitch as a small shed for tools.

Young Man Explains Simple Living in a Tiny House on Wheels

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Perched up on a hill on San Juan Island, Washington, this rustic cabin has two towers. The entire cabin is a total of 672 sq. ft. The towers are connected by a lower level open living and dining area along with the kitchen.

The upper part of the towers are sleeping lofts that can be accessed by ladder.  This cabin is completely off grid so there is no indoor bathroom and heat is provided by wood stove. Enjoy below and check out the views you could get from here. The views from the sleeping lofts must be amazing.

To explore more super-cool small homes like this, join our Small House Newsletter. Enjoy!

Rustic, Double-Tower Cabin on San Juan Island

Images © David Vandervort

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Are you interested in living off the grid? It can be challenging to provide for your own needs for energy, water and other resources, but for John Wells, it’s preferable to the challenge of working a traditional job so he can buy those resources from someone else.

John has received plenty of press, from Lloyd Kahn’s “Tiny Homes, Simple Shelter” to a 2011 New York Times Profile, for moving from upstate New York to the Texas desert to build an off-grid, 128-square foot home, and then blogging about it daily for years. I visited him personally to understand more about how he made that transition, and what makes an off-grid life work.

John felt the land he bought in Southwest Texas was so cheap that his off-grid experiment didn’t agree with him, he could quit without losing much. Living in a little house works for him partially because most of his life takes place outside. When his bills and mortgage were more than he could handle in New York, he rented his house to summer vacationers and moved into a travel trailer in his backyard. That experience helped him see home as a small place to relax after a day of activity.

Images © Billy Ulmer

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This Prefab ZeroHouse is a guest post by Pamela Putnam

Introducing zeroHouse, a small, prefabricated building that can easily be shipped and quickly erected. It is completely self-sufficient and incredibly comfortable. Most notably you can live here without having any external utilities connected or even waste disposal connections! It’s fully self sufficient. Let’s go on a tour…

Enter zeroHouse through the front entry, which is a Kevlar reinforced door shell with vacuum-sealed aerogel insulating core.  You will see the living room to your right, furnished with a modular wraparound couch, 42″ LCD TV, and ample built-in storage.  To your left is the kitchen, equipped with a full array of high-efficiency appliances, including an induction cooktop, microwave oven, and full-size refrigerator. The dining area includes a restaurant-style booth, and comfortably seats four adults.

Climb the stairs located in the entry to the second floor, where you will find two bedrooms, each furnished with a king-size bed, window seat, and large closet. The full bathroom, which features a large shower, full vanity, and a porcelain low-flush toilet, opens onto its own private sun-deck with outdoor shower and lounge chairs. A covered deck off the upstairs entry provides the perfect rooftop area for outdoor living.

Prefab ZeroHouse is Off-Grid and Fully Sustainable

Images © Specht Harpman

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This $2k tiny home story (part 2) is a guest post by Winston W. Johnson

Here’s four more pictures of the progress on my $2k off grid tiny shelter. You can see the new heat shields and cathedral ceiling box that I built and painted with high temp black paint in the photos below.

You can also see my ‘shower’ setup, I purchased one of those old-fashioned galvanized round tubs and use it as my shower base. I installed eye hooks on the ceiling and hang a shower curtain from them. When I’m ready to take my shower I bring the tub in from outside, set it on the floor under where I’ve installed the eye hooks, hang the shower curtain and I’m good to go. When I’m done with my shower I empty the water in the tub, let the shower curtains dry over night, fold them up and take the tub back outside. It only takes a few minutes setting the shower up and/or taking it down so it’s no big deal. I use one of those pump up garden sprayers for the pressurized water to take my shower.

You can also see my newly completed front door, it’s one of those double Dutch barn door types, the picture shows the top door open. And there’s another photo of my new door with both top and bottom doors closed. Quite a lot of work went into making my new front door. Each door, top and bottom, had 18 pieces of wood that I had to cut, glue and screw in order to complete the build.

After the first of the new year I plan on adding a 4ft x 8ft deck on the front of my tiny shelter. I’ll probably install the new wood floating floor next. If you missed my original article you can click here to check it out. Please enjoy the updates and re-share below. Thank you.

An Update on My $2k Off-Grid Tiny Home

Images © Winston W. Johnson

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This is definitely NOT a tiny cabin but it’s still an awesome solar off-grid log cabin on 20 acres for sale in Michigan.

It has three rooms, one bathroom, and a large kitchen. The cabin is self sufficient with solar panels and is located on prime hunting land.

Even though it looks small in the photos, the total space inside is listed at 1700 sq. ft. including the loft space. Again, I know, it’s NOT tiny, and it’s hardly small, but I still thought you might enjoy it especially if you have a big family (or want a big family).

Solar Off-Grid Log Cabin on 20 Acres For Sale

Images © Gary Bailey II/Crossroads Realty MI/Craigslist

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