This is the story of how a daughter and her husband designed and built a custom tiny home for her dad.
My husband and I wanted to build a house for my Father to live in on our property in Colorado. We decided to buy a pre-built shed and turn it into a home. The house is 12×32 with an 8×4 covered porch. The house sits on a permanent foundation with a crawl space underneath. The 20 gal. water heater is under the house. It’s a one bedroom one bathroom home with a living/kitchen area.
Just for fun I thought you might like this 64 sq. ft. micro cabin that is actually used as a sauna.
Yes, a sauna, but in Finland and other places in Europe having a sauna outside is a social thing.
The architects designed it for a client who wanted it during the winter months because it’s great after a sweaty run or after jumping in icy cold lake water. Plus it’s small enough that it can be moved on a sledge.
I’m thinking this would make a great private space for reading/writing/meditation? But if designed right, this micro cabin could even make the perfect tiny living space. Let’s take a look.
Since December of 2010 when we first stumbled across the tiny house living lifestyle we have had a dream to build our own, custom, tiny house trailer.
Having both lived in more traditional “sticks and bricks” homes and having both seen our fair share of consumer debt, mortgage bubble worst-case scenarios, and the like, we realized that we wanted something different; something more that could only be found in something less, so to speak.
We no longer wanted to live the status quo and fall prey to what we now realize is an antiquated “American Dream.”
We had no desire to get to know Fannie or Freddie and we knew that we wanted to further develop our micro-homestead, our self-sustaining lifestyle, and our desire to have a home that grew with us rather than us having to figure out how to fill it up.
So for the last three years or so (even before our tiny house dream) my wife, Crystal, and I have worked hard at simplifying our lives.
We have minimized the number of clothes we own, the amount of books/CDs/DVDs we own, the types of food we eat, our dependency on cars and travel in general, the number of square feet we need to exist indoors, and our overall debt!
Because of this exchange, we have maximized our quality of life, our love for each other, our concern for the world around us, our ideas of true entertainment, our health (both mental and physical), and our general dispositions.
In regards to our tiny house trailer, we are about 15% into it. We have secured our trailer (30′ long former travel trailer), sandblasted the entire thing, painted it, replaced the tires, replaced the leaf springs, etc. (see photos below).
Every week I’ll be putting together a round up of the past 7 days so that you can see what you missed on Tiny House Talk during plus important and related links from around the web.
Plus this old beat up shed that I found during my weekend travels. Next to it is a completely torn down structure (which might have been a small house) with barely the foundation left in tact.
Today I ran into James Ward’s Beach Huts. His tiny structures are individually designed and beautifully detailed.
He offers his services almost anywhere in the UK and beyond. The shacks are made with red Swedish pine frames along with other high quality materials.
The decks are pressure treated to prevent rotting from wetness and every hut is unique. On his website he emphasizes that each shed is made reflecting the tastes of the customer.
That means that almost everything is customizable–including the interior, railings, deck, steps, windows, and colors.
Would you use a structure like this as a backyard office, tiny guest house, shed, or hobby room? I think they’d be perfect for a backyard art studio.
