Mike, Author at Tiny House for Us

It had to happen eventually: a THOW that misses the commonly cited 400-square-foot cutoff for true tiny house status. (Does that make it a SHOW?) The splash on the Timbercraft Tiny Homes website mentions “living large in 150 square feet”, and they did indeed start out with – and still offer – homes in that size range. Lately, though, they (or maybe their customers) have adopted a bigger is better philosophy. They did a very nice 352-square-foot luxury farmhouse earlier this year, and their new Retreat is even larger. A 33-foot gooseneck trailer, plus cantilevers on either end, give it a whopping 416 square feet of floor area. Of course they’ve been able to fit an awful lot inside, including, supposedly, three bedrooms, although as there are no photos of the third one we’re assuming it’s fairly small. Let’s take a look:

Muted colors on the board and batten siding and standing seam metal roof give belie the Retreat’s hugeness.

The rearward view from the French doors shows the living room, kitchen, and larger loft bedroom.

The interior is all pine, painted white on the walls, stained dark on the ceiling, and left yellow for the floors.

The kitchen has all the cabinets and counter space you could want, and – except for a dishwasher – all the full-size appliances you’d find in a regular house.

The stairs lead to the master bedroom; the catwalk apparently goes to the third one. Note the electric fireplace opposite the sofa.

To the left is the laundry room…

…which is also a full bathroom complete with tiled tub, toilet and vanity.

The master bedroom had good headroom and additional storage in the front cantilever.

Jun 15, 2017 / by Mike / in Small House Spotlight

The Mouse House

Mouse House Tiny Homes’s first build, a 20-foot THOW on a custom heavy duty drop axle trailer, has recently come down in price to an even $60,000. For that money, maybe you’ll want to snap this one up as is – or if you like the workmanship and style but need a few different features, check out their website for info on available options.

Slight cantilevers on each end add a little extra loft space. Insulation is good at R-19 ceiling / R-13 walls / R-21 floor.

There’s a bathroom beyond that sliding door, with the same quartz counters and subway tile you’ll see in the kitchen.

Instead of a small sofa, you get two full size armchairs. The floor is real hickory.

The storage stairs look a little steep, but they do hold a decent sized closet.

The kitchen under the secondary loft is a highlight of the house.

The main loft has good floor area, but not a whole lot of headroom.

Jun 14, 2017 / by Mike / in Uncategorized

The Golden by American Tiny House

All that glitters is not gold. Sometimes it’s Golden – like this beautifully stunning tiny home from American Tiny House. To help it stay gold, Ponyboy, the 28-foot THOW has a 45-year standing seam metal roof and is built with premium lumber to qualify it as a virtually maintenance-free home. It’s priced at $69,700 base, but that includes some features that would be added-cost extras in a lot of tiny houses: energy-efficient windows, custom cabinet work, and a full appliance package. Financing’s available, too, and delivery is free to anywhere in the Lower 48. American can build one in 10 to 12 weeks; contact them here or call (903) 930-8500 for more info.

Clerestories and a double-paned glass door make up for the lack of windows on the ground floor.

There’s a dedicated sitting area under the loft, while the dining table does double duty as a work desk.

Looking the other way, you (and the cat) can see the bathroom at the end beyond a fairly complete kitchen.

A washer/dryer is conveniently tucked under a cabinet.

If you simply must eat at your desk, why not do it in the comfort of your own kitchen?

The sleeping loft is large enough to hold your library – or your wardrobe.

Jun 13, 2017 / by Mike / in Tiny House Spotlight

The Cedar Mountain by New Frontier

New Frontier Tiny Homes, the Nashville company that built last year’s much talked about Alpha, also makes a more conventional model called the Cedar Mountain. It’s an ambitiously functional smaller THOW, meaning that it comes with a few compromises, but it looks like you could do a lot with it if you’re willing to make those compromises.

Nothing unusual on the outside, but it’s nicely done.

Inside, you can see two separate rooms in the front – four, if you count the loft and the sizable closet!

The rear of the Cedar Mountain is completely devoted to the kitchen and built-in dining table, giving plenty of room for cooking and eating.

A closer view of the front shows that there’s a lot here – but nothing except the closet is very roomy.

It’s awfully small for a living room, and if you’re working from home you’d probably appreciate a proper office chair.The reason you can’t have one: this is also a second bedroom. Compromise, remember?And another compromise in the bathroom, where you don’t get a separate shower area.

It does have a nice sink, though, something a lot of super-tiny homes do without.

Take the ladder to the loft and you reach a comfortable sleeping nook.

Jun 7, 2017 / by Mike / in Uncategorized

We won’t say this is the most beautiful MitchCraft we’ve ever seen – because it’s just so hard to choose! – but we’re pretty sure it’s the biggest. It’s a 31-foot gooseneck that Mitch built in close cooperation with the buyers, Elise and Clara, who were looking for something both uniquely personal and highly functional. Tastefully multicolored paintwork and various wood tones blend harmoniously to give it a slightly Southwestern aesthetic, and as for functionality it has two full bedrooms – a loft one and a private one over the gooseneck – plus storage space you simply wouldn’t believe without seeing the photos below!

The siding is a mix of fabricated panels, tongue-and-groove cedar, and chevron-style shou sugi ban burnt cedar.

The kitchen’s in the middle, with the loft and the living room to the left.

Window seats and a desk/dining table make the living room a cozy, functional space.

The view from the loft shows the roomy kitchen, as well as the location of the bathroom (behind the curtain) and master bedroom (up the stairs).

Just look at all those drawers (plus quite a few shelves and cabinets)!

More stairs, more storage!

The beautiful bathroom has original artwork, a basin sink, and a penny accent wall to go with the copper pipes.

What it doesn’t have: a tub, a flush toilet, or an automatic washing machine.

The cozy master bedroom comes complete with nightstands –

– and its own storage alcove. (There’s more storage under the bed, of course.)

h/t Tiny House Talk

Jun 6, 2017 / by Mike / in Tiny House Spotlight, Uncategorized

The Tiny House Nation guys built this house for a couple who, like so many other tiny house couples, wanted freedom from debt and freedom to travel. But this couple also had a special fondness for flying, and that introduced a few additional challenges for John and Zack. Most were simply aesthetic: the airplane-style aluminum skin, for example, or the ceiling fan that looks like a propeller. But there also had to be a place for a flight simulator. There wasn’t room to do that on the lower level and still have a functional space there, so the setup found its home in the loft, in front of a bed that converts into a couch when it’s time to practice.

Feb 20, 2017 / by Mike / in Tiny House Spotlight

A house divided against itself? Despite appearances, this Oregon structure is composed of two trailers joined together, not one split apart, and it’s standing just fine. Credit for the build goes to Tiny House Nation and Canadian firm Sunspace Sunrooms, who were responsible for the covered porch in the middle. It’s an interesting idea that effectively fits a courtyard-like area, semi-outdoors but still private, into a very small house. The trailers themselves hold the more conventional spaces – living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom – and will be home to a family of four.

Feb 18, 2017 / by Mike / in Small House Spotlight

Here’s an interesting Tiny House Nation project: a faux stone sided home built for a Tennessee family of three in collaboration with local outfit Triple B Construction. The couple was going for a gothic castle look, but as it turned out that didn’t entirely fit into 480 square feet – or their budget – so what they got ended up looking more like an old country church. Still kind of goth, if not gothic, with a nicely atmospheric interior highlighted by a central staircase going up to one of the loft bedrooms.

Feb 18, 2017 / by Mike / in Small House Spotlight

Wind River Tiny Homes are best known for their highly individualized THOW designs, such as the Rook and the Chimera, but they also do foundation houses for those lucky enough to live in the Chattanooga area. They call this one the Urban Micro Home (at 650 square feet, we’d normally call it ‘small’). If you like it, there are two ways to get one even if you aren’t near Chattanooga: have Wind River build you a 396-square-foot mini version on a skid, or order soon-to-be-available plans.

On the bright and sunny main floor, a full kitchen with bar-style seating and a stylish range hood shares space with an open living area.

There’s a private home office off to one side.

The bedroom at the top of the stairs looks out through huge windows over a covered porch.

Jan 23, 2017 / by Mike / in Small House Spotlight

One of our favorite parts about tiny houses is seeing the constantly evolving designs that appear, and the Greenmoxie is one example that will leave your mouth wide open in amazement. Greenmoxie the house started as a side project for the team at Greenmoxie the eco-conscious consumer blog, but the design and build by David Shephard and Ian Fotheringham ended up being so successful that they’ve decided to start taking orders.

It’s a relatively long tiny house on a 30-foot triple-axle trailer, timber framed with a black metal roof to go with its dark shou sugi ban siding. It has an unusual interrupted roofline that’s only half roof, the other half being a 1kW set of solar photovoltaic panels. An electrically operated false end wall folds down to make a small deck at the rear. Inside, there’s a long and spacious living room followed by a galley kitchen and a bathroom up front behind a reclaimed barn wood sliding door. The large windows interspersed along the walls among the bookshelves and storage stairs are also reclaimed, as is the ceiling; the floor is new oak. The walls themselves are Norbord oriented strand board, spray foam insulated to R22 (roof and floor insulation is R35).

True to Greenmoxie’s roots, it’s designed to be totally self-sustainable and off-grid. It carries two 30-pound propane tanks that feed the stove, the fridge, the water heater, and a Dickinson 9000 fireplace. A Little Cod woodstove provides supplementary heating. The solar panels charge 11kWh worth of Surrette batteries, and there’s a 200-liter rainwater collection and filtration system, as well as a 200-liter grey water holding tank. The toilet is a Sun-Mar Excel composter.

The Greenmoxie guys seem a little apologetic about the price, $65,000 base (US, although they’re in Ontario), saying “we blew our budget to smithereens.” However, 65K is pretty squarely in the midrange for commercial THOWs these days, and considering the off-grid features, name brand appliances and electric porch, we’d say they’ve got no reason to be bashful price-wise – and plenty of reason to be proud design-wise.

Oct 21, 2016 / by Mike / in Tiny House Spotlight