Tiny House Designs

[Tussiemussies]

http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/homesteadsurvival/

Some of these are geared toward people who are worried about homestead survival in an emergency but there are plenty of cute ones too, where I think you can buy the plans...:)

Just scroll down to see the cute ones on the left- hand side...

[pony mom]

They're really cute but sooo tiny. My horse has a larger room....and no furniture!

[try2bfrugal]

I have been seriously checking into buying or building a backyard office based on a tiny house model. I have started talking to the building code people for our city. The cost per square foot for existing houses where I live is about $300 a square foot. Backyard cottages cost about $75 a square foot. To hook up a water connection to an accessory dwelling starts at $28K. But an extra room with no water and solar panels for heat and electricity would cost 10 - 15K total.

If we bought a small 2/2 or 2/3 house with a big lot we could add two solar heated and powered cottages for an extra 240 sq feet of space. In between the cottages and the yard we could have a covered outdoor kitchen with a grill and fire pit. Around the outer rim of the backyard we would have a garden with native plants and fruit trees and stone walkways with stepping stones between the buildings.

It is in the think about / planning stage now but I think it would be cool to do. I have a board I started with a diagram of how it would all look. It would be an updated 50's style small by today's standards house with 2 bathrooms on a 10K sq foot lot, with a permaculture garden in back with a tiny cottage or two at the perimeter and an outdoor kitchen / outdoor seating area in the center. As long as the cottages are 120 sq feet or less we wouldn't need any building permits, except for the solar panels.

[Tussiemussies]

We are also thinking about this down the road for an office for when DH semi-retires. I am a homemaker and he worked from home and it was a little too much contact for us...

Frugal, your plans sound beautiful. The outdoor kitchen and living area would be so nice between the two homes as it would make it feel so much more spacious in my mind. I also love your garden idea. Hope it comes to fruition for you!

[try2bfrugal]

We are also thinking about this down the road for an office for when DH semi-retires. I am a homemaker and he worked from home and it was a little too much contact for us...

Frugal, your plans sound beautiful. The outdoor kitchen and living area would be so nice between the two homes as it would make it feel so much more spacious in my mind. I also love your garden idea. Hope it comes to fruition for you!

Thanks! I am not sure what we will end up doing. I think our kids think I'm daft and my husband hasn't quite decided yet if I'm daft or onto something. Housing here is very expensive so we keep trying to think of ways to cut costs. I watch the faircompanies videos over and and over again looking for ideas. I would really like to utilize ideas like out door living areas, space saving furniture and back yard cottages to cut our main living area (and current housing costs) in half or at least by a third.

[sweetana3]

I was looking at an English blog and she took a small travel trailer and parked it at the back of the property for an extra get away space. It has the table, chairs and bed area and they decorated it with fabrics. They dont use the kitchen and bath so if someone was handy, they could be removed for more space. You should have seen what they did to get the trailer up a straight six foot wall to get it to the back garden.

They got the idea from another blog. Of course it depends on the climate just how long it would be useful during the year. But SE England is pretty mild. It would get too hot and too cold here.

[Gregg]

We're planning a garden shed that is 12 x 16 (192 sq.ft.). One side will be purely unconditioned storage for garden tools, lawn furniture, flower pots, etc. The other side will be multi-purpose. It will be fully insulated and finished with electricity and plumbing in the form of a laundry sink and a hose spigot. The water will be turned off in the colder months. There will be an electric baseboard heater for the times we use the space in winter. We just bought a small window air conditioner that will fit nicely into one of the side windows. End of season sale at Wal-Mart, marked down from $139 to $80!

The shed will have windows along the whole south side with a planting shelf in front of them and will serve as a green house space. The windows are salvaged from the remodel we are doing on the house. The shelf will be on top of six to eight 30 gallon drums filled with water to act as thermal mass to help regulate the temperature in the space. The shelf can also double as a desk if need be. There will be book shelves above the windows for gardening books and storage. We have it designed with a bump out into the unfinished storage space that fits a futon. Between the ability to heat and cool the space as needed and the futon it should be a very comfortable extra sleeping space. To the side of the greenhouse windows, on the outside, will be our chicken coop. DW wants to have 6 hens so we've designed this as a space that is very easy to keep warm in winter, cool in summer and has direct access into the garden.

We are also going to frame a section of roof that covers an area to the side of the shed. The roof will be a "T" shape from above. That is our cantina. We have a mini fridge left over from DD1's college days that we can plug in for parties and will be building a small section of counter space with open shelves that will serve as a bar inside the shed. There will be a large sliding window in the shed where we can hand out drinks and goodies to a table under the roof outside.

We've put almost as much time into planning the shed as we have with the house! I will provide almost all the labor and we salvaged some of the materials from the house so the total cost will be about $6,000. That's pretty good for a space that can be storage, an extra bedroom, a party room, an office, a greenhouse, a hen house, a planting shed and just about anything else we want it to be. Not to mention all the windown look directly into the garden. DW thinks I'm nuts when I say people will fight to stay out there even though they have to come into the house for a bathroom. I'm guessing our kids will line up to sleep out there whenever they come home.

[catherine]

Gregg, I LOVE it!! So cool to see how many "stacked functions" you're planning in your little outbuilding! Would love to see a pic when you're done!

[Gregg]

Stacking functions is really the key to making small comfortable. Nobody wants to feel cramped up or packed in, but if you can manage to work all the functions that normally get spread out in a larger home into a small, multi-purpose space it's the best of all worlds.

The shed won't be done until spring because I have my hands full with the house this winter, but will absolutely post some pics when it is. DW said we need to have the whole project, landscape and all, wrapped up by next April because DD2 graduates HS in May and we are GOING to throw her a bash. Nothing concentrates effort like a party!

[Tussiemussies]

Greg, love all you plans, sounds so functional. Yes, I bet all the young adults will want to sleep out there-- I would. Would also be neat to put in a sunlight to see the stars at night while laying on the futon. Sounds like such a cozy little space.

[Wildflower]

I love these tiny houses! Not sure I could live in ones that small, but double the space, put it by the lake and I would be happy! :)

Thanks for sharing, Tussie!

[Spartana]

these are sooo cute! I love small little cabins and houses. I often rent a very tiny studio cabin up in the mountains where I use to live (Big Bear Lake, CA) and it's probably around 400 sf - maybe 300 sf - even has indoor jacuzzi tub with a fireplace set into the rock wall. Would love to have a little place that that for myself. Since I have decided to stay in SoCal permanently to be near my sister (and my dog-sitter ;-)!) and all my friends (but will still travel several months each year), I'll move back up there soon so have been looking at tons of very cute little places to rent.

Jacuzzi bathtub in the cabin I rent:

http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=989&d=1349890283

[awakenedsoul]

That is adorable. I'm so glad I bought my little cottage when I did. I bet you'll find a good deal up in Big Bear. There are so many pluses to small homes. The one in your photo looks so uncluttered and charming.

[Spartana]

That is adorable. I'm so glad I bought my little cottage when I did. I bet you'll find a good deal up in Big Bear. There are so many pluses to small homes. The one in your photo looks so uncluttered and charming.

Yeah, lots of cute inexpensive places to rent or buy in BBL. You can rent a 3 bedroom house with a fenced yard for less than the cost of a tiny one bedroom apt in the coastal or city areas of SoCal. Plau it's very dog-friendly. It's probably the only area of SoCal I like that is both affordable and stays cool year round and has 4 seasons. It's got a cute village, lots of outdoor recreational and sports stuff close by, I can pretty much ride my bike everywhere, it's surrounded by Nat Forest on all sides, 2 good ski resorts, the lake, etc... and it's close to my sister (and pet-sitter!) and friends. Not too shabby of a place to live. But I don't want to buy up there again, just rent a furnished house this time with no long term commitment. BBL is great for that. I lived there for several years when I first quit my job. Sold my house in "the O.C." and bought a very cute 3 bedroom chalet up there for about 1/4 the price I sold the OC house for. It was a two story place and probably small by most people's standards (base of house was 25 ft by 25 ft with a wrap around deck) but too big for me. I sold that place so I could travel full time with my 2 big dogs. But that proved WAY TOO difficult, so I ended up back up there renting a place part of the year and just travelling a few months each year. Probably what I'll do again.