Issue 35 – December 11, 2009
Tiny House Living is a weekly newsletter that is published every Friday morning. We cover the world of tiny houses and simple & sustainable living.
There are so many great stories lately that I’m having trouble getting them all posted here and on Tiny House Design. I’m posting the overflow stories to our Tiny House Design Facebook Page. You can also Follow us on Twitter and as always Subscribe by Email.
I also want to invite you to subscribe to Small Living Journal which is a monthly journal and collaboration between several of us in the small house movement. It fell dormant recently but I offered to take on the role of webmaster / project manager and we’re getting it started again. The current issue is focused on Technology and Simple Living.
Enter the Blob
With rumors of an imminent disclosure of the extraterrestrial presence bouncing around the web this week I thought it would be fun to lead off with this alien looking tiny house called the Blob created by architects at dmvA. Inside the hard egg-like shell is a small living space with a bathroom and walls covered in cubby holes for storage of household items. You can also see that it has a door on the side and one end opens like a spaceship hatch.
A Classic Dogtrot House
I’ve been working on a new set of tiny house plans that are inspired by historic dogtrot houses like this on that I found on GreatBuildings.com. A dogtrot is a small house divided in two with a breezeway between the two halves. The purpose of this design was to keep the house cool in hot humid climates.
The plans I’m drawing up will be about 40-pages in length, cost $9.99 and will be available soon at Tiny House Design. To learn more about dogtrots in general read this article about dogtrot houses at wikipedia.
A Room of One’s Own
Stephen at Little House on the Trailer has redesigned their website (using my open source WordPress theme!) and made it easier to learn about their tiny houses. They have an open house every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Petaluma, California.
Stephen makes several different house models including the Sonoma Shanty but there has been a lot of interest around this little 10′ by 12′ tiny house that is intended to serve as a garden office/studio.
Shipping Container with Slide Outs
Slide outs are not a new idea but I’ve never seen them in a shipping container. This ‘Mobile Dwelling Unit’ (nicknamed MDU) takes a standard shipping container and breaks the mold by expanding the space using simple slide outs.
Jonathan’s Tiny House Plumbing
Jonathan (Gungy) is making steady progress on plumbing his tiny house. He has posted a few articles on his experience one this complex piece of tiny house construction. If you’re considering building a small house you might want to read through his experience with plumbing his own house.
Tiny Houses in the News
Brian at istockhouseplans recently posted a nice round-up of instances of where tiny houses appear in the mainstream media. The articles appear in Fine Homebuilding, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
M112 Pods
This is a tiny 1:12 scale replica (toy size) of a shipping container tiny house. There probably aren’t too many kids as fascinated with tiny houses as there are adults… but if you have one you might want to pick on of these up.
Tiny Boat Houses in the Maldive Islands
Here’s another way to build a tiny house… right on the back of an old boat. The Maldive Islands is a tiny country in the Indian Ocean formed by a group of 26 atolls. The average elevation is 4′ 11″ so it would seem natural for these folks to build homes on boats. Looks like an amazing place to visit before the end of the century (if you catch my drift). Photo credit Chi King. I first saw this on Red Headed Frog.
More Simple Living Resources
Tiny house and simple living websites:
- Tiny House Blog
- Tiny House Design
- Tiny House TV
- Shedworking
- Shedblog
- Natural Homes
- Tiny House Journal
- Small House Society
- Small Living Journal
- Coming Unmoored
- Rowdy Kittens
- This Tiny House
- The Tiny Life (Map) (Forum)
- Constructing a simpler life
- Gypsy Rose Tiny House
- Green Hamlet
- Small House Style
- Building With Awareness
- Shelter Publications
- Living Large in our Little House
Tiny House Builders, Plans, And Kits
