Simple Living Resources

Passive Solar Cottage

Posted February 12th, 2010 by Michael Janzen and filed in builder
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It’s always exciting to see one of my tiny house plans built. This house, built by Mike Irish in Oregon, was inspired by my Tiny Solar House with Gables but is 6-feet longer measuring 8′ by 26′. You can download my free plans from Tiny House Design.

Passive Solar Cottage

Bill’s Tiny House

Posted December 18th, 2009 by Michael Janzen and filed in Construction Story
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bills tiny houseBill is building a tiny house based on one of my tiny house designs. You can download the free house plans at Tiny House Design. He’s building the 8×16 Solar House.

He posted a bunch of photos of the interior work recently on Facebook and it’s looking great. Eventually Bill plans to move his tiny house up to Alaska (from California) and spend some time chilling out.

Bill’s Progress Photos on Facebook

(To see the Facebook photos a free Facebook membership is required. So I’ve posted a few of Bill’s photos here in case you can access them on Facebook.)

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Tiny Solar House Plans

Posted December 4th, 2009 by Michael Janzen and filed in Plans
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tiny solar house plansThis past week I published a set of tiny house plans for tiny solar house. It’s a little 8′ by 12′ saltbox that can be built in multiple units so the owner builder can build a larger home (12×16, 12×24, 12×32, etc) from the same set of plans. The 40-page plans cost $9.99 and can be ordered online and downloaded to your computer.

Tiny Solar House Plans

Tiny Solar House

billbrooks-600x600Bill Brooks is making great progress on his tiny solar house built from the free house plans I offer on Tiny House Design. It’s especially exciting for me to see one of my designs come together. When Bill is done with this house he plans to take it on an extended trip up to Alaska. Follow Bill on Twitter

Bill’s Tiny Solar House

Bill’s Solar Tiny House

tiny solar houseA fellow named Bill is building a tiny solar house from one of the free house plans on Tiny House Design. He’s been making quick progress and intends to travel up to Alaska with the house and stay a little while when it’s complete.

Bill’s Solar Tiny House

8×20 Tiny Solar House

8x20-free-house-plans-600x476If you read my design blog you probably noticed that I recently posted version one of the free house plans for an 8×20 Tiny Solar House. I’ll post an updated version soon that will include feedback from readers. The drawings were made entirely with the free version of Google SketchUp. Visit Tiny House Design to download these free house plans.

PowerPod – Instant Green House

powerhouseIt seems that more and more home builders are recognizing that green is a good thing. Here’s an example of a tiny manufacured home designed and build for off-the-grid life. It even included rain water collection off the butterfly roof and photovoltaic panels. One of the more unique features is that this house can be set-up in one day.

Read more about PowerPod at Coming Unmoored

Solar System Sizing

solar-power-system-03-300x225Heather at The Greenest Dollar posted a great article on how to size a solar system last week. It’s not a simple thing to calculate because there are so many variables to consider, but this article does a great job of summarizing what you need to know. If you’re looking for a good place to start learning about solar powering your home and saving money visit The Greenest Dollar.

Tiny Box House

Posted April 15th, 2009 by Michael Janzen and filed in Complete Tiny House
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box-tiny-houseThere are a lot of great ideas built into this 36 square meter house (whic is about 400 square feet). The shutters that protect the large window on the second level is my favorite feature. I think I might add something like that to the tiny house plans I’m drawing over at Tiny House Design.

I also like the variety of materials: rock, concrete, stucco/plaster, wood, and glass. Visit the original article on this box house at LittleDiggs.com. It was designed by architects Alan Chu & Cristiano Kato.