Idaho Cabin

Last week in Stanley, Idaho we were lucky to have a break from guerilla camping, and offered a night in a "cabin," so to speak. Mostly we were excited about the opportunity to have a shower and a warm place to sleep. We had no idea what well excicuted bang for your buck home layout was in there! 

Gifts and donations from you guys are really helping us to our goal but we're gonna have to save where we can to make it happen! Unless we take out a gigantic bank construction loan (I just threw up in my mouth a little). I doubt they'd even give us the loan anyway.

Wire shelves are WAY cheaper the cabinets. They're really versatile and modular with the ability to put shelves at any height, and any number of shelve. Sure you can do that with your typical kitchen cabinet set up but here it's made a lot easier, if you'd like to rearrange things a bit. The shelves are screwed to the floor and the counter top is held on with brackets and wood screws. 

With everything put in view and within reach, this reminds me of tools in a workshop or an industrial kitchen. We're planning to outfit our kitchen with a setup like this. 

Their bathroom looks like they spared no expense but it's not so. (sorry for the shitty photo) The clawfoot tub may be the on place where they splurged. The shower has a simple fiberglass bottom with a short wall and large tile, which looks pricey but is just about the same cost of an average shower/tub combo. Scraps of trim, molding and flooring we're used to make shelves, mirror frame, and shower curtain supports.

It's Idaho... you don't need A/C. You'll use the hell out of some heat though! They've gone for a wood stove that's got a bit of soapstone to help retain heat and promote a slow burn. But it is still Idaho and even though they've got 3 cords of wood on the porch, so there are small wall mounted space heaters in the bedroom and bathroom. 

We're back from our trip next week and will be posting more comprehensive posts as we decompress and try to make sense of all the photos, stories, and ideas we've take away from this fucking awesome trip!

More soon...

-Kyle and Hadley

Ft Collins Stays Tiny

I have to start this with the tiniest and coolest dream of a 5 year old's house. Riding bikes back from dinner in Ft Collins this tree house caught my eye as the top of it slightly peered over the roof of a not so tiny house. We stopped to grab a photo on the sly and as we were busted by the owner he invited us to climb in! 

Style notes: 

• using the tree not only as the foundation of the house but as part of the ladder. Hell YES!
• Partially barred windows to keep you 5 yr old from fall this far!

Although it lacks key elements that we need like bike storage and a kitchen, who doesn't like a zip line to the front ladder?!

We're finding more and more that tiny houses aren't uncommon, especially in a town with blue collar mining roots. Houses like these are on every block in the Old Town neighborhood Fort Collins. Gentrification has hit this area of FOCO and there seems to be slightly less massive expansion of the houses themselves then there is in Charlottesville. This is what I imagine the houses in Belmont in Charlottesville would look like if there weren't so many flipped house projects and deals. 

More tiny mumbling to come...

Tiny Finds Colorado

Kicking off our cross country honeymoon trip we drove two big days straight to Colorado. On the way to Hadley's birthday bike ride we found this gem of a house while passing through Hygiene, Colorado. It's south(ish) facing front which is basically all windows is a nice passive solar design that we'd like to toss into our plans.

Tiny or not, most of the houses in Colorado have tall alpine style roofs and not much of a porch. We guess that not having a porch is because of cultural reasons. We recently had a conversation with a friend about how porches are rumored to be more popular in the Southeast because of African salve culture. I kinda see how that could be a real thing it you pay attention to most European or Jeffersonain houses. They wouldn't really have a "porch" it was more of a tiny shelter for waiting for a carriage rather then a social area.

Container Homes?

Although about 10 years late, I think it's time to take a walk on the trendy side and start looking at shipping container homes. If we want to have a tiny house on the cheap and little to no mortgage it's only fair that we take every option into consideration.

About 900 container pass by our window everyday so we're pretty used to them. We're actually pretty fond of them at this point. Having memorized about 30 different shipping company names because they're plastered on the sides some kind of subliminal fondness happens. When you see China Shipping" flash past your window for 50 consecutive train cars it kinda get stuck in your head, then it slowly creeps into your heart.

Modular! In a few different ways of thinking. The first being how when you hear modular home you think pre built and dropped off by a truck. The other way to think about it is in the build-able / stackable way. Any shape or layout is possible. Hell Yes! 

It's metal. I'll need to learn to weld and cut with a torch. Hell Yes! 

Seems that it could be set up to be even more accepting of our idea of build what we need now and add on are room or two, if we need it. Just drop another container in.

When I thought about height of containers being l was a bit bummed, only temporarily. There are all kinda of containers. We won't pigeon hole ourselves to just one standard. Containers inside of containers! Hell Yes!

Building Cheap and Creating Jobs

I found a story about a couple in LA who were looking to build a house for $100 a square foot. Which for a 1400 square foot home is $140,000. That's still a lot of money when you throw in the cost of land and permits. All said and done they were able to get their cost down to $114 a square foot my going with a modular built home from a Utah based company.

I'm not convinced that modular is cheaper or better. The prefab footprint doesn't leave much wiggle room for odd shaped lots, needed modifications or different building materials that my be cheaper or lower maintenance.

We're still of the mind of finding plans for a home like this one and adapting it to our ideas and needs.

We like the idea of having a one or two bedroom house with an option to add on later. In this case maybe we'd keep the master bed and bath unfinished and use it for bike storage? 

To get this thing built how we want it and as cheap as we need we're gonna need help from awesome people, like my dad (below on the left).

You can clearly see he's a logical man. He works with what he's got and produces what is needed with those materials. In this case, a baby who drinks hard liquor and wants to join the Blues Brothers...costume.

Dad, you're hired!

See y'all at the party!

Tiny Roots

Given my Norwegian blood you would think giant ship shaped dwellings riddle that motherland and fjords of Norway. Certainly not. With my natural love for scandinavian furniture, style, and architecture I'm drawn to this house. Lots of wood with straight skinny lines and a wide open floor plan that lends itself well to communal living. I love it! This will at least be echoed in whatever we build. 

We can't wait to have y'all over for dinner! 

Tiny houses make sense for tiny people like us!

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