Tiny Homes

Jamie and Shawns Tiny House

I am so happy to present this tiny house today. Check out the tour here.

[adrotate banner=”30″]Oh, the fun of a tiny house. Even though SmallHouseLife.com is mainly about downsizing to a smallish (1200-1800 sq. ft.) home, I like to feature the tiny houses sometimes as I know ya’ll like to see them!

This house is owned by Jamie and Shawn, designer-drafter for THE small HOUSE CATALOG.. and they have lived in this tasteful, functional 200 square foot tiny house for approx. two years.

tiny house exterior

tiny house entrance

This cutie is about 200 square feet. 🙂

tiny house living room

The couple designed and built the house themselves to live in as a builder’s cottage while they decided what and whether to build on their lot.

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Check out their kitchen!

tiny house kitchen sink

Are you inlove yet? I so am! 🙂 You know, the house is sitting on their own land and hooked up to a sewer/septic system.

tiny house kitchen

It’s a small house but why does it look sooooo comfy.. right?

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tiny house cupboards

Isn’t it clever? Space saving, indeed.

tiny house pathway

You can never have too many jars – that’s what I always say.

tiny house shelves

… and there’s even room for books! Lot’s of ’em!

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So here’s how this tiny house looks at night..

tiny house exterior at night

Jamie and Shawn have lived in this house for approx. two years. Unfortunately, local zoning, like most places, does not allow you to live permanently in a tiny house since it’s technically considered an RV. Their county and special district will only allow a tiny house like theirs for temporary living for up to two years if they are building a “real” house.

The house they are building right now, the Beekeeper’s Bungalow is roughly a 750 sq. ft. one and half story small house. Can’t wait to see that one. 🙂

Vote for Tiny House Freedom

Vote for Tiny House Freedom: If you think the government shouldn’t regulate what size house we live in then

Tumbleweed Tiny House — Photo: TumbleweedHouses.com

Whether you live in a tiny house or want to live in a tiny house.. this is more about freedom than anything else.

If you don’t think the government should regulate what size house we live in, you might want to hop over to the gov. petition page and sign the online petition requesting the government to reconsider zoning laws.. specifically the 1000+ sq foot zoning requirements that hinders citizens in many states from building a house less than 1000 square feet..

So you can see this law encompasses beyond the typical tiny house because originally a tiny house wasn’t much bigger than maybe 160 sq. ft.. but as we all know, lots of people would like to live in a smallish house that would go under the 1000 square foot requirement.

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What is the Tiny House Freedom

It’s a petition to the Obama administration to “Require States to Reform Zoning Codes to Allow Tiny Home Structures under 1000 square feet.” Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.. What do you think?

The jest of Tiny House Freedom Request

The 1000+ sq foot zoning requirements currently in place in most states, were initiated by lenders/municipalities, in an attempt to force Americans to build bigger homes, thus incurring larger debt (so lenders could make more$) and municipalities could charge higher taxes.

This practice limits the ability of Americans to achieve the “American Dream” of home ownership in a structure size that suits their needs.There is a growing trend to build smaller homes but it is difficult because of these restrictions.

Laws requiring homes to be1000+ sq feet are unconstitutional and should be abolished. States should be required to remove these laws so that more families can live within their financial means, in a structure that suits their needs, and supports their environmentally held beliefs.

Tiny House Freedom Deadline

April 27, 2012

How Many Votes Necessary

25,000

How YOU Can Make a Difference

[highlight bg=”#DDFF99″ color=”#000000″]First, go cast your vote here. [/highlight]

Then [highlight bg=”#DDFF99″ color=”#000000″]retweet this page and share on your facebook[/highlight] to get the Tiny House Freedom message out to as many people as possible cause here’s the thing.. if we can get waaay over the 25,000 necessary votes, the tiny house freedom message will ring louder!

Thanks for your support.. Dee 🙂

Tumbleweed Houses: Tiny House Workshop Review

Tumbleweed Houses: The Tiny House Workshop Review. A break down of what you can expect if you attend a..

Who hasn’t heard of the Tumbleweed Houses or the tiny houses, right?

Jay Shafer has led the charge in the tiny house revolution and now he offers a Tumbleweed Workshop where eager participants can learn how to build their own tiny house!

When I heard Jay was leading a workshop in Austin, TX, I had to go.

I really didn’t know what to expect, but personally I found it immensely rewarding. Yes, we learned how to build a tiny house, but the workshop was so much more than that.

Tumbleweed Houses Workshop – Day One

We started the day by going around the room introducing ourselves and sharing why we were there. There were approximately one hundred students, along with Jay Shafer and his business partner Steve Weissmann. Most everyone was from Texas but there were people who traveled from North Carolina, Oklahoma, California, and Indiana.

Tumbleweed Workshop Workbook We received a workbook which I plan to hang onto because it has handy reference info such as Codes and Regulations, Common Building measurements (like how far your toilet has to be from a wall), Typical Appliance Size, as well as step by step tiny house building instructions including photos.

Jay shared the 14 Essential Tools necessary to build your tiny house.. as well as a couple more that you could use but weren’t absolutely necessary to purchase. Crazy to believe a whole house could be built with only fourteen tools, but true.

The first day was all about the nuts and bolts of building with Jay walking us through it step by step. He encouraged interaction so we were free to stop him at any time and ask questions.

Jay and Steve were accessible throughout the entire two days.

Tumbleweed Houses Workshop – Day Two

This was the day I was most looking forward to because house design is my passion. I was not disappointed.

Jay Shafer covered Sacred Geometry along with the Seven Principles of Minimal Design. The seven principles are Simplicity, Honesty, Proportion, Scale, Alignment, Hierarchy and Procession. I’m not going to go into detail although I took tons of notes, but suffice it to say it was fascinating. You’ll just have to go to one of the Tumbleweed workshops to get the entire scoop on that! 🙂

Also, Jay had just completed a talk at SXSW (South by Southwest in Austin) and he had tons of photos he shared with us that he had presented there.

After lunch, we had the opportunity to design our own tiny house. They had graph paper ready for us (along with rulers, pencils, etc.) that had the different size trailers we might consider. In other words, we could design an eighteen foot long tiny house, or twenty, or whatever we wanted.

During this time, Jay sat at the front of the class and students could sit with him one on one to discuss their house design. Meanwhile Steve led other students in taping off a real sized house on the floor, plus answering questions.

Tumbleweed Workshop Jay Shafer with students

Sorry for the fuzzy picture!

Overall, an informative, enjoyable two days. I’m glad I went. I not only learned about building a tiny house, but networked with a lot of fun, interesting people. Plus, for me, the second day talk about design was worth the cost of the whole seminar.