Clothesline Tiny Homes
So why the funny name?
"Shane thought of it!" Carrie said. "I came up with about a hundred names, including Roadrunner Tiny Homes (which I still think is awesome) but none of them were sticking. We were out in the backyard at our former rental house, next to the clothesline, and Shane said 'What about Clothesline Tiny Homes, because it's so small you're going to need a clothesline.'"
Carrie feels their home design is unique not only because of the size, but because of the shape and design as well. The Clothesline tiny house is one level on a gooseneck (5th wheel) trailer, so there is no loft and tall ceilings throughout. The couple veered away from the typical tiny house use of pine paneling inside and went with white, painted drywall which is smooth, clean, bright and modern. They also modernized the exterior siding by combining a readily available siding product with galvanized metal flashing for a smooth surface. The home also has closed cell poly-iso foam for insulation, a steel roof, a gray water collection tank, an incinerating toilet and an on-demand hot water heater.
[View the Caverly's tiny house construction and moving videos]
"Our house is also unique because it is designed for two occupants," she said. "There is a large "great room" comprising the living room and kitchen. A galley bathroom separates the bedroom from the great room so we can occupy separate spaces in the house at different times with visual and acoustic separation."
Living in a tiny house has allowed the couple to accumulate less stuff and get outside and live life. They own the house outright and this has allowed them to live debt free and save up money to buy their own land. Currently they are parked on their family's 5-acre property outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The tiny house has a water and electrical line running from the main house.
"It's a beautiful rural area dotted with pinions and junipers about 15 minutes from town," Carrie said. "The trees afford both of our families privacy — we can't see each other's houses — but we have neighbors that we love and can share life with. It's wonderful having community."
Carrie and Shane were initially concerned with finding a place to park their home on wheels.
"We almost abandoned the whole idea of a tiny house when we started researching where to park it. They are almost illegal in most places and we envisioned ourselves wandering around, house in tow, searching for a place to park ourselves," Carrie said. "Thankfully, we have had nothing but wonderful luck finding places to park it. Our first spot in Prescott, AZ we found on Craigslist: a landlord had torn down a garage on one of their rental properties and was advertising an RV space for rent with full hookups."
While they love the lifestyle, there are a few things that the house does not have.
"It's tiny! I don't have an office or an art studio and Shane doesn't have a garage or shop, which are spaces that we both need. We make it work though," Carrie said. "The toilet has been a huge source of irritation and frustration. I understand the beauty of traditional flushing toilets and sewage systems! Living in the water starved Southwest, we didn't want a flushing toilet though. It also seems insane to defecate in pure, filtered water. The incinerating toilet is not a perfect solution and I'm not sure composting toilets are either."
Besides the imperfections, the Clothesline is allowing Carrie and Shane to move away from a past foreclosure and rental costs to a debt-free life. They are also working on a new project — the Beehive Mini Mart.
Photos courtesy of Clothesline Tiny Homes
By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]
Little House in Spokane
Here is our little house story in Spokane, Washington.
In the spring of 2006 I was walking through my neighborhood, as I had done so many times over the years and for some reason I really noticed this small, tired and neglected building with its Mission Revival architecture, very unusual for Spokane. As an Albuquerque, New Mexico transplant, I was automatically drawn to its style. It turned out the owner was a local contractor preparing to demo the building and construct a duplex. My partner, Val, and I made an offer and were soon the new owners of the North Hill Substation, built in 1930 as the local utility power distribution site with a mere 374 square feet and 13ft ceilings. We started ever so slowly, huddled in a corner with an electric heater, pen and paper and tried to wrap our heads around our vision for this great piece of history. It has evolved to what it is today affectionately called "The Little House."
One big obstacle to this adventure was learning to let go of all my stuff. As a dealer and collector of antiques I had a daunting task ahead of me! For 4 years with the help of eBay, Craig's List, thrift store donations and the dump I was able to whittle things down. Two years ago I was ready to vacate my 1500Sqft apt and see if I could really be happy in one fifth of the space. I made due with a woodstove for heat. I also had a propane cook top and refrigerator I used previously for camping. I found not only was it do-able, but soon realized that less is truly more. After 13 years, Val and I decided to move in together into her house. But with 2600 sqft, 3 bathrooms and kids grown and moved away plans have changed once again. Together we are diligently working towards the "small move" back to the Little House.
Over the past 6 years we have come to realize that all of our possessions and collections were nothing more than a burden. In the meantime, the Little House has evolved! Today there is a 6ft stucco wall surrounding an organic garden, fruit trees, and a chicken coop. Little House has a loft bedroom, a kitchen with real appliances, a bathroom with tub, hot water, and flushing toilet! It has turned into an oasis in an urban environment.
Due to the limited space we did have to make some compromises. For example, the bathroom sink was a great find, but only 8″ X 8″. What more do you need to brush your teeth? The hot water is provided by two 7 gallon electric Bosch tanks which have proven to be just right! And one of the best parts is the European washing machine/extractor.
If you ever find yourself in Spokane, WA we are currently renting the Little House on Airbnb https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/638847 so if you want to give our Little House a try before we move in, it is available as we rent it daily, weekly, or for special events.
P.S Val & I have spent the last 6 weeks in a 40 sq ft camper with our two dogs and are beginning to wonder if the Little House is indeed now too BIG?
Tiny House in a Landscape
Bob Hepburn sent me a neat picture of his cabin to use in the Tiny House in a Landscape feature. Here is a little information about it from Bob.
Called "My Father's Cabin" in Casco, Maine. It's a 12 x 16 x 15 foot affair with a nice spacious loft and is still a joyous work in progress. Almost done with the insulation — next up is doing the interior paneling and finishing the up the floor. An oil-filled electric radiator keeps the place surprisingly toasty!
Casco Maine Cabin Winter
Casco Maine Cabin Summer
Cabin Loft
Cabin Study
Cabin without siding
Pammie's Tea House
The Tiny House Blog has profiled Dayton Taylor and his vintage trailer builds and restorations before, but Dayton also constructs small structures and introduced me to a tiny tea house he recently built for his decorator wife, Pam. After working on vintage trailers and "Man Caves" for himself, he promised his wife that her tea house would be a place just for the ladies.
The house, which sits in a tea garden in the couple's Temecula, Calif. backyard, took three months to build and Dayton made up the design as he went along. The house is five-sided and 14 feet by 14 feet. Dayton said he built it as a pentagon shape for good luck and Pam has decorated it with soft colors, chandeliers, vintage hardware, a Dutch door and bead board on the walls. The house has air conditioning and a small sink.
"The women love it," Dayton said. "Surprisingly, the men love it too. This was my first attempt at building anything "estrogen injected" so it was a challenge. For a while the pendulum swung WAY too far to the "girlie" side of the equation so then I had to reel myself back in and find that middle ground."
The next issue of the Tiny House Magazine will be featuring Dayton's Woodie Love Bug and you can view more of his trailer restorations at Vintage Trailer Crazy.
Photos by Dayton Taylor
By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]Living on the Lane
By Alyse Nelson
Akua Schatz and Brendon Purdy's dream was to live near relatives, but they couldn't afford a home in Vancouver, BC's Dunbar neighborhood. Instead of moving to the suburbs, they decided to build a 500-square-foot laneway home in Brendon's parents' backyard.
Brendon and Akua's laneway home, view from the alley, photo used with permission from http://buildsmall.blogspot.com
A few years ago, this wouldn't have been an option for the young couple. Rules for laneway houses, as these backyard cottages are called in Vancouver, were adopted in 2009. Laneway homes are small backyard cottages that face alleys in traditional single-family neighborhoods. The density is hidden from the main neighborhood streets, leaving the appearance of Vancouver's single-family neighborhoods intact. But while you might not see this hidden density, it could have a huge effect on the number of people able to call Vancouver home – nearly 70,000 single-family lots are eligible for an additional dwelling unit.
The Vancouver regulations allow a one-bedroom 500 square-foot laneway house on 33-foot by 122-foot single-family lots. The larger 50-foot wide lots can have a two-bedroom 750 square-foot cottage.
As homeowners build small dwellings, they provide lower-cost housing within the existing fabric of their neighborhood, with no government support necessary. Vancouver's planning director, Brent Toderian, sees this as the essential value of the trend towards small homes: "[It's] about ordinary people. Thousands of individual homeowners can do it, one by one by one. It's publicly propelled, not corporate-propelled densification. It's gradual. It's discrete. It's green."
Small homes combat neighborhood decline brought on by shrinking household sizes. Adding people can revitalize a neighborhood, allowing schools to stay open, giving neighborhood businesses more customers, making transit service cost-effective, and saving on infrastructure costs. Infilling neighborhoods with backyard cottages helps add more people to a neighborhood, without altering its character.
In a city where the average home price is $725,086, laneway homes can cost between $185,000 for an average home and $340,000 for an up-scale laneway dwelling.
The laneway home sits in the backyard of Brendon's parent's home, photo used with permission from http://buildsmall.blogspot.com
Schatz and Purdy spent about $280,000 to build their one-bedroom laneway home. Their home may be small, but it is only a 10-minute bicycle ride to Schatz's office. When choosing between their backyard cottage and a larger house in the suburbs, it was a no-brainer: "You're looking at three-hour commutes, and I just don't want to spend my life doing that," she told the National Post.
Upstairs view of Brendon and Akua's laneway house.
There's another plus to their backyard home: Schatz and Purdy recently gave birth to their first child and have babysitters just feet away from their front door. Their eventual plan is to switch places with Purdy's parents and live in the larger home as their family grows.
Akua relaxes in the laneway house's kitchen. Photos used with permission from http://buildsmall.blogspot.com
Schatz suggests redefining success: "It's really a North American concept to have success tied to moving away or distancing yourself, so maybe we're reinventing what it means to be successful, and that means keeping family close."
This post is adapted from a full article published here: http://daily.sightline.org/2012/12/20/tiny-homes/
Bio: Alyse Nelson is an urban planner for a small town in Kitsap County, Washington. She is a Writing Fellow for Sightline Institute.Tiny Re(E)volitions Kitchen
by Andrew Odom
So much time is spent thinking about the exterior build of tiny houses – the trailer, the framework, the weight, the roof, etc – that the interior is often overlooked. But is that wise? Isn't the interior what transforms an otherwise stark and impersonal trailer or foundation into a home? It is if you ask Stacey Pridgen of Rooms and Spaces and tiny places.
"The interior is what turns a trailer into a home. It is where a person lays their head at night and you want that person to feel like they are in a palace and not an outhouse," says Pridgen.
A contractor, creator, builder, craftsman, artist, and innovator for over 25 years Pridgen has been putting hammer to nail since he was just 16 years old. "I started when I was 16 years old or so. I got a job with a construction outfit as a framing assistant. I spent a lot of time helping, lugging material, and trying to learn the trade."
Stacey never remembers wanting to be a doctor or a lawyer or any sort of corporate tycoon. He craved the dirt and the outdoors. College never even appeared on his radar as he went directly from high school onto the job site.
"I've been more with companies although I have been an independent contractor a couple of times. In 1998 I got my contractors license and struck out on my own. But after about two years I settled back down a bit and joined up with a big construction outfit out of Goldsboro, NC. We handled a lot of state and commercial contracts. We did some pretty big homes too. I mean huge."
In 2003 or 2004 Pridgen got an offer to work with a trailer company. They hired him to do almost everything regarding trailer interiors. Oddly enough they specifically told him they did NOT hire him to do cabinetry; the one thing he is best known for now! "They wanted me to do electrical, plumbing, etc. I had to learn a lot just to make it there. I stayed there for about 8 years. In about 2008 when the economy started suffering I kind of fell into living quarters. I knew how to do so much with the trailers that I was able to fill several spots. I worked hard to earn my place there."
Having gotten his introduction to tiny houses about three or four years ago when his sister showed him the Tumbleweed website, Pridgen has been instrumental in several builds including most recently his custom kitchen cabinetry and finish work in the Tiny r(E)volution tiny house kitchen. With over 4,000 views of the photo album on Google and nearly 200 comments left around the Internet it seems Pridgens work is appreciated around the globe.
To learn more visit Rooms and Spaces and tiny places.
Andrew Odom publishes Tiny r(E)volution.us.
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