Tiny House - 10 x 10??? 200 sq feet??? Off Grid

Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians · #21 09/13/07, 11:50 PM

We built a 16 X 24, really a mock of a one bedroom efficency apartment I lived in, in San Diego. Originally it was built for guests and the kids as they came home from college. Now it is my soap house and residence...long story. You do learn quickly how to pare your life down and what is and what isn't important to you. Living in smaller than this, (perhaps with a loft bedroom), sorry it wouldn't really be living it would barely be an exsistance. 50 exhausted from coming in from milking chores, climbing a ladder into a loft? No thanks! I would not want to do it full time. This sqaure footage is dooable and I have been living in it for 2 years now. But off grid, nope. Vicki

ahahahni1 · #22 09/14/07, 12:03 AM

This is interesting... Since I am about to be newly single with 3 kids i also wonder about a small living quarters and how to make it do able.

michiganfarmer · #23 09/14/07, 09:59 AM

I have thought about reducing the size of my house after the kids are grown and gone.
I have thought about tearing the secind story off, and removing a bedroom from one end of the house.
My thought is savings on everything from wood for heat to the abount of house keeping to do.

I dont know if it will ever happen. My wife thinks she gets an opinion about it yanno,lol.

texican · #24 09/14/07, 10:07 AM

Hopefully, if you plan on getting one of these micro-mansions, you'll build it yourself.... I've looked at the micro homes, and the prices people are willing to pay for a broomcloset are several multiples of what a regular old castle would cost me to build. I figure I could build a well insulated micromansion 12x12 or smaller for way less than a grand. Having all of the scrounged materials around already, probably for less than 50$. Starting off new somewhere else, I figure I could scrounge for a month or so and build one for less than 200$.

It's not rocket science... and a micromansion would be the perfect way to practice one's building techniques.

treesonggal · #25 09/14/07, 10:28 AM

I lived in an Amish built 10x15 cabin for a time and miss it - though if I had remained there I had plans to add another 10x15 right off the back. Had an L-shaped counter, a ceramic bowl for my sink, propane lights and heat and a chemical toilet.

Anyone considering a tiny house should check first with their local building department. In Michigan the minimum square footage for a residence is 480. When the building inspector paid me an unannounced visit and I explained what my future plans were the first thing he mentioned was the cabin roof. It had to meet state constructions standards: i.e. the trusses didn't meet specs.

We're about to move into our mobile home that's 12x60 and then later move into a 14x24 cabin on 10 acres. The cabin has a loft with head room only in the center. It will meet the state square foot requirement as with the loft AND THE PORCH it exceeds 480 square feet. In other words, the realtors took outside dimensions and included the open porch and the building department isn't bothering us. I think this is because it's not new construction.

Since moving out of the cabin and now into the trailer all we've done is accumulate STUFF and then held yard sale to try and get rid of it. The key is to know what you really need to be happy and have a good partner with you under the same roof!!!

MarleneS · #26 09/14/07, 10:35 AM

Haven't read the responses yet....a 10' x 10' room/house is only 100 square foot - not the misleading double that in the thread title

Okay read the post and responses -- it's a two story 10x10 building = 200 square feet

Marlene

fishhead · #27 09/14/07, 12:16 PM

I visited a guys house once and I don't think it was even 10'x10'. He was living it even during the MN winters. When you sat on the couch you could almost reach the shelves on the opposite wall.

MaryNY · #28 09/14/07, 12:37 PM

Wannabee - Are you sure you aren't thinking of Katrina Cottages? You might want to Google that, there's all kinds of neat info about them online.

I tried to get into the HT archives to search for you, but I can't get into them.

Good luck!

MaryNY

LisaInN.Idaho · #29 09/14/07, 12:54 PM

Have you seen Tumbleweed Tiny Houses?
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/

Wannabee · #30 09/14/07, 01:34 PM

Thanks for sharing everone, but I Hunter Gatherer may be correct...I still haven't seen the pics that we had on here about 1-2 years ago. That's ok, cause there have been some really GREAT ideas and sites posted. Still, if you can continue this thread with more pictures/plans, I would appreciate it!

Christine in OK · #31 09/14/07, 01:59 PM

It could have gone by the wayside in the last pruning.

It wasn't a thread by simpleman, was it? I can't remember how small their Ozark cabin was, but I know his blog is a really neat place to look. I love the chicken moat. If I ever get to a place where it's feasible, I'm getting one!

Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians · #32 09/14/07, 02:17 PM

Mine is a 16 x 16 main room, L shaped kitchen full size sink, small apartment size gas stove, tile on the counter tops and a dorm fridge freezer with a microwave on top, table 2 chairs that makes one 16 by 8 half. A small wall splits the two halves so you have some privacy and it contains a queen size bed, side bed stroage and a sideboard for clothes and TV etc... A door goes into the 8 X 16 off the back which is half walk in closet, dressing aream large enough to keep my treadmill in, flipped up for stoarge, but plenty of room to pull down to use nightly and a large 8x8 bathroom, full tub/shower, corner sink, toliet. I have spent alot of time coming up with unique storage solutions that work, having to make, cure, store and sell soap from here) including in the main room an 8ft bump out window seat that holds a twin size matress for a seat and extra sleeping, and the whole lid flips up for massive storage. Biggy is the 8 x 16 foot covered porch off the front in which I have a freezer/fridge to sell milk and cheese out of.

Painted wood floors, tile in the bathroom, exterior is colored metal so there is no maintenence other than powerwashing, galvalum roof. Interior is sheetrock in the kitchen half and the rest, ceilings and walls are T-one-eleven exterior sidding that has been sanded downm and sealed with a coat of plyureathane...indestructable (we did this so posters, and other teen age funny business would not ruin the walls).

An in the wall gas heater (harborfrieght.com), a in the wall AC unit, and insulated windows and door, and it's super easy to keep warm and cool.

It was less than 3 long weekends and mostly salvaged from construction jobs from my husbands company. I am now chain link fenced in and have a cottage garden and raised beds for veggies. Hard to look out at the main house that I helped build, but life happens and we learn to grow where we are planted. Vicki

FolioMark · #33 09/14/07, 06:20 PM

Jon and I started out with an 8x12 shed. It had a door in one end and we put a scrounged window in the opposite end. We built a double bed platform under the window with a bookcase at one end and storage underneath. There was room for a chest of drawers, a small chair and a night table. We set up a cheap screen house in front of the door and used it as our main living space that first summer. We cooked outdoors on a grill on a little counter we built on 2x4's between two trees. The shed was big enough for us to sleep in and store all our equipment when we left at the end of the summer.

Tiny House - 10 x 10??? 200 sq feet??? Off Grid - Homesteading Questions

Tiny House - 10 x 10??? 200 sq feet??? Off Grid - Homesteading Questions

THE ORIGINAL SHED ARRIVES ON A BIG TRUCK

The next year we added a 12x20 pole building across the front of the shed and brought in electricity and we were LIVING.
Tiny House - 10 x 10??? 200 sq feet??? Off Grid - Homesteading Questions

THE FRAME FOR THE FIRST ADDITION

Tiny House - 10 x 10??? 200 sq feet??? Off Grid - Homesteading Questions

THE COMPLETE FIRST ADDITION. THE SHED IS ATTACHED AT THE BACK. THIS IS NOW THE KITCHEN OF OUR BIG HOUSE.

From those simple beginnings we now have a 5 bedroom house with a huge living room, a dining room and a seperate library. There are 5 fireplaces and the woodstove in the kitchen. the original shed is now surrounded by house and we use it as a spare room/ den off the kitchen. We built on each summer and its all paid for and a lot of it built with scrounged, used and found material.

It worked for us because we werent there full time. If I were going to go to raw land and live there full time, I would consider a shed but something bigger than our original 8x12, at least 10x20 or 12x24. But as Texican said, even a smallish shed is going to cost you at least a $1500 if not more. You could get a good deal more space if you used that cash to buy lumber or took a month to scrounge while camping in a tent and then built the same thing on your own. For example, last summer, I, Levi and our good neighbors the Yorks, built our new library building. Its a 14x16 pole building with a galvanized metal shed roof. It has a huge 8foot bow window in the front that I got for free at a local salvage yard. Another 3x5 long window that cost me $4.00 and a french door that cost me $20.
Tiny House - 10 x 10??? 200 sq feet??? Off Grid - Homesteading Questions

LAST SUMMERS 5 DAY LIBRARY BUILD.

I'm going to install a standard metal fireplace unit that cost me 75.00 at homeworks, but I could just as easily heat the space with a small stove. 14x16 would easily accommodate a double built in bed with storage drawers under it and if the ceiling were high enough you could have another upper bunk for the kiddies. A 5x5 closet in one corner would make a private space for a sawdust toilet and simple bathing facilities. If your wood stove permitted stove top cooking you would be home free with a dorm fridge and a little dry sink on one wall. You would be cozy but comfortable. I think I spent 700 dollars for the necessary lumber and that included PT joists and flooring as I built close to the ground. If you built higher, you wouldnt need PT and it would be cheaper. It took the 4 of us, 6 days to build that place from the ground up to a point where it was habitable and we were working in the summer heat and in no rush. We could easily have finished it in 4 solid days of work in the cool spring or fall weather.

Frankly, if I were starting out, this is the way I would go. A bought shed gives you instant shelter and comfort and if money is no object, go for it. You can always add on more space. But if you are poor and scrapping by, I would build my own with scrounged and sale materials and a bit of imagination.

If any of you that are considering chucking it all and going with a similar plan, I'd be happy to help you work out your needs and help you develop a house plan that would be workable. Now that I am retired, Ive been spending my time developing small houses like the ones discussed in this thread and selling the plans for a very modest fee ($50). Let me know what you need and I can give you a custom plan with a lumber list so you can start scrounging for the spring. For that matter, If you have the land now and it isnt fixing to snow anytime soon in your area, we could probably have you snug under your own roof by Christmas. Now wouldnt that be nice? Drop me a PM anytime.

Cyngbaeld · #34 09/15/07, 05:35 PM

http://www.tinyhouses.net/Vlada%20House/vladahouse.html

Here's one, 10x10 two story.

Hillbillybob · #35 09/15/07, 06:03 PM

I see all these houses even though they are small most are two story. What ever I live in I just want 1 story! I have hard enough coming in the two steps that I haft to try and go up more with steps going up and down to a bedroom.
I have been thinking about this and I don't think that I would want to live in anything less than a 16ft X 24ft but ideally for me 18ft X 30ft and even at the larger house we are only talking about 530 sq ft.
I wired, insulated and dry walled a 8ft X 12ft shed for a friend of mine. We put in 1 electric baseboard heater at one end and you would stay warm in it no problem.
Hillbillybob

**highlands** · #36 09/15/07, 07:19 PM

We're working on a tiny cottage - move in date before winter cold hits 'cuz I ain't heating the old farm house. Our cottage is 252 sq-ft on the first floor plus a little kids loft on the front (about 10'x5'x40"? high) and a similar loft for storage in the back. This is for our family of five. We just finished a bottle wall in the bathroom. I wanted glass block but that stuff is expensive. See my blog for updates on the house:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog

and here's the start of the adventure (11/6/06):
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2006_11...m_archive.html

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

JackDeePeyton · #37 09/16/07, 11:22 PM

Hey folks

I have really enjoyed this thread. Within the next full month, I will finally start on the cabin. Over the last year, I have scrounged lumber and building materials to the point, I have no more room for it. Anyway, last fall I moved part of an older cabin onto out lot at the lake. It measures 16x16, built very solid from some old cut lumber. Some of the seal plates are bad, but figured out how to do them, safely. The cabin will be 16x24 when its done, and that should be plenty of room for......main room, kitchen and bathroom. Next year, I will ad on a 12x12 for the bed room. At this point and time, not sure what kinda siding that I want to put on. A metal roof for sure, but can get plenty of concrete lap board siding. When I get started I will post some pics of the start and hopefully some pics of the finished project. We are in somewhat of a flood plain at the lake, but never has been over knee deep at any given time. I plan on putting the cabin at 4 ft off the ground. A neighbor gave me an old Ben Franklin wood stove, with everything a person will need to install it. Someone else gave us some insulated widows and doors and found a guy with a bunch of 4x8 sheets of plywood. It amazes me what a person can locate, given time and resources. Best of luck to all.

smwon · #38 09/20/07, 12:12 PM

Hi... I was referred to this thread over in the goat forum.. so here I am! I need some help designing a Goat/rabbit/chicken barn. The space to put it is very small. Originally I had thought of 12'x16', but now realize it needs to be more like 10'x16'... any suggestions for the 'layout' would be greatly appreciated. Here is the link to my original post.

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/sho...71#post2528371

smwon · #39 09/21/07, 02:17 PM

Ok, never mind... I think I have a plan that will work.

wyld thang · #40 09/21/07, 03:38 PM

There used to be an old guy up here who lived in a garden shed. He died, but everything is still there as he left it. Inside there's a futon, a bookshelf(half with books, half with canned soup), a small propane oven. Outside there's a small table with a washbasin and pots. There are lots of antlers lying around. It's very thought provoking to go up there and think about him(he was a real nice guy) and think about how he lived(he absolutely loved it up here "on the mountain"). I like to go there and just be(ha whatever it's calld) it has a nice vibe, almost like visiting him. No utilities on the place. And not buildable, that's why the property is sitting there.

You may be able to find cheaper land that is not buildable(not septic approved, zoned for forest). But you can get away with a temporary structure, like a shed, a yurt or a teepee(those are cool too!).

They made some cool cabins on that series Pioneer Quest(canadian version of the PBS house series). You might want to check that out for how they used space. THe folks were very happy with their teeny cabins, in the end!