Tiny house movement thrives amid real estate bust

I have really enjoyed this thread, although we dont post that often, there isnt a nite that goes by that I dont look at this site. The idea of a small house has been appealing to us for some time but its just a weekend cabin. Anyway to make a long story short, we bought a large garden shed (16 x 32) and have done some modifications. At present, we have it totally wired, plumbed, insulated, working kitchen and a complet working bathroom. Alot of, if not all the ideas I have gotten, has come from this site. This last weekend, I finished installing a small wood stove (vermont castings) and am looking forward to the very first cold winter morning (when I dont have to work). Anyway, when I can figure out how to post pics, I would like to share them here. Thanks to all of you for the many post.

Jack

Pictures would be nice. I look forward to seeing them.

About 10 years ago I worked for a company in Alabama running equipment. I was called out to run a backhoe and track loader on a mans place where he was building a small house around a rock. He had me clear off a little 50 by50 patch around 2 big rocks. He had me help lay out the 20 by 30 area for his house. The big rock in the center was about 7 feet out of the ground but about 5 feet across the bottom. We formed it up and out in a way wherethe slab was thicker aroundthe rock in the center and next to the big rock on the end of the building.

He poured it and put a large army tent over it. He worked with a Hilti hammer cuttin the stone in the center and making a fire box from steel for it and a chimney with the opening facing the big rock. Then he carved a bit of peaked arch in the big rock about 10 feet into the rock. This was to hold the bed. The house was built from weathers salvaged barn wood and house sills for the rafters he made. I cut alot of his plates to hold hold the bolts on his beams .

He formed the bigrock as part of the wall with the face being 2 feet inside the roof. He had a good fire place it was small but it kept it wram when the rock heated up. The bed room/ carved cave was super neat. he was adding some wall pockets for storage in the big rock and side pockets in the big rock on the sides of the bed area. He got the idea from an opal mine he saw in the 60's in Australia. The neat thing about it was up a small trail barely big enought to get the trackloader and hoe up.

He had solar panels and a homemade DC generator, and a spring near by. I do rember he was going to make a tub out of a large boulder and add to the the house. They had a shower that was heated from homemade water heared that was wood fired. The next time Im in that area I need to get a few pics. It was a super neat set up for a few hundred bucks a month he took to build it. The best I can remember he had worked in the old Marble ine outside of Florence Al.

Taylor, very cool. Sounds like a fantasy house. Soem of those underground houses in southern australia are cool.