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Kyu's Tiny House Blog

kyuuei

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Yeah, I agree with your perspective. What I like about the reno is that they didn't put a stove or sink on the island. By leaving it clear it allows it to not only function as a large prep area, but also genuinely function as a dining area which would be clutch for a tiny home or small apartment without a designated dining area. What would be really cool is if instead of solid cabinitry they had rollable storage under the island on the kitchen side so that you could remove and replace it with foldable bar stools when entertaining.

:D I was thinking along the same lines actually! The kitchen is much bigger than what would fit in a tiny house, but again the idea of having an island and a free layout with a kitchen lining the wall is absolutely necessary for having a 'full sized' kitchen in a small home.
 

gromit

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Alas I did not think to photograph their bathroom.

This one is sort of like it though. Just imagine the sink is in the place of the horizontal metal bar on the right, so that the flexible metal tube for the shower head is attached to the sink instead of coming out of the wall.

The drain would just be in the tile floor under the sink.

DSCN4844.jpg
 

kyuuei

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[/QUOTE]

Ah! It is sort of set up the way my bathroom in Uganda was. :wubbie: I really like the idea of the entire bathroom being a sort of wet room.. I never understood the need for completely separate compartments.
 
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WhoCares

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Congrats in your tiny house progress. I also wanted to build but I stumbled upon a tiny home on 5 acres in the most unlikely place. It truly is a very pretty home, just too small for most people. Just telling you this to let you know that sometimes our dreams spring up out of nowhere when we're not looking for them. Initially I was going to save another year for the build. But since finding this place which is both council and mortgage approved I'm just going for it now. It seems my dream found me sooner than I bargained on.

I originally had dreams of country chic, but this cedar clad 80's home looks very japanese in style so I'm going minimalist zen instead to be sympathetic to the home. Out goes the shower, in goes an ofuro....:wubbie:

Best wishes on your journey....
 

kyuuei

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Congrats in your tiny house progress. I also wanted to build but I stumbled upon a tiny home on 5 acres in the most unlikely place. It truly is a very pretty home, just too small for most people. Just telling you this to let you know that sometimes our dreams spring up out of nowhere when we're not looking for them. Initially I was going to save another year for the build. But since finding this place which is both council and mortgage approved I'm just going for it now. It seems my dream found me sooner than I bargained on.

I originally had dreams of country chic, but this cedar clad 80's home looks very japanese in style so I'm going minimalist zen instead to be sympathetic to the home. Out goes the shower, in goes an ofuro....:wubbie:

Best wishes on your journey....

Thanks for sharing this! It's cool hearing other people's stories about finding homes they love. Really awesome that you found your dream :) I'm hoping we can break some ground into ours very soon... and ofuros are really great! I'm a huge fan of the concept.
 

kyuuei

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I'm definitely putting a sink in my bedroom area. Definitely.

I'm a little excited about building my house lately for no reason at all lately. I think the fact we've found some nice properties has helped my excitement.
 

spirilis

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Also for the sake of bungy-jumping into one of your threads but not reading the whole thing :D ... I just wanted to share this facebook page which has been a frequent source of inspiration & enjoyment:

https://www.facebook.com/buildnaturally

This lady is local to where I live, she's an architect who concentrates on "natural" building systems, styles and techniques. She studied down in Austin though. But her insight into the craft of natural building & "small living" is amazing in large part due to the fact that she has experience & a whole career built around it :)
(I always joke to my wife, "more architectural porn by Sigi!")
 

kyuuei

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^ Amazing stuff! If I lived in a more arid environment I'd be doing a straw bale house for sure--such an easy construction model.

I was thinking today, while looking at an old set of bunk beds, it wouldn't be that hard to just put like.. two old wooden bunk beds together, back to back, put some waterproof plastic and slats on the top parts, weather treat it, and have a small 'patio' and place to sit and lay on on the top. I don't know why that has to do with my tiny house, though. Hah!

The one thing I keep thinking back to is that rectangular structure by Tuff Shed I keep seeing out near my house. I think taller walls, but still two stories, and it would be a perfect tiny house. Kitchen, bathroom, and living room downstairs, and a bathroom, closet, and study desk upstairs. I can have all the plumbing up against one wall, radiant floors would keep the house pretty warm on its own right, and taller walls would mean more storage and more room to put what I really want more than anything else--my giant world map big enough to post small pictures and pins and strings of the places I've been. I was inspired by this scene:

SHH2-FP-003.jpg


I love that map so much--and I think it would be really cool to have my own, with strings pointing to my favorite pictures of locations, and stuff written on it everywhere, and stickers and tickets scattered about the borders.
 

Little Linguist

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Whoaaaaaaa! Can I get a hell yeah? :) That's kind of what I want my Facebook account to be - a virtual crazy map! :D
 

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Fwiw, Sigi does strawbale construction in a relatively humid climate, the mid-atlantic... Dewpoints in the upper 70's happen quite often during the summer (and low-70's probably 50+% of the time). The key is to have a high-enough stemwall to keep the rain splatter away, along with long roof overhangs (but if you think about it, this principle applies to any house--because wood frame construction can rot too!) She is also a HUGE fan of Lime plaster -- No portland cement, not clay (unless you want to re-plaster it yearly), but LIME. It's breathable yet water resistant so it works fantastic for the outer coating in humid/wet climates. (and also the walls in humid rooms like the bathroom, sometimes the whole interior walls can be done in lime if you like ... but many folks do clay plasters with linseed oil sealer or similar)

Down south cob seems to be the way to roll, and it's not too different from strawbale, just no straw bales.. lots of sand+clay+loose straw instead :) They do cob out in western OR, in a temperate rainforest climate with good results ... Same principles apply: Good roof overhangs, high-enough foundation stemwalls. In both cob & strawbale construction the typical way to roll is to build the foundation as a "rubble trench" with a trench offshoot that points downhill so water has a sure place to flow if it ever does soak into your foundation, and then an earthen floor in the middle of that, typically dug out first & then (Sigi's technique) plastic sheeting, foam insulation, followed by the adobe floor. I think typically gravel is laid down underneath the sheeting first but my memory is escaping me as to why (maybe help with drainage, in case water wicks up from the earth underneath). There is no basement, of course.

All of that is a heck of a lot of labor & craftwork though, so it's typically a bunch of folks working on it together :)

(anyway that's a summary from all I've read; my wife got me a whole set of books on cob & natural building last year for Christmas so we've both digested a bunch of them and collected knowledge .... that we'll probably never use, lol, well never say "never" I guess.)
I did get to see one of Sigi's projects, there is a winery very close to our house who contracted her to architect their tasting room... It's beautiful, with green/living roofs for some of it, metal roofing for the main section w/ solar panels, huge thick walls, a cob bench in one corner with throw-pillows all over. We went out on a date last Saturday (w/ babysitter watching the boogers) and visited it for some wine tasting. Natural timbers (de-barked) for support beams, old reclaimed wood for joists, etc.
 

kyuuei

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Whoaaaaaaa! Can I get a hell yeah? :) That's kind of what I want my Facebook account to be - a virtual crazy map! :D

I think mine will be pretty nice once I get it and have a place to set it up! I'm working on some smaller projects--catching up on my hand written journal, a complete digital organization of my pictures, and constructing photo albums of my family's pictures so they can be enjoyed instead of being shoved up in the closet corner. (Read: so they can look better shoved up in the closet corner.) They're consuming projects, but I'm enjoying them none the less. Plus they'll give me perfect access to putting accurate strings on my timeline. I'm going to make little sticker 'flags' of the dates I traveled on each string.
 

kyuuei

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Fwiw, Sigi does strawbale construction in a relatively humid climate, the mid-atlantic... Dewpoints in the upper 70's happen quite often during the summer (and low-70's probably 50+% of the time). The key is to have a high-enough stemwall to keep the rain splatter away, along with long roof overhangs (but if you think about it, this principle applies to any house--because wood frame construction can rot too!) She is also a HUGE fan of Lime plaster -- No portland cement, not clay (unless you want to re-plaster it yearly), but LIME. It's breathable yet water resistant so it works fantastic for the outer coating in humid/wet climates. (and also the walls in humid rooms like the bathroom, sometimes the whole interior walls can be done in lime if you like ... but many folks do clay plasters with linseed oil sealer or similar)

Down south cob seems to be the way to roll, and it's not too different from strawbale, just no straw bales.. lots of sand+clay+loose straw instead :) They do cob out in western OR, in a temperate rainforest climate with good results ... Same principles apply: Good roof overhangs, high-enough foundation stemwalls. In both cob & strawbale construction the typical way to roll is to build the foundation as a "rubble trench" with a trench offshoot that points downhill so water has a sure place to flow if it ever does soak into your foundation, and then an earthen floor in the middle of that, typically dug out first & then (Sigi's technique) plastic sheeting, foam insulation, followed by the adobe floor. I think typically gravel is laid down underneath the sheeting first but my memory is escaping me as to why (maybe help with drainage, in case water wicks up from the earth underneath). There is no basement, of course.

All of that is a heck of a lot of labor & craftwork though, so it's typically a bunch of folks working on it together :)

(anyway that's a summary from all I've read; my wife got me a whole set of books on cob & natural building last year for Christmas so we've both digested a bunch of them and collected knowledge .... that we'll probably never use, lol, well never say "never" I guess.)
I did get to see one of Sigi's projects, there is a winery very close to our house who contracted her to architect their tasting room... It's beautiful, with green/living roofs for some of it, metal roofing for the main section w/ solar panels, huge thick walls, a cob bench in one corner with throw-pillows all over. We went out on a date last Saturday (w/ babysitter watching the boogers) and visited it for some wine tasting. Natural timbers (de-barked) for support beams, old reclaimed wood for joists, etc.

Sounds like a decent amount of labor and craftsmanship needs to be involved. I wonder though if you could experiment first by building a children's play house? That might give a lot of feel for, without a TON of work and you could watch how the work does over time without really being upset if you made a major mistake...
 

spirilis

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Sounds like a decent amount of labor and craftsmanship needs to be involved. I wonder though if you could experiment first by building a children's play house? That might give a lot of feel for, without a TON of work and you could watch how the work does over time without really being upset if you made a major mistake...

Yeah my wife keeps talking about that, so I think we'll do it at some point. Main hurdle is getting HOA approval to build a "shed" or whatever, though a small playhouse could probably be done under the radar... First thing first though, the books often mention creating "test bricks" or using mason jars to stratify the clay vs. sand/silt components to analyze the soil (see if there's a fair amount of sand in the soil already, or if you need to add more to make it proper ratio).
 

kyuuei

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Yeah my wife keeps talking about that, so I think we'll do it at some point. Main hurdle is getting HOA approval to build a "shed" or whatever, though a small playhouse could probably be done under the radar... First thing first though, the books often mention creating "test bricks" or using mason jars to stratify the clay vs. sand/silt components to analyze the soil (see if there's a fair amount of sand in the soil already, or if you need to add more to make it proper ratio).

Im not sure how HOA things are, but I know in Texas most areas will allow any under 200sq.ft buildings that are not being used for housing without prior permits or approvals.
 

spirilis

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Im not sure how HOA things are, but I know in Texas most areas will allow any under 200sq.ft buildings that are not being used for housing without prior permits or approvals.

It's similar here, I think either 160 or 200sqft, but my HOA has requirements that we submit documentation and a small fee outlining the details and get their approval... mostly they want to make sure the shed is mostly hidden from the front and it's the same color as the house's siding. Maintaining the aesthetic quality of the neighborhood and all that crap.

I suspect my challenge would be getting the exterior plaster to match, as lime whitens up the color but earthen plaster won't hold up against rain for long. I am totally going to play with small stuff to get my feet wet soon though :)
 

Little Linguist

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I think mine will be pretty nice once I get it and have a place to set it up! I'm working on some smaller projects--catching up on my hand written journal, a complete digital organization of my pictures, and constructing photo albums of my family's pictures so they can be enjoyed instead of being shoved up in the closet corner. (Read: so they can look better shoved up in the closet corner.) They're consuming projects, but I'm enjoying them none the less. Plus they'll give me perfect access to putting accurate strings on my timeline. I'm going to make little sticker 'flags' of the dates I traveled on each string.

Those sound like fun little projects! What a great idea re sticker flags.
 

kyuuei

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Another take on the tiny house: thin house.

A home has to fit the function of the owner--otherwise it's just a place to put your things and go, ya know? It's really interesting this concept--and I think it could be a real answer to cheap housing solutions for people who are lacking income and places to go in situations of extreme temporary financial depression, especially in bigger city areas. Trailers are the go-to solution in the south where we have space and land to occupy.. in cities, I could see this being a viable answer.

I'd personally go crazy inside of one of these. I exercise, dance, move around, jump, and play. 47 inches is less wide than I am tall--and I am frequently referred to for my short stature. But if I had to live in something like this because I was struck on hard times or lost my job, I could do it without issue.

That reminds me--tonight I'm going to take a picture of the house I really like.
 
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