Some nice folks who we met at the 2016 Jamboree hired us to build this unique shell for them. They liked aspects of the Rio Grande build along with some of our other houses, so after brainstorming a few design ideas, we came up with this one. Not only were they on a tight budget, but they were excited to do the finish out work themselves. This shell build consisted of a stick frame structure on a 24+7 triple axle gooseneck trailer and included a fully finished exterior with a French entry door, doggie door, windows, siding, metal roofing, and a roof window (operable skylight) above the master loft. We installed rough wiring and plumbing (including a tankless water heater) prior to spray foaming the studs. Final scope of work included installing the master sleeping loft, tiling the spacious wet bath with some very high end tile, and putting up interior wall/ceiling paneling. Due to an unfortunate tech glitch, we lost photos of the interior, but have attached some plans below. A similar build would be in the 51k range.
Wanderlust 24′ Tiny House
We recently completed this build for an awesome young couple living up in Great Falls, Montana. They are both in the military and wanted a home they could take with them wherever they get stationed. This, and they knew a tiny home would be a means for greater financial stability! They had a great interest in two designs by other tiny house enthusiast, the Shedsistence and the Tiny House Lab. They wanted to not only combine these two designs, but customize a few touches for their needs. So, if the shape looks similar to either of these houses, now you know why!
This design features unique variations compared to the other two. The massing is a combination of each. We started out with a 8′-4″ x 24′ trailer, added a 30 degree vee nose similar to Tiny House Lab, but then applied the Shedsistence longitudinal asymmetric gable, perhaps more easily thought of as a front to rear shed roof with a ridge break and smaller beaver tail on the rear. The reasoning was several fold: aesthetics, introducing additional storage over otherwise wasted space on the tongue, weight distribution, and hopefully aerodynamics. Having towed it 973 miles from Durango to Great Falls, I can say that it probably pulled the best of any bumper pull house we’ve built to date.
The trailer utilizes drop axles. As I always state, this makes towing slightly more difficult when navigating dips in the road and drainage gutters, etc., but it gave us an additional 4″ of height to play with in the design. This 4″ turned out to be critical in allowing us to build a 14″ tall platform above most of the primary floor. Under this platform is housed an 80 gallon freshwater tank, 60 gallon greywater tank, and abundant in floor storage for items that don’t get used everyday. This couple happens to be outdoor junkies, so they have quite the collection of camping and sports equipment that will primarily live here. The platform is accessed via three different ways: an opening from the gear shed side, on opening from the living room side where there is a removable step, and trap doors in the center of the floor, two in the kitchen and one in the bathroom. Like the Shedsistence design, there is also a gear shed in the front of the trailer. Adding the vee nose made this space a little larger, however. We placed the water heater and off grid water equipment in this space. Since this platform and gear shed is difficult to understand by looking at the photos, here are some 3d renderings to clarify.
This tiny was constructed using SIP’s, which not only took a lot of the guess work out of the crazy angles, but will ensure the house is easier to heat and cool no matter where this couple gets stationed. We installed a Lunos E2 heat recovery ventilator to provide constant healthy fresh air while recovering heat energy. All plumbing lines are fully accessible in heated space. All electrical lines were ran in surface mounted conduit. They preferred the industrial look but also wanted full access to wiring should anything go wrong, or they needed to make additions since altering wires in SIP chases can be extremely difficult after wall finishes have been installed.
The kitchen features a gorgeous dark blue clay fired apron sink, 24″ gas range with modern range hood, W/D combo, and a bottom freezer fridge. Past the kitchen is entry into the bathroom which has a generous 42″ shower enclosure, Nature’s Head compost toilet, and a vessel sink mounted to a barn wood platform. There is a partition wall that separates the bathroom from the gear closet on the very front of the trailer. This shed is accessed via a separate exterior door.
On the opposite end of the house is the living space which one has to take two steps down from the main platform to enter. At this point, I should note that this house was about a 98% build out. They had a set budget of $67,000 and asked us to complete as much work as we could within that budget, so you will notice in the photos that we left some simple tasks such as finishing the wood, trimming out a few corners, adding some door/drawers to the living room cabinet, and making cushions for the couch for the owners to complete.
The stairs (doubling as storage cubbies and the closet) are on the same level as the platform, so there are two less risers needed to get into the loft. Up here, there is ample room for a queen mattress, plenty of headroom, and abundant light, in part to an overhead skylight!
As mentioned, this project came in at $67k as shown with a few minor details not completely finished. As of late, we’ve had a few inquiries about whether we can a tiny house based on the Shedsistence design. The answer is yes! Since this design was quite different than that original version, we drew it up from scratch, and can totally do this for you too. If you like the Shedsistence design just the way it is and would like for us to build it, then we ask that you purchase the plans from them before coming to us. Out of respect for the original creator’s intellectual property, we ask that you do this for any build that is not a RMTH design and documented plans for sale exist for that particular design. Enjoy a few more photos and a video tour:
La Luna Llena
For you non Spanish speaking followers, La Luna Llena translates to “The Full Moon”. That is what Pam, a retired art teacher living in south central Missouri named this beautiful 30′ long build that she now calls home! All we have for now are the unfurnished photos prior to the house’s delivery, but we can’t wait to see the pics once she gets fully settled in since Pam had quite the art collection that she plans on placing in the house. This was one of the more important aspects of this project, making sure we planned accordingly to accommodate these art pieces.
To start things off, the exterior is a simple mix of galvanized corrugated wainscot, cedar lap in the middle, and cedar board and batt up top. A shallow 3/12 pitch travels the full length of the trailer maximizing interior volume. A fold down porch and and fold up awning frame the entry area but fold out of the way for travel. The arch top door was handmade by Greg using locally sourced rough cut ponderosa pine. Pam provided a small stain glass piece that we carefully inset into the door.
After passing through the front door, one is surrounded by abundant hues of blue stain pain pine, red handscraped flooring, red oak built ins, black appliances, and a little bit of brown found in the reclaimed loft joists. Towards the front of the trailer is the living room, outfitted with an L shape couch with storage below, a large window, room to place an heirloom Indian cabinet with TV above, and to the side of this a Grizzly woodstove with the wall mount kit.
Next to the couch is a tall mission style bookcase made from red oak, a small cabinet also made from red oak to house Pam’s sewing machine, and then a fold down table made from live edge beetle kill pine. After the table are alternating stairs up the to the guest/storage loft. The main risers are all made from oak plywood, but the boxes were hand made from solid oak using walnut keys to add a decorative yet functional touch. The tops are hinged for easy access inside the boxes. They can also be moved around to be used as step stools or other accessories. The stairs themselves are a combo of open cubbies, a small closet that houses a Dyson vacuum, and a pull out pantry. Adjacent the pantry is a 10 cu ft fridge.
Opposite all of this is the remainder of the kitchen featuring a 24″ range, over the range microwave/hood, large single bowl sink, combo washer dryer, and a large live edge beetle kill slab counter top. Pam provided us with several hand made Mexican tiles she had collected over the years to use as the backsplash. Above the counter are live edge pine open shelves supported with pipe fittings. Above these are two hand blown glass pendant shades with fantastic hues that Pam also provided us. The kitchen also some adjustable shelves built into the wall framing for spice storage.
Passing though a pocket door, you enter the downstairs bedroom. On the right is the bed platform that has storage built in below. We installed a small authentic porthole window in this sleeping quarters. To the left is open space for Pam to place her heirloom cedar quilt cabinet with a large window above. A full height closet is next this space. Another pocket door takes you into the comfortably size bathroom. This space accommodates a regular flush toilet, utility space for the electric on demand water heater, a full height linen, 36×48 shower enclosure, and a gorgeous handmade glass vessel sink provided by Pam that we placed on a live edge slice of cherry. When the light comes through the bathroom window this sink absolutely glows!
The upper loft in this house was designed for guests and overflow storage. Two notable features are the reclaimed floor joists with tons of character from circular saw marks, bark wane, insect holes, and old nail holes, and a built in cubby wall with a live edge pine top that provides a little bit of privacy and safety to the loft, but also lots of useful storage. One last special request that Pam had was for us to trim out all of the windows in live edge beetle kill. This resulted in some rather unique formations!
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A few other notes of interest on this tiny house- the walls and roof were constructed from Structural Insulated Panels. The Grizzly woodstove provides primary heat while a mini split adds backup heat as well as air conditioning for those warm humid Missouri summers. This build came in around 13,000 lbs dry and a final price of $82,500.
Video tour:
https://youtu.be/jYtsH3onKZE
A few more pics:
And finally, Here is one of the art pieces we had to plan around…
The Pemberley 37′ Gooseneck
Meet the Pemberly. Just when we think we might have built the biggest, fanciest, most advanced tiny house in our repertoire, which has probably happened no less than 8 times now, we go and one up ourselves. Well, in truth, our customers keep one upping each other! We are just the facilitators. This is the nature of tiny houses these days. Always improving and evolving to meet the inhabitant’s needs. Long gone are the days of Jay Schafer and 14′ salt boxes. These early houses will forever hold a place in the tiny house movement, but this is 2017 and just as Dylan taught us, the times are a changing. I will be the first to say that this build won’t appeal to everyone, and there will most certainly be backlash in the form of “this isn’t what tiny is supposed to be”, but let me also be the first to point out that tiny is relative to one’s needs, and this house is designed for a family of five, so if having this extra space and nicer components is the key to making this lifestyle sustainable for this family, then it very much fits the definition of a tiny house. Counting the loft and catwalk, this design tops out at 460 sq ft.
This house is packed with so many features I will probably leave a few out, but I will try my best. We start out with a very custom Trailer Made 30’+7′ gooseneck trailer. This is the only one like it they have ever made because it includes Dexter air ride suspension axles. It might also be the last one because of how complicated and expensive the installation was! Nonetheless, Damon and the crew got the job done and I have to say that this air ride works like a dream and is so smooth!! You can control the firmness of the ride and adjust for weight variations with the flip of a compressor switch which increases PSI in the holding tanks. Air ride is literally a night and day difference over traditional leaf springs and trust me-I have towed A LOT of tiny houses!!
From here, we installed a Bigfoot 6 point Automatic Leveling System. With this add on, the owner can easily unhook the trailer from the truck and automatically level the house with the push of a key fob button. Some might consider this an unnecessary expense, but when your house is 37′ long and 21,000 lbs, it is actually quite nice, especially if you plan on moving often, which this family intends on doing since they are military based. 21k lbs? Did you read that correctly? Yes! She is a big gal, and not light at all, as you will soon see. A house of this magnitude will require a very large tow vehicle. These customers picked it up themselves in a 2017 Ford F-450 rated to tow 32,500 lbs. My Chevy dually one ton rated to pull 23k was not very happy toting the house around Durango to the scales or photo shoot site. We were able to leave the stock hand crank jacks on the trailer chassis in case the hydraulic jacks malfunction for any reason.
Sitting on top of the trailer frame are custom fabricated structural insulated panels (SIP’s) for ultimate strength, insulation, sound deadening, and ease of construction qualities. The simple floor plan consists of a bathroom on the rear of the trailer, followed by a large living room space, then the kitchen, storage/utility space, and a bedroom on the gooseneck. There is a master loft in the rear, and a third bedroom loft above the utility area. They are connected by a catwalk. The Devil, as they say, is in the details though.
Starting in the bathroom, these customers were very much in love with a super high quality round shower enclosure with exotic silestone walls, a lighted medicine cabinet, and a go to Nature’s Head toilet. An extremely powerful and efficient Rinnai tankless water heater is placed adjacent to the shower as well as a Frigidaire whole house dehumidifier to rid the house of excess moisture since this family has no idea where they might be stationed next, and, if living in a humid climate, keeping the air dry not only protects the house from mold issues but makes it more comfortable in the summer time. A Panasonic whisperwall vent also helps quietly push excess moisture out of the bathroom while taking a shower.
The living room is fairly uneventful as it will be filled and furnished by the owners. One special request we fulfilled was installing audio/video cables in the walls that are routed to one of the cabinets in the kitchen where all the A/V equipment will live out of sight. There are audio jacks for speakers and HDMI ports for video. There is a very unique ladder in this area that stores upright when not needed and swivels down when one needs to access the upper level, which I will discuss more a little later.
From the living room, you have a nice view of a Liberty Premium heavy duty safe for precious belongings that sits on a custom built storage drawer. Above this is the primary source of heat, a Kimberly woodstove! The absolute best woodstove you can buy for a tiny house!! You are then immediately drawn to the beautiful Orinoco granite countertops carefully installed over custom high end cherry Schuler cabinetry. A kitchen of this caliber would not be complete with top of the line appliances in the form of a Miele induction cooktop mated to a Miele Conactivity range hood that communicates with the cooktop and automatically adjusts fan output based on how much you are cooking, and to complete the ensemble a Miele combi steam oven . The customers did not stop here, however. They spec’d perhaps the best 10 cu ft fridge money can buy, a Bosch 800 series. We also installed a Kraus undermount sink accessorized with an InsinkErator hot water dispenser/filtration system for those chilly winter nights when you just don’t want to wait for water to heat up over the stove to make some hot tea or cocoa, or for the water heater to fire up to do a few dishes since it is located so far away from the faucet! The sink is also equipped with a hefty garbage disposal to macerate any food scraps and keep the drain system nice and happy! To finish the kitchen area out, we built a sink cover out of Alder that can act as extra prep space/chop block, and hide the dishes when life just can’t wait.
Moving into the utility area, we had to stray from Schuler cabinetry and move into shop-built mode to fit the space. There is a very generous pull out pantry for food and utensil storage which is neighbored by a LG 4.5 cu ft front loading washer and matching 7.5 cu ft dryer. Five family members means lots of laundry!! There are pull out drawers on bottom and doors on top for accessory storage. Across from this is a very large closet that will house the majority of this family’s clothing, the doors of which are adorned with beetle kill pine and steel trim motifs.
From here, the kiddos get to climb a steel pipe ladder up into their bedroom on top of the gooseneck!! We mounted handles all the around to make it as safe and fun as possible. The gooseneck bedroom has enough room to install a trundle bunk bed (sleeps two full time, but has a pull out bed on bottom for a temporary third guest) as well as a little room for toys and play time. This space can be closed off with a pocket door. There is also an inline fan installed above the door to provide air circulation for temperature control since the heating/cooling are more centrally located in the house.
Now, going back through the utility area, kitchen, and into the living space, you will wonder how do I get up to the loft spaces?? The owner had this concept of a ladder that could swivel upwards and out of the living room space for more versatility, but come back down when it was bed time. The solution to making this work proved to be quite simple. We took a heavy duty wheel caster, removed the wheel, and bolted the ladder in. A welded hook at just the right spot keeps a little tension on the ladder so it stays in place in the tucked position. When needed, they can simply push up a little, and rotate the ladder down to the floor. It has a ten degree angle for comfort and safer operation vs a straight ladder. The video at the very bottom demonstrates this a bit better.
The ladder takes you up onto the catwalk. Go left for the master bedroom, large enough for a king size bed and ample headroom due to the low slope gable roof, or go right to access the third bedroom of the house, which for the time being will just be a bonus room since the fifth member of the family was born just two days after they took delivery of the house (congrats!) , and I doubt this wee one will be climbing a ladder anytime soon. This room also has two closets with beetle kill/steel doors for even more storage.
In order to maintain a little bit of privacy in both of these rooms, yet keep an open feeling in the house, the owners also came to us with this concept of vertical louvers that could open and close as needed. Being that the loft framing was steel, the catwalk railing had steel elements, and we had trimmed out the doors on the first floor with steel, this material seemed like the obvious choice to construct this final piece of the puzzle. With lots of brainpower, a little bit of trial and error, and some extremely careful attention to detail, the team was able to execute this detail flawlessly!!! The louver assemblies can easily be removed to place mattresses or other furniture into the bedrooms. Major shoutout to Cameron for pulling this off! One other thing that you will see in the pictures while in the catwalk is a wall mounted white box. This is a Lunos Next heat recovery ventilator that will keep a constant supply of fresh air in the house while recovering hot or cold energy depending on the season. You might also notice another white wall mounted appliance on the opposite side which is the fan unit of a high efficiency mini split system that provides air conditioning and thermostatically controlled backup heat when that Kimberly dies down after 6 hours or so overnight.
The features of this tiny house don’t stop here! Moving back to the outside, you will notice a strange appendage on the back of the trailer. The owner approached us with a concept of a way to store his truck topper during transport since this is a gooseneck trailer and toppers must come off for towing. I spent countless hours brainstorming and fabricating this contraption, and am so ecstatic that it actually works!! A topper for a truck this size is quite large and bulky, so we had to think of a way to make the process as easy as possible. With another 400 hours of research and development, I’m sure we could have come up with something a little better, but for the beta version, I have to say works pretty darn well! It’s a little tricky to explain, but the frame folds out using telescoping braces on the bottom. A second person inserts pins in the steel tubes while the other person swings it out. The whole frame then lowers via a hand winch and a barn door track. Due to space constraints on the rear of the trailer we couldn’t make the frame get perfectly horizontal, but the angle is manageable for 3 people to both slide the topper off the truck and onto the frame, and vice versa. The topper is then strapped to the frame, winched back up, folded back in, and secured in place with some additional clevis pins and turnbuckles. The owner reports zero issues the first 400 miles of travel!
One other very special feature on the exterior are high output LED light strips at both the roof eave line and the house perimeter along the bottom. These lights are so bright they lit up our entire shop at night when we tested them out initially. While it would be a sight to see with these lights on rolling down the highway, they would probably be too bright for safety and the house has a 50A RV receptacle that the truck cannot accommodate. They will still get to enjoy these lights while parked!
Some other general notes about finishes in this house. The exterior is cedar board and batt painted purple with grey trim. The interior walls and ceiling are clear coated poplar t&g. Flooring is Kilmartin Pine engineered cork. They owners had us install a very nice Hunter Douglas window blind package.
Finally, this house is NOAH certified. With this certification, the owners were able to get it insured within a matter of hours before hitting the road down to El Paso. In addition to opening up insurance options, NOAH provides an a extra peace of mind that the build has been documented and certain safety standards have been met. This service adds about $1k to each build, but for many is a no brainer! We hope you enjoyed learning more about this wonderful build! Click below for a video tour!
10’X24′ Leadville Shell
Some really great folks out of Leadville, CO hired us to construct this 10×24 shell. They wanted us to assist with the design. erect the shell out of structural insulated panels, install roofing, Tyvek, windows, and a front door before driving it up to Leadville. The house needed to have stamped engineered drawings showing it could meet Leadville snow load, as well as good documention on attachment to the trailer and assembly of the SIP’s. We were happy and able to oblige! Since it was just a shell build, we didn’t really get too many great photos, but we are posting this project to not only let people know that we have the capability to do shell builds, even with SIP’s, build 10′ wide, deliver 10′ wide, and provide engineered drawings if your local jurisdiction requires. This will be the first legal tiny house in Leadville, and these customers had to work hand in hand with city officials to get it passed, but hopefully are establishing precedent for future residents in this town at 10,200′, as well as other cities across Colorado. This 10×24 SIP shell designed for 100 psf snow load as shown with roofing, windows, entry door, housewrap, and engineered drawings came in at 28k. It would slightly less if you don’t need that high of a snow load or engineered drawings.
10’x36′ Moby Dick Tiny House Shell
We are excited to announce the completion of our first 10′ wide tiny house build! Since permits to move a structure between 8′-6″ and 11′ to 14′ (depending on route) normally only cost $25 per state, we have seen a growing interest to have that extra 2′ width incorporated into designs, especially if the owner doesn’t plan on moving the tiny house very often.
The Melvilles approached us about this shell build back in the winter. They needed someone willing to build a 10×34 shell with a dried in exterior prior to turning it over to them for completion. We were happy to assist and take part in their dream tiny home build. You’ll note in the title that we call it a 36′ house. Technically the trailer base is 34′ long, but they wanted a four foot cantilever over the tongue that would serve as a “walk in closet”, so in the end the house averages out to 36′ long. Not only is the house long and wide, but it is oversize in height, topping out at 14′-6″ instead of the normal 13′-6″. Since it was going to require a permit for the width, the same permit covers the extra height, and our travel route did not have any restrictions for this height, so we figured why not get an extra foot of head height in the loft?
Being as their last name is Melville, akin to Herman Melville who wrote the American Classic Moby Dick, and this is the largest tiny house we have ever constructed, the giant whale’s name was befitting! In addition to the finished exterior with corrugated wainscot, board and batt, and cedar lap siding, doors, windows, and roofing, the scope of work included welded steel loft structures with beetle kill pine decking, a few interior walls framed, a roughed in 6″ chimney for a woodstove, and custom fabricated steel stair stringers allowing for maximum clear space underneath the stairs, in which there is a doggie door that we installed and appliances that the owners will install later.
This spacious tiny house shell priced out at $39k before delivery. At this size and level of completion, materials were most of the cost. The trailer alone was 25% of the budget! A note about towing this house. While my four door long bed one ton dually truck was able to transport the shell, probably only weighing around 11,000 lbs, I doubt that it could have towed the finished house. The finished house is likely going to be in the 17-19k range, and while the Duramax Diesel and Allison tranny could probably handle the weight, the truck itself couldn’t safely handle the inertia of this behomith. I never felt the powerplant bogging down, but I sure did feel that trailer pushing my truck around, especially with light wind gusts. A trailer hauler or mobile home semi truck is likely the key to safely moving a house this size.
2017 Colorado Tiny House Festival
Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses is pleased to announce a partnership with Einstyne Tiny Homes and Trailer Made Custom Trailers to bring you the inaugural Colorado Tiny House Festival to be held at the magical Wild Animal Sanctuary near Keenesburg, CO from July 28-30.
We will have a slew of tiny house builders, tiny house related vendors, speakers, DIY builds, and much more. Tickets can be purchased in advance for $10 per day or $18 for the whole weekend. They will be $15 at the gate each day, or $40 for the weekend. Please visit the event website for more info!
FLAGSTAFF 34′ GOOSENECK
This is lovely 26+7′-6″ Gooseneck tiny house commissioned by a friendly couple down in Flagstaff, AZ. These customers had a beautiful lot abutting national forest that allowed for tiny houses. The were concerned about fire safety, so except for the vinyl windows and rubber tires, the entire exterior was clad in steel using a combination of light gray standing seam panels with a rib profiled charcoal panel. It’s a very modern yet playful feel. A simple shed roof simplifies construction and exemplifies the clean exterior lines even more. We missed the chance to photograph this house since Greg was out of town during its completion, but the owners were kind enough to provide a few shots upon delivery.
On the interior, a near complete juxtaposition of style with Beetle Kill Pine just about everywhere except for the flooring, appliances, and bathroom. The kitchen holds the rear of the house and features an electric range, 10 cu ft fridge, stainless steel apron sink with a tall spray faucet, live edge open shelving, live edge slab countertops, and hickory cabinets.
From the kitchen, you move into the dining area which features a Hobbit woodstove and live edge folding table. Opposite these attractions are storage stairs that go up to a guest loft.
Above the folding table is a large picture window carefully placed so they can enjoy the views of town and mountains.
This space meshes with the living area that is shown as a white wall in the picture below, but they placed a couch along this wall and not visible is a thick live edge pine shelf up above to display prized belongings.
Beyond the living room is a short hallway that takes you into the bathroom, or up a few stairs with pull out drawers into the gooseneck. The bathroom is a wet bath design with a fully tiled floor, and three tiled walls forming a shower area, fed by an overhead rain shower head. There is a flush toilet and a large vessel sink placed on another slab of live edge beetle kill pine. Not completely visible is the sliding barn door and medicine cabinet above the vanity.
Walking up into the gooseneck brings one into the master bedroom. Here, you have standing height and room for a king size bed if desired. Envision now, that you are turning around and facing the rear of the house. On the opposite side from which you came up the stairs, there is one more step that takes you up on a platform that is above the bathroom below. This area is the closet space. It also houses a combo W/D for the few times a month laundry needs done. It is kneeling room access, but makes for a lot more hanging clothes storage than most other tiny houses have. You will also notice the electric on demand water heater and two trap doors in the floor for additional storage. A similarly equipped house would run in the 80k range.
Ol’ Berthoud Blue
This here is a very unique build. Alden had great aspirations of building her own tiny house. She had gone to Tumbleweed workshops, bought Tumbleweed plans, purchased a Tumbleweed Trailer, windows, roofing, lumber, and other materials. She had even started construction on the house, only to find it was a little more difficult than she had anticipated. The plans were difficult to read and things just weren’t jiving the way she had envisioned. She needed help! Luckily, a quick google search revealed that RMTH did consulting as well, so she paid for a few hours of consulting with us and we got her back on track. It didn’t take much longer for Alden to realize she was still just a little in over her head, and also that those stock plans just wasn’t what she wanted.
Luckily again, we got to meet at the Tiny House Jamboree where she hired us to start over from scratch and build her the house she had really envisioned. She carefully took apart what she had built, flat packed all the other materials she had purchased on the trailer, and hauled it all down to our shop in Durango. We set out to work by modifying the trailer to accommodate the new design and after two months, voila! Another beautiful creation from the RMTH workshop!
The kitchen features modern Ikea cabinets with a custom stainless countertop, including a large sink and triple burner cooktop. A custom built dish rack not only stores dishes but lets them drip dry into the sink. Opposite the kitchen is a built in dining table that converts to a daybed for lounging or overnight guests. The bottom panels pull out for additional storage below. Behind the dining set is a small counter that can be used for prep space or a small office area. Behind this is a compartment housing a 60 gallon freshwater tank for instances when they aren’t hooked up to domestic water since this house is intended to be on the road a lot over the coming years. The walnut top comes off for access and can used for more prep space when access is not needed.
A shop built pull out pantry provided plenty of food storage. A 7.3 cu ft Fridge sits to the left.
Moving further back, one enters the largest bathroom we’ve ever built in a tiny house. To be fair, it doubles as closet and storage space. The standout feature in this bath is a Japanese wood Ofuro soaking tub, provided by Alden. We fabricated a curved metal shower curtain ring for those days when a 1 hour soak just isn’t feasible. Opposite the bathing area are L-shaped wall shelves that can be adjusted as needed. In the far back corner is a separate water closet room containing a Nature’s Head compost toilet. The small pedestals you see are our version of the famed Squatty Potty! The stock version didn’t fit well in the space, so we designed our own!
In the other back corner are winder stairs with built in storage that lead up to the very spacious and bright loft. Built in cubbies at the end of the loft provide a little privacy from the kitchen space below, built don’t completely shut if off for light and air flow since the mini split fan is mounted on the other side of the cubbies. They also store the A/V equipment that bring to life a projector screen and full surround sound. This customer knows how to watch movies! Two skylights are installed for even more light and star gazing at night.
Since the customer provided much of the materials including the trailer, some lumber, windows, metal roofing, cabinets, tub, faucets, and other small bits and pieces, it is difficult to determine what the final price would be had we provided everything, but our best guess would put such a price around $87k. The Alfi cedar tub and faucet were were $2k+! This tiny house is definitely in the luxury category and was a very time consuming build. The customer was extremely pleased with the end product and cannot wait to begin her cross country travels.
20′ BITTERROOT VALLEY
A retired woman with land in the gorgeous Beulah Valley outside of Pueblo, CO contacted us in the spring of 2016 about constructing a modest tiny house on a budget. She was really into reclaimed materials , simplicity, off grid living, and thermal efficiency. We just so happened to have an 18′ Bitterroot Valley SIP package that had been sitting at the shop for quite some time just waiting for the right customer to come along. 18′ was slightly on the small side for her, so using some cutouts from previous SIP projects, we were able to lengthen the design to 20′.
The original Bitterroot Valley design pays homage to the many tried and true barns still in existence and dotted throughout the gorgeous Bitterroot Valley in southwestern Montana. These vernacular structures have weathered time and dutifully served the inhabitants of this serene valley for decades. The form of a barn, or gambrel style roof, originated from the necessity of housing livestock on the bottom floor of the barn, while being able to store as much hay as possible in the loft, all while maintaining pleasant proportions of wall to roof and simplifying construction, minimizing materials, and increasing functional performance ( metal roofs are easier to waterproof than wood walls). These principals can just as easily be applied to tiny houses!
Compared to a gable roof, the sleeping loft does indeed have more volume. Compared to a low slope shed roof, it has less volume, however, the average height of the house is less, there is less wall framing, and the trailer is not asymmetrically loaded-in other words, it tows a little better. In our opinion, the gambrel roof also adds some nice architectural interest that boxier shapes just can’t do-“Homey” as some might call it.
Since budget was a higher priority than material choices, we were also able to empty the shop out of lots of leftover materials from previous projects. We had some rough cut lap cedar no one wanted, so we used that for the wainscot. We had quite a bit of reclaimed corrugated metal with a little bit more rust than most folks desired, so this made up the rest of the siding, except for the gambrel gables, where we used some pre-painted cedar shakes we acquired from a garage sale for pennies on the dollar.
On the interior, we utilized some 1/8″ luan with a very birch-like appearance that had been ripped into 8″ widths for use on a previous SIP build but the customer later changed their mind. We had some other odds and ends laying around the shop that we were happy to part with and gave her a great deal on! All she wanted in the kitchen was simple cubbies under the counter and enough space for an under the counter fridge. The loft is accessed via stairs with simple cubbies and a closet for clothes storage. The living room was left open. She intends to do all of the painting/staining and accessorizing on her own, but as delivered it was move in ready.
The utilities in this house are the simplest we’ve ever installed. She did not require a shower, only a lovable loo compost toilet. We did leave for a shower to be installed in the future, if needed. The kitchen features a single bowl sink with a pump faucet that pulls water from a 6 gallon container below. It drains to daylight under the house. There is no other plumbing in the house! A pair of 30 lb propane tanks power a two burner cooktop and an RV furnace for heat in the winter. The house was wired for 110v AC with LED lights and a few receptacles. This is tied into a 1000 watt solar system with battery bank and an Outback Flex power station.
We were able to complete this house for $39k, and the solar added another $6,400. For those interested, a similar build that included a shower, hot water heater, full plumbing, and larger appliances would run more in the $46k range, pre-off grid options.