A nice young couple from New Mexico commissioned this sharp 8×28 build. They both worked as Helitack wildland firefighters, and were getting lots of assignments around the Bandelier National Monument close to Los Alamos, NM. They were able to secure an employee housing spot within the monument to park the tiny house, hence the name. Bandelier is a really cool place to visit, if you’ve never been!

This build is unique in that we took over construction part way through. They first came across the tiny house as a very well built shell, assembled by a professional painter in Sante Fe. The seller had purchased a kit from a different builder that included the trailer and a Volstrukt steel frame kit. He then purchased and installed the windows, roofing, and siding. As a quasi-DIY shell build, I was very impressed with the quality and told the customers it would make a very good starting point. I drove down to Sante Fe and hauled the shell back to Durango.

We started with a re-design that mostly worked with what was already in place, but also accommodated their needs. We removed one window, added another in a different location, filled in a door, resized seom other windows, and shortened the loft length. The light gauge metal framing is a tad different to work with than traditional wood framing, but not outside of our expertise.

After getting all the electrical roughed in and blocking added where needed, we had the entire assembly spray foamed. We then got to work installing painted pine t&g for the wall finishes, and brown stained t&g for the ceiling boards. This was followed up by solid white oak flooring, custom built-ins, and all the pretty details you see in the photos!

You enter through a craftsman style door painted, blue. The living room is to your right, or at the front of the trailer. They searched a long time for a sleeper sofa that would fit this space just right! We installed some stained pine bookshelves higher up on the wall. You will also notice a Dwarf Tiny Woodstove on a tiled hearth with firewood storage below.

To the left of the door and in the center of the house lies the kitchen, complete with custom cabinetry, quartz counters with a breakfast peninsula, gas cooktop, electric oven, microwave vent hood, large porcelain sink, and a slightly larger fridge. Next to this fridge is a closet that houses a Navien on demand water heater but also provides ample clothes storage. Stairs are opposite the kitchen counter and are chock full of concealed storage. These customers did not require a handrail for the stairs, but typically this is something we would install.

At the back of the trailer is the bathroom. The customers requested a full size tub with a faux stone surround and higher quality valve/wand system. The other side has a flushing toilet and vessel sink vanity with an oak medicine cabinet above.

Upstairs, the loft is spacious and airy. It easily fits a queen size bed with room to get around. Built-in shelving at the foot of the bed provides some additional storage and a little extra privacy from down below.

This is a higher end build, and as such, expect pricing to be around 100k for a similar build.

We built this cute tiny house for a local woman wanting to initially park at the nearby Hermosa Orchards Tiny House Village, but eventually place it on purchased land somewhere in La Plata County.

This was before the State of Colorado adopted new tiny house laws, and county permitting/inspection was still a viable option, so this unit is La Plata County inspected and able to be parked anywhere in the county where the snow load is less than 70psf. We have the ability to work with snow loads up to 150psf, but it adds expense and just wasn’t necessary for this project.

Unfortunately, we we lost all photos except for this one posted in Instagram way back when. The interior layout is almost identical to the 20′ Shakalo Tiny House , but as you can see, the exterior has a completely different aesthetic-more of a modern farmhouse look with white board and batt, cedar accents, and black windows/roofing.

20′ Builds similar to this are finishing out in the $60-65k range.

We love it when one of our tiny house builds has a good story. Truth be told, every tiny house has a good story, this one in particular just happens to have one of the most interesting stories of any RMTH build!

It begins in the summer of 2019. A lovely woman from Finland named Janna contacted us about a unique build. She was inspired by the San Juan as well as several other whimsical tiny houses from the likes of Zyl Vardos, Tiny House Baluchon, and others.

Janna is a screenplay writer who not only wanted to use the house to live in, but use as a prop for some of the films she was writing for. The tiny house was to travel between the Nayarit region of Mexico and various places across the southwest US. We started construction of this house in the height of the Covid 19 Pandemic in winter/spring of 2020.

International travel to the US was banned for much of a 2020, and even when it let up, there were still restrictions that made it prohibitive for Janna to travel to the US to take delivery of the house. The house ended up staying at our shop until the summer of 2022, at which point I was able to deliver it to a really beautiful place in Utah where Janna had a long time friend with a place to park it until things were such that Janna could make it to the US and finally enjoy her lovely tiny house!

Not only did the design need to have a certain aesthetic, but it needed to have very specific functional requirements. Janna has a medical condition akin to muscular dystrophy. She has to walk with a cane and her day to day movements are very limited. We worked very closely with Janna down the centimeter to insure we optimized several measurements to accommodate her needs as best as possible. This included details such as placing shelves in the shower at a certain height so she could rest her elbows on them to assist in bathing. We made the sure the bed platform was a certain height to make getting in and out of bed easier. There is a little slide out shelf with locking slides under the bed that helps her in getting shoes on and off.

Janna wanted to keep the house small enough such that moving it to/from Mexico was easier. At the same time, it had to be large enough to accommodate a fixed downstairs sleeping arrangement as well as her other living needs. We settled on a 22′ trailer length and this seems to have fit the bill just right.

You enter from a fold down deck made of welded aluminum tubing and cedar deck boards to keep things light. We also fabricated a ramp from the same materials. It hooks onto the deck when in use, and stores beneath the trailer for travel. We crafted a narrow set of French Doors from Alder to somewhat mimic the look of the heavy wood doors common in Mexico architecture. A little bit of decorative tile at the entryway comprise a teeny “mud room” of sorts.

From here, closet storage is straight ahead, the bathroom is to your right, and the kitchen to your left.

The kitchen was designed to accommodate life in Mexico. There’s room under the sink to store 5 gallon water jugs, which are common for drinking water since a lot of places in Mexico do not have municipal water. She went with a smaller fridge to allow for more storage. All the cabinetry was custom built per Janna’s request. It is a mix of drawers, open shelves-some with custom brackets, and a double pull out pantry. The countertops are live edge honey locust. I’ve never worked with this wood before, but have to say it is stunning! The open shelves are made from white oak that was leftover from the hardwood floor planks. We sourced some porthole windows to go up high near the ceiling.

The loft is intended as a caretakers sleeping quarters. Janna wanted it to be accessible from both the interior and exterior sides of the house, while also being able to be closed off from the main space, so each person could have privacy. To achieve this, we crafted short arch top French Doors that open to the outside. A telescoping ladder can be used to get down to grade, or a set of stairs could be built if parked at a longer term place. There are interior French Doors opening into the main space, and a telescoping ladder hooks on to the loft framing for up/down access. We had to fabricate a custom latch that can operate from either side of these doors. The roof is domed in this part of the house, so this loft has a very unique feel to it!

Between the kitchen and sleeping area lives the dining table and woodstove. This area kinda functions as office/living room space when not eating or sleeping. Janna chose a cream colored Hobbit stove. It is placed in an alcove built from handmade Zia tile in a teal color. Janna did not want to see a traditional metal heat shield for the stovepipe, so we installed non combustible backer board and finished it with clay plaster paint. The whole effect here is stunning!

The dining table was also made from a slab of honey locust wood. A custom steel bracket allows it to float to maximize leg space underneath.

At the back of the trailer is the sleeping area. The bed platform fits a long full size mattress. The headboard has hinged tops for storage. There is also storage below the platform in the form of long pull out drawers, and doors to place bulky items. The round hobbit on the back wall and two casement windows on either side really give this space a special feel.

Back to the front of trailer, we find the wet bath, accessed through a sliding barn door. This space features a simple compost toilet, a wall cabinet made from barn wood to house the water heater and off grid water pump, a small hand sink, and the curb-less shower area. The walls and floors are waterproofed with Kerdi membrane, and then finished with a sealed plaster finish. We integrated a linear floor drain for the shower.

This build has a 50 gallon freshwater tank and 50 gallon grey water tank mounted beneath the trailer. We designed the electrical system and closet area to one day accept solar equipment, so this design has the potential to be off grid. Walls are 8″ shiplap, while the ceiling is 4″ pine t&g. The flooring is wide plank white oak, with a white tint stain. Exterior siding is cedar rustic channel with an aqua stain. The roof is 18″ wide aluminum coil to conform to the curves and resist corrosion should the house be parked near the ocean.

There’s just oodles and oodles of miniature details throughout this build we could spend all day talking about, but for now we will let the photos do the rest of the talking. This was a very time consuming build and required great skill to execute the complex roof shape, so for the size it is definitely on the higher end of the spectrum. Expect to spend around 85k+ for a similar build.

Here is clean, simple, spacious build with a downstairs bedroom. It was designed as a mother-in-law suite and is parked about 30 yards from the main house. We get a lot of inquiries for tiny houses in this regard, and I personally feel it can be wonderful solution for families who want or need to be close to each other, but can still have separate spaces.

You enter on driver side from a wood deck we installed on site. Decks and other site installed accessories are items we can include, but I never seem to advertise very much. This is a good example.

Upon entering the house, the bathroom is to your left, the living area straight ahead, and the kitchen to your right. These customers had some antique furniture they wished to incorporate into the build. One was a large oak hutch. We split it in two, using the upper part as dinnerware storage opposite the main kitchen. It has been painted blue to match the other cabinets. The lower part was left natural oak and placed in the bedroom as a dresser.

The kitchen features a 10 cu ft fridge, apron sink, Breveille toaster/oven, 2 burner induction cooktop, microwave vent hood, floating shelves, and LOTS of cabinetry. Adjacent the kitchen is a small dining area featuring an antique leaf table provided by the customer. We had to modify the legs to work around the wheel well.

Passing through a pocket door takes you into the bedroom. In addition to the oak dresser, there is a small closet and a full size bed, with storage built in below.

There are two lofts for when the grandkids want to sleep over, or any guests.

On the front of the trailer is the bathroom. There is room here for a 32″ shower enclosure, combo washer/dryer, 28 gallon tank water heater (the house is setup all electric, so tankless was not an option for 50A service), a vessel vanity with sitting space for doing makeup, and a Biolet composting toilet. I did not get photos of the bathroom, but you can see it in the video below.

Exterior finish is a mix of stained cedar t&g, and corrugated metal. Ceilings are beetle kill pine, and walls are are 8″ shiplap. A mini split provides heating/cooling. The house has 50A electric service. Expect a similar build to run about $120k.

A semi-retired couple here in Durango commissioned this spacious 10×32 build, completed in the summer of 2020. We worked closely with them to accommodate their aging living needs, mainly, more space to get around, a non lofted bedroom, and plenty of storage since they were downsizing from something much larger and still had several belongings to house until deciding what needed to stay and what needed to go!

This house was framed with SIP’s for better insulation, and easy install since the roof line is dormered and all these angles get CNC cut at the factory! It’s also nice not having to worry about stud spacing when finishing out the interior.

The design is interesting in that it’s three levels. You enter on the main level that includes the kitchen and living room. The kitchen features all shop-built cabinetry to maximize space and function. It has a slightly larger 17 cu ft fridge, a 24″ range+microwave hood, dishwasher, 30″ apron sink with a garden window above, quartz counters, and a mosaic backsplash.

The living room was sized to fit two super comfy chairs and ottomans the customers provided.

From here, you take two steps up to get to the bathroom level. This area is where the wheel wells are, so elevating it allowed us to utilize the full width of the house without having to deal with wheel wells. Underneath, we ran plumbing drain pipes+other utilities, and what space was leftover is used for storage, accessed from wall panels that can be removed when needed using magnetic clips.

The bathroom features a fully tiled shower, vanity with vessel sink, flush toilet, linen cabinets, and a stackable washer+dryer. The ceiling is vaulted for some additional storage up high above the w/d, but also to help the space feel a little larger than it actually is, although for a tiny house, it’s a large bathroom to begin with!

Back in the hallway and another three storage steps up brings you into the bedroom.

The queen size bed nests into an endwall bumpout, not only buying a little extra walkaround space, but creating a cozy nook area with his and her reading lights. The bed platform has 6 deep drawers below, and we also built a custom clothes closet next to the bed. This rear part of the house has a small bump out that allows the bed to scoot back and open up some walking space at the foot of the bed, and also gives it a slight ‘den’ like feel. Also at the foot of the bed, we were able to design a dropped ceiling over the vanity in the bathroom, which turns into a legde on the bedroom side for storage and TV space.

Underneath the bedroom area is a storage garage, accessed from the exterior with a custom built short door. We also installed a Navien on demand water heater in this area. It’s a bit more robust than the standard units we install for those needing a higher flow or hotter temp of hot water.

The interior features aspen t&g ceilings and mostly painted drywall finishes, with some wood wainscot in the living room. An 18k btu mini split provides heat/AC, with a backup propane heater installed in the living room. Exterior siding is a mix of whitewashed cedar t&g, stained cedar trim, and standing seam metal. Windows are black Anderson 100 series. A similar build with 2024 pricing would run about 140k.

Greetings! This update is two fold, the first pertaining to our build schedule, certifications, and other boring stuff. The second is that the San Juan tiny house has sold. Thanks to all who reached out about it or dropped us kind words.

Now that I no longer have a “big” house to build, I can devote more time to the business. A LOT more time. We’re ramping production capability back up. I was limiting the build calendar to one house at a time to keep things manageable, but now we’ll go back to doing at least two builds at once, maybe a tad more depending on the project (small simple builds, and shell builds are easier to slip in).

Our commitment to quality, customization, and value will always take priority over quantity, so rest assured anyone ordering a tiny house from us will receive the best service possible. In fact, with our new facility starting to get really dialed in, our process and final product is only getting better.

This said, we now have build slots starting as soon as July 2024. Please keep us in mind if you are having difficulty finding a builder with availability this summer or fall. Plenty of 2025 slots available too!

If you are a customer wanting a tiny house build within the state of Colorado, we are in serious conversations with the state to get setup as an approved Manufacturer. To our knowledge, no other builder has signed up as the date of this blog post. Expect this to change very soon!

We are also in talks with Pacific West Associates to get setup as an accredited ANSI 119.5 Builder., aka RV certified. We have resisted RV certification for years, because we don’t build recreational vehicles, we build quality tiny dwellings. Unfortunately, the tiny house industry as at a point in its development that most tiny house buyers require this certification in order to obtain legal parking, financing, insurance, and more. While I don’t feel it is the best long term solution, it is a current and obtainable solution for anyone who needs it. We can also still provide NOAH certification for anyone wanting this.

A lot of Colorado builders have closed down shop in the past year or two. It’s a shame since most of them were friends of mine, and also did wonderful work. The tiny house community misses them already. I count my blessings that RMTH was able to “stick it out” and keep on doing what we love best, building awesome tiny houses at a great value.

Thanks for checking in!

Happy New Year all you beautiful tiny house enthusiasts! It’s a balmy 0 degrees F here at my shop as I write this. Unless you are of the blood type who actually enjoys this kind of frigid weather, I hope you find yourself in more pleasant environs. If not, I at least hope you are in warm spirits!

2023 Brought great challenges to RMTH. We persevered and turned lemons into lemonade! Here is a sneak peak of some of the builds to come out of the new shop:

A crisp 8×28 build delivered to Silverton at the start of the year

A rustic yet elegant 10×24 delivered to Wyoming

A 10×40, our largest build yet! So big it required a huge tow truck to move!

A posh 8×30 destined for central Arizona

In due time, all these builds will get the fully detailed blog posts they deserve, but for now we just wanted to share a tid bit.

Last but not least is the new house my wife and I have been building for ourselves. It’s a modest 1400 sq ft home with a modern farmhouse kind of style. We got the exterior complete in November and have since been working on utilities and a little interior finish out. Things should really speed up once we pass the utility inspections. Like most construction projects, it fell behind schedule and our dream of moving in before Christmas is now looking more like March, but at least we didn’t bust the budget and have a comfortable place to live in the meantime (The San Juan, which is soon to be for sale FYI).

Pending completion of this house, production at the RMTH facility is going to ramp back up big time!! With this in mind, we are re-opening the doors for new orders. We are currently booked to the end of May, so anything from June on is fair game.

PLEASE PLEASE take note: while we have made a little bit of progress towards getting setting up with the State of Colorado to be a certified manufacturer for ANY tiny house build to be placed in Colorado, life constraints just haven’t afforded the opportunity to get fully certified. For this reason, WE ARE NOT ACCEPTING ORDERS FOR ANY TINY HOUSE BEING DELIVERED WITHIN COLORADO!! I know, it’s a bummer having to snub our home state, but we didn’t make the rules. We do however, have to abide by them! So, until we achieve this certification some time between Spring and Summer 2024, NO COLORADO ORDERS. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we sort this matter out.

So, if you are wanting a tiny house in any other state before the end of 2024, we can make it happen. Please visit the Contact page to get in touch. That is it for now. The RMTH crew wishes you all a healthy and prosperous 2024!!!

Happy Autumn! We have had a rare cancellation for our December/January build slot coming up shortly. If you are looking for a high quality RMTH build, but don’t want to wait til next fall, this an excellent opportunity to skip the line! Please reach out ASAP!

Things continue to be hectic here at RMTH!! We now have three builds out the door of our new facility. We are continually organizing and making improvements while starting to find our groove here. We went from one of the biggest winters on record, to a very cool and pleasant spring, to one of the hottest summers on records. Climate change is real! Luckily we have this fancy new insulated shop to help buffer out the extremes!

As a small family run business, family matters greatly affect the business. Shortly after getting settled into the new shop earlier this year, my wife Stephanie and I broke ground on our new foundation build house. Tiny living will always be near and dear to us. It’s how we met. I’ve been living tiny since around 2005. Sadly, banks don’t really recognize tiny houses as proper real estate.

In order to secure the construction loan for the land, shop, and new house, we had to conform to a minimum 3 bedroom 2 bathroom layout to collateralize the loan. And truth be told, our 8×26 San Juan house was getting to be a little cramped for 2 humans and 2 furballs. Those who live in a similar situation can likely relate. Those following tiny house trends know that they have only been getting bigger and bigger. The current build in progress is a 10×40, with an 8×30, two more 10×40’s, and a 10×30 all in the queue. It would seem the romantic days of a Jay Schafer 7×14 tiny house are distant memories!

I digress. The point here being that because of this other rather time consuming construction project, my ability to field inquiries is extremely limited. I have once again decided to close the doors to ALL new orders until mid October 2023. We do still have a few 2024 slots available for those interested.

Furthermore, the new Colorado tiny houses rules have gone into effect July 1, 2023. In a nutshell, these rules require me to do a MASSIVE amount of paperwork and other compliance tasks that I simply do not have the time or energy to deal with until our new residence is complete this winter. In light of this, we are closing the doors to any customer wishing to place an order for a tiny house to be located in Colorado. Sad, I know, but we do not wish to operate outside the bounds of the law, and until we can comply with these requirements, it is what it is. If you are wanting a house that will never be parked in Colorado, we can still help. We hope to be setup with the state around January, so the hiatus shouldn’t be too long.

To all of those who have been unsuccessful contacting me via phone or email, I sincerely apologize and hope you have been able to find another solution to your tiny house needs. I’m still here running things in the background, I just need some time to get through this next chapter in my personal life, and thus the business.

With humble gratitude,

Greg

PS For any of you wanting to follow the progress of our “normal” house, Stephanie posts constant updates on Instagram @bondad_homestead

Wow, what a winter it has been! While we haven’t had the amount of snow the California Sierras have been posting, it has been a lot, at least for this neck of the woods! That, and the colder-than-normal temps have both played a part in the tardiness of this long overdue update.

It is with great pride and jubilation that I announce the completion of our new facility! As usual, we encountered obstacles that were not anticipated, it took way longer than expected, and we went over budget. However, we persevered and got ‘er done.

To make matters more interesting, our old shop suffered catastrophic damage New Years Eve from heavy snow. We were getting close to moving by this point, but weren’t quite ready. Oh well, sometimes mother nature forces your hand! So, with tons of snow everywhere and more falling weekly, we had to dig out, start relocating stuff from the old shop out one trailer load at a time, and drop it all in the new shop whilst trying to complete said new shop, also breaking down fixtures and structures at the old shop. And did I mention we still had tiny house builds going!? That was a slogfest I hope to never endure again!

Anyhow, most of this mess is behind us now. We still have quite a bit of fine tuning in the new shop in regards to organization and final finish out, but for the time being we are operational. This whole period from mid January to mid March, I did not have a proper office. Just my smart phone and an old laptop. Our office phone number was defunct. SO, if you have been trying to reach us via phone or email the past few months with no success, I sincerely apologize!

As of March 15, the new office is up and running. Our phone line has been reinstated. We have heat! I was able to retrieve some voicemails to about February 20. If you called before that, they are gone forever, I’m sorry. Maybe try again if you still need to chat.

Now that this is covered, let’s get into the biggest question everyone wants an answer to: timeline.

As it stands, 2023 is full. For 2024, we are booked into April. So any time after this is up for grabs! The spring and summer slots will likely fill quickly now that I have re-opened the flood gates. Fall and winter will likely be open for a while. Nothing booked for 2025 yet.

Pricing. After about 6 years of keeping labor rates low, I have finally had to raise them due to inflation. My crew works hard and they all have mouths to feed. When you purchase a custom tiny house from us, you are supporting a fine group of skilled, caring individuals who love what they do day in and day out. Material prices seem to have stabilized finally. Lumber is back to pre-covid rates. I have not raised any of my other fees and remain committed to providing an outstanding value for what you receive. So, total costs will be a little higher from here out, but not outrageously high-hopefully still attainable for most everyone looking for affordable tiny housing.

That about sums up the current state of affairs. We are so excited to be operating out of our new building! A special thanks to everyone who had a hand in it. Way too many people to list here, but you know who you are 🙂 However, I would to thank one person in particular, and that is my lovely wife Stephanie. None of this could have truly happened without your support. Thanks honey bunny!