Tiny Living in a Big World

The Tandy 24′ Tiny House

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“I know about her, although she has never crossed my path,” he said softly. “I know about her struggles and her defeats. It is because of her defeats that she is to me the lovely one. Out of her defeats has been born a new quality in woman. I have a name for it. I call it Tandy. I made up the name when I was a true dreamer and before my body became vile. It is the quality of being strong to be loved. It is something men need from women and that they do not get.”   
  The stranger arose and stood before Tom Hard. His body rocked back and forth and he seemed about to fall, but instead he dropped to his knees on the sidewalk and raised the hands of the little girl to his drunken lips. He kissed them ecstatically. “Be Tandy, little one,” he pleaded. “Dare to be strong and courageous. That is the road. Venture anything. Be brave enough to dare to be loved. Be something more than man or woman. Be Tandy.” – “Winesburg, Ohio” by Sherwood Anderson

A young woman in the Air Force commissioned us to build this eclectic 24′ tiny house. This is one of her favorite quotes, and Tandy is the name she chose for this interesting build. It is currently parked in San Angelo, TX, but she expects to be re-stationed any time soon, so who knows where Tandy will end up next!

One of the most unique features of this build is the amount of reclaimed material incorporated, both to save on cost and have a lower carbon footprint. Except for the cedar fascia boards, and new windows, the siding is almost entirely reclaimed corrugated metal and barnwood. Even the oak oval door was found at a local salvage yard! 

On the inside, there are mixed and matched cabinets, scraps of barnwood and plywood given new life as stair boxes, storage cubbies, and trim, old wrought iron railings re purposed as shelf brackets, an antique Bates and Bates dimpled brass sink for the bathroom vanity, and more! It’s not everyone’s taste, but it turned out absolutely perfect for what she was wanting! 

Not everything was reclaimed, but by incorporating these less expensive items, we were able to include some nicer creature comforts such as over the range Microwave Convection oven and hood, a very large farm sink, oak butcher block counters in the kitchen, concrete counter in the bathroom, LG 10 cu ft fridge, washer dryer combo, Fujistu mini split, ceiling fan, an outdoor shower, and an aluminum ladder to access the roof, all for about $67k.

Two other cool features are the accommodations for her pets: two dogs and a cat. The dogs have a habit of harassing kitty and getting into trouble when she is not home, so we designed and fabricated an inverted loft with doggie den below. The doors can be kept shut with a barrel bolt, and later down the line if desired, easily removed. We measured eye level of the pups and installed a window for them to look out while mom was gone.  Above the den is the living room space/guest bed area that houses a sleeper sofa (not shown). Three steps up a ship’s ladder coming off a raised platform (the entry door was placed over the wheel well, so you also get drawer storage under this platform) get you up to this hangout level. 

Kitty has unrestricted movement and lots of places to play and lounge. This is the main reasoning of the fluctuating cabinets and cubbies along the low side wall-they double as a catwalk. We hid the kitty litter box under the vanity in the bathroom and cut a hole just big enough for the cat to enter, but small enough to keep the dogs out (some dogs like to eat cat poop for some reason!)

We hope you enjoy perusing this build, we had a lot of fun building it! 

 

  

4 Reasons Why You Should Build Your Own Tiny House

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The idea to build your own tiny house can seem quite daunting at first. In this day and age, however, building a tiny house is becoming easier and more affordable. With the option to purchase a DIY kit or tiny house plan, building your own has never been easier. Here are four reasons why you should consider a DIY tiny house project.

tiny house frame

The frame for a tiny house.

 

You Don’t Have to be a Professional

Don’t think you have the skills to build your own tiny house? Think again. With our detailed plan sets, all of the instruction needed for the entire house- from the exterior frame to the electrical and plumbing- are included. If you can put together Ikea furniture, you can put together a tiny house.

Save Money

Having a tiny house built requires not only the up-front cost of the tiny house itself, but also a builder’s fee. When you choose to build your own tiny house, you can skip the builder’s fee and put this money toward other modifications to your home.

Our DIY Plans start at $79, and are a great starting point for your project. The best part? You can purchase materials and supplies as you need them rather than all at once.

penny floor

Pennies line a portion of the floor in a custom tiny house.

 

Customize Where it Matters

Remember that money you saved on the builder’s fee? Put that towards a nicer mattress, smart appliances or decor. When building your own tiny house, you can add your own personal touch, an option that is not available when buying a pre-built tiny house.

Voight Tiny House

There’s no better feeling than finally moving into a tiny house that you built.

 

Take Pride in the Finished Product

When your tiny house project is completed, you’ll be able to look back and say that you built your home with your own two hands, a feat that not many can say they have done.

Compared to traditional homes, building a tiny house is much easier and cost-effective. Our DIY Plans are available for purchase at any time, and come in four different options: the Crestone, Boulder, Wasatch and Silverthorne Gooseneck. If at any time you feel overwhelmed or stuck, don’t hesitate to give us a call. Our builders are more than happy to help you during the building phase.

 

Tiny House Plans We Offer

Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses - Crestone

Crestone 14′ – Learn More

 

 

Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses - Boulder

Boulder 16′ – Learn More

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses - Wasatch

Wasatch 28′ – Learn More

Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses - Silverthorne

Silverthorne 31′ – Learn More

 

Investment Opportunity! Help RMTH Build A New Shop!!

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After years of searching for suitable property in the Durango area to relocate the shop to, we have finally found a really fantastic parcel south of town that is within our price range. Our local bank is willing to finance most of it, but we are still going to need a little assistance with the down payment portion. If you know me personally, you know that I’m not very keen on asking folks for money-I’m a rugged individual with Western values of self sufficiency and working hard to earn everything you acquire. I have worked very hard the past five years, but most of the profit from the company has been re-invested back into the business. Infrastructure improvements at our current shop location, new vehicles for safely hauling materials and tiny houses around, maintaining/upgrading tools, purchasing a forklift, starting to buildup material/parts inventory, developing plansets/kits, and so forth.

RMTH has some funds to put into this new property, but it will basically be a land loan and these carry higher down payments until a legal structure can be established and converted into a more traditional mortgage. Not only this, but we will need to set aside some funds for site improvements such as cleanup, access, utilities, and so forth. We aren’t even getting into the cost of a new shop building just yet, which we can finance separately and contract ourselves, but for now our immediate goal is to acquire the property and begin the process of preparing it for the new building.   We have enough flexibility at our current location to keep operations in progress, but obviously the sooner we can move away from making payments on two locations, the easier it will be to make the transition.

So this is where you, the investor, come into play. We are open to all different kinds of investment strategies for those who are able and willing to help out. We are not looking for astronomical sums of money here, probably 40-60k total assistance. We are thinking it will take the form of 2-5 folks, but it could only be one or it could be more! The primary forms of return on your investment are:

  1. traditional term loan with 10% interest. For a $10,000 loan over 36 months, you would earn $1,616 in interest. 
  2. Custom Built Tiny House with “at-cost” pricing. Normally, we have a builder fee associated with each tiny house we complete, ranging from $3-10k depending on the size and scope of the tiny house. We would waive this fee for anyone willing to put up $10,000 or more in capital. So, in addition to the repayment of the initial investment, you would probably save somewhere around $6k on the cost of a custom built tiny house. Much more return on your investment, however, we understand there will be fewer people interested in going this route

A third option is percent ownership in the business. We are not a publicly traded company and do not have shares, so we would all have to sit down with a CPA and figure out what made the most sense here. We are least interested in this option due to the complexity involved, but if the right opportunity arises we are willing to consider.

Fourth- we are not bankers or financial gurus, but I’m sure some of you are, and if you would like to present other options, please let us know! We really are interested in a win win win for everybody involved. RMTH wins by getting a new more efficient shop, customers win because we can lower our costs, investors win by getting a nice return on investment, we can potentially hire more employees, life is good, everyone wins!

For you savvy investors looking for some security, we do have assets that can be pledged as collateral in the form of vehicles, tiny house shells, forklift, and other equipment. We might end up having to sell some to try and liquidate funds, but if we don’t, we are totally fine using them to secure the loan(s).  

Perhaps you yourself are unable to help us out, but maybe you know of someone who could help? Feel free to send them our way.

We can be reached directly at 970 335 9577  or greg@rockymountaintinyhouses.com  Thank you for your generous consideration!! 

Passive Tiny House Design

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As resource conservation and “healthy homes” become more important in today’s construction industry,  the concept of “Passive home design” has taken center stage. Many of us have heard about this tag phrase, but don’t really understand it. As a builder, it is my job to stay on top of the latest and greatest trends in building technology, not only to produce a better, more durable tiny house, but to ensure a healthy environment for its inhabitants. So what exactly does passive design mean? The best definition I could find online comes from Your Home, an Australian government site providing resources for better home design:

Passive design’ is design that takes advantage of the climate to maintain a comfortable temperature range in the home. Passive design reduces or eliminates the need for auxiliary heating or cooling…    

Perhaps another way to think about it, is that the design of the structure allows it to passively stay in a state of comfort, versus a highly mechanized building that has to “actively” keep the conditions comfortable.  So, passive design originated in regard to larger buildings, both residences and commercial/civic. It is not a new term at all, in fact, prior to mechanical ventilation, any good designer knew and worked with the principles or proper orientation, designing shade for summer months but allowing full sun in the winter, thermal mass, prevailing winds, etc. These same principles still apply, however, in the age of building sciences and HVAC systems, passive design has also taken the form of high performance materials, air tight construction, and fresh air ventilation with energy recovery. 

This might all be flying right over you head at the moment, but I will break it all down. First, we need to understand how passive design applies to tiny houses. These structures are much smaller, mobile, and can travel to different climates. Principles of thermal mass, orientation, and other won’t necessarily apply, so we have to focus more on the performance and health of the building. For the building to stand up to the elements, it needs to be water impermeable. To save energy and keep it comfortable whether in the depths of winter or peak of summer, it needs to be well insulated and airtight. Now, because we have constructed a hermetically sealed space and plan to live in it, we need to find a way to expunge dirty air and bring in healthy fresh air without wasting heat energy. These are really the underlying principles of tiny house passive design. How do we do all this ? 

Isabelle Nagel-Brice, tiny house dweller and owner of atinygoodthing.com, wanted only the best for her tiny house that she began construction on in the fall of 2015. After extensive research, she partnered with a Colorado company known as Mainstream Corporation. Despite the slightly confusing name, this is a small company with a focus on passive design and bringing more advanced European products into the US market. Europe has always been ahead of the US when it comes to building science, but sourcing such products can be difficult. Enter Mainstream! These guys have done the legwork of researching various products, and finding ones that not only have outstanding performance properties, but that can be easily imported and sold at reasonable rates.

I’m going to focus on four main products that you can get from them to help you build a healthier, more energy efficient tiny house. The first is the Solitex Mento 1000 weather barrier. Tyvek and locally branded polyethylene weave fabrics have been the go to for over 30 years, and they are still good products, but the Mento takes it a few steps further. Not only do you get superior protection against water and air infiltration, but the fabric is highly breathable. Moisture rates in the house, the walls, and the atmosphere will constantly fluctuate, and what you don’t want to happen is moisture vapor getting stuck in your wall. This fabric will block liquid water from ever getting into your walls just like any other weather barrier, but it has a higher PERM rating, meaning it is going to ‘breathe’ better and allow water vapor to flow more freely. Compared to Tyvek, it is softer and slightly more forgiving when installing it. Stephanie and I decided to use it on our new tiny house build and are very pleased with it. You can also use it as your roof underlayment, although I would recommend the heavier Mento Plus for this application.

The next line of products to consider are the construction tapes they offer. My new house is a hybrid SIP wall/stick frame roof. Before installing the Mento wrap, they suggested that I tape all of my SIP seams, wall to trailer seams, and wall to roof seams, corner seams, etc with the blue Tescon Vana tape. This stuff is the bomb! Very sticky, very pliable, easy to apply, and it seals everything shut! I ordered 4 rolls and went through all of them! You’ll want to order a few rolls of the black Tescon Invis to tape the seams of your Mento weather barrier. I purchased one roll of 6″ Extoseal Encors to fashion my window sills, and a few rolls of the Tescon Vana 150 to tape my windows. You can just tell that this tape is never going to let go! I’ve worked with some “normal” window tapes from the big box stores, and I’ve always questioned whether the adhesive will hold over time. I don’t have these concerns with these tapes. To add icing to the cake, most of these tapes are designed to be breathable too, just like the Mento. 

The third product I will mention briefly is the Intello Plus interior vapor retarder. This is a roll product that you would apply to your interior walls and ceiling prior to installing your finishes. It acts to keep the moisture from every day living from entering your wall cavity in the first place. Interior Vapor barriers have long been a discussion in tiny house construction. Those who believe it necessary typically use plastic sheeting, like a 1 mil drop cloth. This is cheap and easy, but not necessary the best option since it also does not let any moisture vapor that might get into the wall via other means from escaping. The Intello is considered “smart” because it knows when to block vapor completely and when to let some pass through. It’s basically a function of interior vs exterior temperatures and humidity. I chose not to install this product in my house because the EPS foam in my SIP’s is effectively a vapor barrier, as is the closed cell spray foam in my ceiling. I also live in a dry climate.  Had I chose to install a batt insulation product such as fiberglass, Roxul, natural wool, blown in cellulose, etc. then I would have definitely opted for this product. Also, if I intended to live primarily in a very humid climate, I would definitely consider using this wrap.

The fourth piece of the puzzle that this company can help with is ventilation. After creating this perfectly air tight environment, you are going to cook, bathe, breathe, and perform other living activities that introduce moisture into the space. If you don’t find a way to flush out this stale moist air, your house is going to start having mold issues, and you might even start having health issues due to toxins in the air. Now, you could just crack a window and put a fan in it. During the nicer times of year, this isn’t a problem, in fact I recommend you keep as many windows open as possible! What about winter or summer though? If you are paying for energy to heat or cool your space, you don’t want to throw that money away, do you? Enter an Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV), sometimes also known as a Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV). Long before working with Mainstream, we were installing the Lunos E2 and even the Lunos Next for the largest builds, but these guys turned us on the to the Lunos eGO, a more compact unit with only one wall penetration instead of two, and also a little cheaper than the E2. Which one will suit your needs better depends on your design, but in general I would say 24′ and under, go with an eGO, and larger than this use the E2. For extremely large builds, you might consider the Next. They all operate on the same basis. There is a tube that goes through your wall. In this tube is a ceramic core. A small fan pushes and pulls air back and forth across the core in cycles. As conditioned air from the house passes through the core, the material collects the heat energy from this air. When the cycle reverses, fresh air from the exterior than passes through the core and recovers the heat energy. Brilliant, isn’t it? The cheapest unit starts at $795, not really that cheap, but it is hard to put a price on the health of your home and yourself. There are horror stories out there of people who did not ventilate their tiny home and ended up having to gut their walls to remediate mold and replace insulation. I’m sure this process ended up costing way more than $800!! If you cannot swing the cost of a Lunos up front, then please make sure you have some way of venting your house, even if that means cracking a window in winter time! 

If you are a DIYer and are interested in upgrading the performance of your tiny house, please reach out to Isabelle or Cody at Mainstream. You can buy only the components you need, or for more convenience they have put together tiny house kits based on the size of you build that will include proper quantity and sizes. If you are a prospective customer of ours, we already encourage the use of these products and intend to make them standard on all of our builds by mid 2018. Below are a few pictures of these products in action on my new personal build! You are primarily seeing the blue Vana tape and Mento 1000 weather barrier. We have a Lunos eGO ready to install but won’t get to this phase of the build for a few more months. 

 

 

 

Spring and Summer slots still available

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Winter is over! Well, sort of. The Spring Equinox does not officially occur until March 20 this year, and here in Durango, winter weather has known to be historically highest in the month of March, but as far as our build season is concerned, we have made it through the coldest part of the year, the skies are sunny, days are getting longer, and we are beginning to fill up for the year! We are normally booked into Fall by the end of March, and this year isn’t much different, however we have expanded our build capacity and this means that we will be able to fit in three more builds this spring and summer. So, if you are interested in one of these highly desirable build slots, please call 970.335.9577 or email greg @ rockymountaintinyhouses.com 

PRINCETON 32′ GOOSENECK SHELL

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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

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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

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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

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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!

Photo by customer!

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

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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.