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Ad Astra 24′ Tiny House

September 25, 2018 By Greg Parham 8 Comments

Check out our latest creation, the Ad Astra Tiny House!  Ad Astra means “to the stars” in Latin, and a fun couple from Kansas commissioned us to build this beautiful custom 24’ tiny house to take them there.

When we initially began the design process, the house was to live in Kansas. However, as the design progressed, so did life, and the house was soon bound for much greener pastures in Portland, OR. That’s the nice thing about tiny houses – they can adapt to all of the changes that life throws at us!

 

This house sits on a sturdy Trailer Made 8’ x 24’ dual axle trailer made in Denver, CO. We used a shed roof to maximize interior space. The cedar lap siding and recycled corrugated wainscot will fit perfectly into the Pacific Northwest setting. A bold sapphire blue adorns the full lite exterior door.  

A large wrap-around, fold-down deck leads from the front door to a serving window outside the kitchen.  The deck consists of three leafs that fold up for travel.   

The Ad Astra features a large storage closet on the rear for outdoor gear. We placed the condenser of the mini split on a bracket high on the back wall to allow more space below for storage.

Ad Astra 24' tiny house storage closet

The customers really liked the interior layout of the Pequod, so we started with that general floor plan and customized it to fit their needs. The engineered bamboo flooring has a hand scraped finish and we stained the pine trim and window boxes to match.

The Ad Astra features the Pequod’s “U-shaped” kitchen. We started with stock, white cabinets and tweaked them where needed to fit the space. One corner of the base cabinets is a lazy-Susan while the other corner is “secret” long-term storage that is accessed from below the sink. The sliding window behind the sink functions as a serving window – a fold-up bar just outside the window will be useful for entertaining.

One of our carpenters is a whiz with concrete, so we put his skills to work on the hand-troweled countertop. The hand-troweling gives it more character than some other concrete methods and brings out its hand-made nature. The customers chose a classic white undermount sink with a tall single-handle faucet.

We were able to locate a stock wall cabinet online for a small space to the left of the sink. We cut out the center part of the cabinet doors and replaced it with glass. This saved a lot of money compared to buying a cabinet with glass doors.

We created a custom pantry/shelf unit to divide the kitchen from the dining area. The bottom houses two pull-out pantries, while the top has adjustable shelves.

Another nod to the Pequod was the nesting dining room table which features two cubes that function as seats and have storage within, a bench, and a 48” long table with fold-up leafs on either side.

This Portland tiny house has a bright, spacious bathroom. The customers chose an all-in-one vanity/sink combo. We incorporated this vanity into a custom wainscot with a glass tile strip above. A frameless mirror medicine cabinet provides extra storage above the sink. A Nature’s Head composting toilet sits next to the vanity.

The tub has white ceramic subway tile surround. We chose a dark grout to tie into the grey hues in the faux wood floor tiles.  

These tiny house dwellers are pet-lovers and the stairway provided opportunities for some custom pet features. First, a built-in glass gecko cage occupies the space under the fourth and fifth treads. Access for feeding and cleaning is granted under the removable fourth stair tread, and an outlet and light are hidden under the fifth stair, with some holes for ventilation. Their cat will enjoy its custom litter box cubby that includes a passive exterior vent for when things get a little smelly.

The customers requested a sunken mattress area in the sleeping loft so we built it out of 2×6 wood framing for a little extra depth. Six storage cubbies in the floor surround the queen-sized mattress depression.

The second loft is a flexible space that will fit a queen-sized mattress for guests if needed. A 2” x 2” steel frame with blue stained beetle kill flooring gives it a slim profile. This loft is accessed from a ladder whose design was inspired by a picture the customers found on Pinterest. We were able to recreate it using galvanized pipes and fittings.

We crafted a custom 6’ long couch with plenty of storage below. The angled backrest even hinges forward to take advantage of every inch of space. The couch sits directly over the wheel fenders and is a nice way to deal with these sometimes-intrusive tiny house features. The seat height of the couch will be at a comfortable level once the customers install 4” thick cushions.

Some final details to note: there is space and hookups for a washer/dryer between the stairs and bathroom wall. There is room above this for storage or closet space. Opposite this is the main closet area. This is our first build to utilize a white painted shiplap for the walls that we milled in house. We could not find an affordable, durable, attractive shiplap product commercially available, so we just decided to make our own! It’s a very clean, modern look without too much expense! Shiplap also deals with expansion/contraction due to climate differences better than other materials, which in this case worked out very well since it shipped to a very humid climate from a dry one! A similarly equipped and detailed build like this one would run around $73k. 

Filed Under: Tiny House Design Tagged With: 24' tiny house, clean tiny house, concrete counter tops, custom tiny house, modern tiny house, Oregon tiny house, portland tiny house, Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses, shiplap walls, Tiny House

La Luna Llena

October 13, 2017 By Greg Parham 12 Comments

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!

.

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…

 

Filed Under: Tiny House Design Tagged With: 30' tiny house, archtop door tiny house, beetle kill pine tiny house, custom tiny house, handcrafted tiny house, live edge wood, missouri tiny house, tiny house for art, tiny house with downstairs bedroom

Harmony Haven 28′ Tiny House

November 18, 2016 By Greg Parham 27 Comments

Harmony Haven Tiny House exterior siding

Some cheery folks out of Idaho commissioned this fantastic 28 foot full custom tiny house build. Impressed with our previous builds, our price point, and our willingness to let them work on their own house, they moved down to Durango for a few months to bring this idea into fruition. Jim and Kathi had done a fair amount of research prior to contacting us and had a very good idea of what they wanted. We of course refined a few items to meet the constraints of space and budget, but in the end, the vision was truly all theirs. 

Harmony Haven Tiny House loft office1

The simple 28′ structure rests on a triple drop axle trailer and utilizes a shallow 3/12 gable roof. We opted for the drop axle to gain 4″ of head height since Kathi planned on using the second loft as a home office and wanted to see if we could make that loft high enough for her to stand, or nearly stand. This, coupled with using 1 1/2″ tube steel for the loft framing, and setting the loft low at 6′-0″, and also considering Kathi isn’t a very tall individual, did indeed allow us to create a loft office that she can stand in! 

Harmony Haven Tiny House living room1

Below the loft office is comfortable living space with a built in couch featuring hidden storage and custom mattresses. The entrance to the house is here in the living space via a glass patio door.  The vestibule area also takes one into the landing for double stairs: left to the master bed, and right to the office. Both sets of stairs contain abundant storage. The central portion of the house features a galley kitchen with a 10 cu ft fridge, 24″ gas range, double bowl sink, 18″ compact dishwasher, barnwood shelves, pull out pantry, combo washer/dryer, and beautiful stone tile countertops..

Harmony Haven Tiny House couch storage

Harmony Haven Tiny House couch storage below

Harmony Haven Tiny House double stairs

Harmony Haven Tiny House sleeping loft

Harmony Haven Tiny House kitchen 1

Harmony Haven Tiny House kitchen 2

Harmony Haven Tiny House pull out pantry

In the very rear of the house lives the bathroom complete with a flush toilet, vessel vanity, linen storage, and a large shower with tile accents.  

Harmony Haven Tiny House bathroom 1

DSC_133Harmony Haven Tiny House shower tile

Harmony Haven Tiny House living room 2

Harmony Haven Tiny House two tone siding

Harmony Haven Tiny House door sign

We also shot a video tour if you would like to watch below. Jim and Kathi saved a considerable amount of money by contributing elbow grease to this project. Expect a reproduction of this model to run around $82k with all the features shown. Final dry weight came in around 11,800 lbs. 

 

Filed Under: Tiny House Design Tagged With: 28 foot tiny house, custom tiny house, large tiny house, owner assisted build, rocky mountain tiny house, triple axle tiny house

Turkey Flats 24′ Tiny House

June 15, 2016 By Greg Parham 8 Comments

Turkey Flats tiny house mountainsAn awesome gentleman in Grand Junction approached us about building this dream tiny home. He was having trouble finding a builder that could customize the house to his needs and stay within budget, until he found us of course! It’s a simple, yet effective layout with some very nice touches thrown in.  Turkey Flats is the name of Jon’s favorite hiking trail!

We started with a 24′ trailer chassis and stick framed a main 10/12 gable roof with a 3/13 dormer pitch above the sleeping loft. A side entry door leads into the large living space where there is an L-shaped couch that convert into a queen size bed for guests or daytime lounging. There is fully accessible storage below the couch.

TURKEY FLATS PLAN

From the living space you can go up the storage stairs into a large and bright sleeping loft, or walk into the kitchen space which features a long granite countertop with undermount sink, a 24″ gas range, and ample wall space for shelf/upper cabinet customization. Opposite the counter is a 10 cubic foot fridge with a pantry space and a large closet. There is a combo washer/dryer on your right before heading into the bathroom.

In the washroom is a simple 32″ shower, a Nature’s Head compost toilet, and a small wall mount sink trimmed out with barn wood. The bathroom is closed off with a sliding barn door. Jon opted for clean white walls, a beetle kill ceiling, and red oak flooring, stairs, and built ins. The cabinets are stock Hampton Bay Hickory with the sand colored granite being hand selected from a local stone yard.

This tiny house weighs approximately 10,000 lbs dry and pricing starts at $64k for those wanting something similar.

While we have some nice exterior photos, we are waiting for interior photos to come in. In the meantime, please enjoy some videos we put together, one of the delivery of the house over the world famous Red Mountain Pass, and the other a short tour.

 

Turkey Flats 24 tiny house exterior mountains

Turkey Flats 24 tiny house couch

Turkey Flats 24 tiny house kitchen 1

Turkey Flats 24 tiny house granite countertops

Turkey Flats 24 tiny house loft

 

Filed Under: Tiny House Design Tagged With: 24 foot tiny house, custom tiny house, Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses, tiny house red mountain, turkey flats tiny house

The Mac Shack

May 28, 2016 By Greg Parham 6 Comments

Plans can be purchased for this design HERE

There is a super cool chica living in McKinleyville, CA with the last name of McDermott. This is her Mac Shack!

The Mac Shack Tiny House exterior

Based on the same 14′ foundation of the Upslope, we included a bathroom in this build and personalized it to meet her needs. It weighed in at 4600 lbs dry on a single 7k axle. Costs for this build as pictured came in at $31k.

Notable features are rusty corrugated wainscot on the exterior, cedar t&g main interior walls, handscraped engineered flooring, barnwood accent walls and shelving, a thick live edge countertop, 20″ slide in range, loft storage above the bathroom, stairs to access the loft, a Hobbit woodstove, a sheltered fold down porch, and a handcrafted Dutch door.

The Mac Shack tiny house living room

The Mac Shack tiny house kitchen

The Mac Shack tiny house spice rack

Mac Shack tiny house hammock

The Mac Shack Sleeping Loft

Filed Under: Tiny House Design Tagged With: 14 foot tiny house, 14' tiny house, california tiny house, custom tiny house, Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses, rustic tiny house, single axle tiny house

20′ Front Range Shell Build

March 15, 2016 By Greg Parham 7 Comments

An awesome family in Fort Collins commissioned us to build this 20′ Front Range model (aptly named!) to use as a vacation home up on some land they owned in the mountains. They had a limited budget, but were ready to put in some sweat equity to finish the house on their own, so we focused on what we could get complete within their budget and skill level. The result was a very well crafted and comfortable shell that they have since completed and could not be happier with.

The level of completion on our end is what I would call a 3/4 shell. We stick framed the structure on top of a custom trailer,  installed windows, metal roofing, siding, and an exterior door. The structure was then wired and spray foamed before receiving 1/4″ paint grade plywood walls. Cork flooring and beetle kill ceiling as well as a beetle kill wainscot round out the major interior materials. We fabricated and installed two L-shaped lofts from steel tubing and decked those with more beetle kill t&g. A small woodstove was installed for a heat source. The final step left in the budget was to install a closet and partitions for the bathroom area. Here are some photos of the house right before delivery.

Front Range tiny house shell

Front Range 20' shell

The customer was gracious enough to share some nearly finished photos of the house after a few months of working on it themselves:

 

20' Front Range Shell interior1

20' Front Range Shell int2

20' Front Range Shell int3

20' Front Range Shell woods

Filed Under: Tiny House Design Tagged With: 20' tiny house, colorado tiny house, colorado tiny house builder, custom tiny house, Front Range tiny house, Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses, Tiny House, tiny house shell

24′ Albuquerque Tiny House

October 5, 2015 By Greg Parham 58 Comments

Custom 24' Tiny House exterior

We are pleased to share the latest completed tiny house to leave our shop, a custom 24′ build that was delivered to a newly wed couple in Albuquerque, NM. The shell is constructed of Structural Insulated Panels (SIP’s) which are then finished out with gray stained cedar lap siding, natural stained cedar shakes, and galvanized corrugated roof on the outside and white tongue and groove on the inside with walnut stained accents/flooring.

This unique design centers around a set of French Doors that sit on the wheel well. You enter on a platform that is about 12″ above the main floor. Below this platform are pull out drawers for storage. On the left side of the platform is a ladder that climbs up to the sleeping loft that fits a queen size bed. The portion of the roof also has dormers on both sides for increased head height and airiness.

20150924_114154-3

 

On the right end of the lower platform is a higher platform that the kitchen is situated on. Beneath this platform is a full size bed that pulls out for guest sleeping. The small couch hides the end of the bed and rolls out of the way when needed. On the portion of the platform where there is dead space, we installed trap doors for even more hidden storage. A simple drop-leaf bartop with seating for two or three separates the kitchen space from the living area.

Custom 24' Tiny House living room

 

At the back of the trailer is a wet bath with some very nice tile work, a sliding barn door, and a customized exposed shower faucet that doubles as the sink spout. You cannot see from the photos, but there is a Nature’s Head composting toilet opposite the shower wall.

tiny house tile bathroom wet bath

Next to the wet bath is a nook that will serve as storage for time being, until a baby comes along and then it will be used for a baby crib!

custom 24' tiny house living room

All in all it is a simple layout with lots of volume and nice finishes, designed with an expanding family in mind. The design came almost exclusively from ideas the customer gave us, we just took these ideas and tweaked them a little bit to properly scale the components and make construction a little easier. For anyone interested in a similar build,  expect final costs to be in the $51k-57k range depending on desired features and finish out.

Albuquerque Tiny House

 

Filed Under: Company News, Tiny House Design Tagged With: 24' tiny house, custom tiny house, door over wheel wells, french door tiny house, platform storage, SIP tiny house, tiled wet bath

Custom hOMe Tiny House Build

August 25, 2015 By Greg Parham 19 Comments

custom hOMe build exterior1

We are pleased to announce the recent completion of a custom hOMe build. For those of you not familiar, this is a very well known design by Andrew and Gabriella Morrison. You can view the original hOMe and learn more about the design on their website: http://tinyhousebuild.com/

A newlywed couple in Colorado Springs contacted me back in the Spring to inquire about this project and whether or not we could customize it and still stay within their budget. Absolutely! I have actually been wanting to build a tiny house from someone else’s commercial set of plans, not only to see how they do things, but to spare me the process of having to generate plans from scratch. This was the perfect opportunity!

The most notable differences from the original are:

  • Built with Structural Insulated panels instead of stick framed! Very straight, strong, and better insulated.
  • Interior beetle kill pine instead of drywall
  • dark stained cedar lap siding instead of t&g
  • copper apron sink
  • curved glass shower enclosure
  • modified cabinet layout to accommodate customer’s needs
  • cabinets built in-house instead of Ikea to save weight and be custom fit
  • small 18″ dishwasher installed in the kitchen
  • fold down dining table
  • dry weight of 11,900 lbs instead of the estimated 17,000. easier towing!

We were able to complete this custom 28′ build for $74,000. For those who like the original design and would like to save a little money we could complete this build in stock form for closer to $68,000 using either SIP’s or stick frame with Spray foam insulation. Please note that you will still have to purchase the plans from the Morrison’s at tinyhousebuild.com prior to contacting us. The prices above do reflect the cost of these plans, however. Enjoy the photos below!

custom hOMe tiny house stairs

custom hOMe tiny kitchen

custom hOMe tiny dining

custom hOMe tiny extra loft

custom hOMe tiny shower

custom hOMe tiny sleeping loft

 

 

hOMe tiny house SIPScustom hOMe tiny exterior 2

tiny house guardian

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Company News, Tiny House Design Tagged With: 28' tiny house, beetle kill pine, custom tiny house, hOMe tiny house, modern tiny house

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