View Image View ImageSpecifications: About 75sf, 11’ x 7’ x 11’, 4000lbs”Well within the legal limits for travel on U.S. roadways, the XS-House can be taken almost anywhere. The porch and awning fold up for added convenience. Features a retractile table and vanity, a desk, 100 cubic feet of storage, a cathedral ceiling, a six gallon water heater, a shower, toilet, stainless steel counter, refrigerator, sink, heat stove, a double burner, and a vented sleeping loft for two.”- from tumbleweedhouses.com (featured in Jan. issue of Workbench magazine)
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Where's the potty? Or do you just park it near the woods?
John Svenson, builder, remodeler, NE Ohio
I would stink up the place real easy. stinky
NICE, i BUILT ONE THAT IS ABOUT 140SF ON A FOUNDATION
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That is sweet! You wouldn't have the plans for that rig, or is it totaly from your brain housing group? Cough'em up....... :-)
Semper Fi
I might be able to finmd them in files, but we did mazke some changes along the way.This was a 'bedroom to go with a cottage. The main one was for mom and dad, but the 'bedroom' was for the teen daughter, and based on same detailing.
The story involves local ordinances and a battle over what constitutes a separate dwelling unit so this has no food prep 'kitchen' area, tho it easily could. I
ll answer other Qs and tyhern see if I can find the plans to reduce to jpgs
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Was that only one handle on the faucet?
And what, no big screen tv?
Headstong, I'll take on anyone!
NICE, i BUILT ONE THAT IS ABOUT 140SF ON A FOUNDATION
That is a very attractive home! Sort of reminds me of the Mini Cooper (which I also happen to like)
So what's the story behind this house? Did You build it for yourself? A customer?
-Don
Beautiful!
I'm about to do some trim work along the lines of what you've got there; what size door casing is that, is it 3" or 4".
I will be having 8" base (or 7 3/4" to be exact) what is yours? I'm want to have the scale right should I go with 4"?
Edited 12/31/2005 10:25 pm ET by alrightythen
That base is 1x5 with a cap mold.
casings are 1x3 sides and heavier to fit up to the low cieling for headstock
+
here's a couple shots of the mom and pop house that it models...BTW, The girl it was built for recerntly moved to florida and no sooner got settled in than a drunk t-boned her car. I guess she had no broken bones thanks to seat belts and air bags and Providence, but she is so bruised she can hardly walk. Happened to be at PT same day/time as my shoulder this week
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Very nice! "Less is more" - Robert Browning. So is there any air-transfer from rafter-bay to rafter-bay? Nice design, too - your own?
View Image
This is really cool and nicely done. Is the main house a summer only house or a year round residence?
Chris
(forwarded message)This is really cool and nicely done. Is the main house a summer only house or a year round residence?Chris (a.k.a. Electroman)
Huck was reposting in plain view to make it easier to see what I was talking about. These were originally internded for seasonal use and possible seasonal rental income, but the family has moved in permanently. This is one of my plumbers. He has a 'regular' house downtown but right next to his plumbing shop so he has had to sdtruggle with people showing up day and night for service and parts. People who have no respect for hours. So this is their getaway and it has become permanent. We have discussed a possible addition to the main house.It comes with a view...
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roof - as I remember is 2x6 with FG batts and a ply of foam underlying the rafters, then taped seams and strapping. Tight place. dry electric heat
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counting the loft, it may be more than 300sf actually.Yes, I designed it after some preliminary concept sketchs with the owner. The plans are on an older machine or a floppy saved from an earlier version of my CAD. can get them if you are serious, but it might take me half an hour or so. Too much for this late at night.
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By no means kill your self, but if you are playing on the computer and wouldn't mind the plans would be great. Just let me know what you would want for a copy. Could even throw in DW, hardly used.......
Semper Fi
Absolutely beautiful Piffin!At last night's New Years Eve party, I was involved in a conversation with two architects and a builder in my community, discussing affordable housing and alternative homes. The subject always turned back to cost restrictions but was always based on homes in the 1500 - 2200 sq ft range, which they felt were minimums for empty nesters on fixed incomes as well as starter homes.I stated that perhaps they and other affordable housing advocates needed to think smaller, like sub 1000 sq ft and you'd of thought I was taking the Lord's name in vain at an convention of Evangelicals. Then I suggested reduced lot sizes with shared court yards or other types of common areas and again, my words rang out like some kind of heresy.I guess this leads me to wonder if well designed, well built "mini-homes" such as yours and possibly somewhat larger have any role to play in the affordable housing / new urbanism debate? I'm not suggesting these homes be as small as the one you built, nor am I suggesting we build communities or developments modeled solely on these mini-homes, but as infill constructed in both older towns and new developments alike, it seems to warrant consideration.In that spirit, would you mind sharing the construction costs of you example?
I won't dig up details, because this is four years ago, and costs have gone up since then, but I will say that this degree of miniturization led to a much higher cost per sq ft than the main house on the property. Same detailing takes same time, i.e. four corners on that roof fitting crowns took as long as a hoiuse twice the size would. There was some extra engineering involved in the header over the entry door wall. Getting the loft finished took time and patience because one man had to keep materials down belopw, cut and pass up through small access. could not fit a ful 4x8 insulation board up....Studs had to be cut short for wall height....pockret door is more expensive than a prehung...I built a serving bar/galley once in a space about 6x7 feet. This has a cooktop, convection microwave, dishwasher, undercounter refer with ice maker, and glass fronted wall cabs for a bar. It has everything you would find in any normal kitchen, some full sized, but only room for one to work, and a pass-through serving window. It is some of the most expensive real estate on this island on a sq ft basis. The owner had told the asrchitects what he wanted fit into there, and they blew him off laughing that it could not be done. He asked me what I thought andf I said I'd sleep on it. Next day, I called to tell him that I could do it if I had total control and no questions about cost. He was very pleased in the end. I worked hard to basicly create space where it wasn't, like making heavy atoms.My point is that there is a threshold where shrinking sizes costs more, not less. One of the problems I have with the smaller is better movement is that it incorporates a lot of "built-in" to save space. My expereience is that the labour to do "built-in" is very extensive and expensive, possibly morte than the space it saves many times.
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Re: "My expereience is that the labour to do "built-in" is very extensive and expensive, possibly morte than the space it saves many times. "Built-ins are difficult. They are usually one-offs as the spaces are not standardized or large enough to modularize with most systems available. So each has to be a custom job designed from scratch. In any case the quality has to be quite high. A poorly designed and/or built unit is seldom better than a garage sale bookshelf shoehorned into place. There is also a lot of room for idiosyncratic choices and designs so even a well designed system for one person may be a failure for another.This reminds me of early kitchen cabinets. Not too many decades ago they too were almost exclusively custom built. Another point is that a built-in storage is a substitute for individual pieces furniture. Quality furniture isn't cheap even though most of it is produced in a factory. So the cost of built-ins has to be calculated against the cost of individual pieces of furniture, purchased by the HO, to take its place. Substantially lowering the real cost.
I have to agree on the rising sq. ft. construction prices for shrinking sq. ft. floorplans. Tumbleweed Tiny Houses would back that contention up, with prices in the $250 - $300 / sq. ft. range for their small houses.
There are some folks out here who live year around on their boats, and don't have houses. The miniaturization you've done is a lot like the thinking that goes into boats.
-- J.S.
Piffin's points are good ones.I have a question...>>>>think smaller, like sub 1000 sq ft>>>>Then I suggested reduced lot sizes with shared court yards or other types of common areasHaven't we already taken those concepts even further ? Don't we call them apartments ?;0)
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. ~~ Eric Hoffer
We have, but I am thinking specifically about infill and areas that are zoned to prohibit apartments. That said I do not fully understand the relationship of cost vs size as I am not a builder or tradesman, hence my interest in costs.I'm not suggesting that all homes need to be built using the "smaller is better" motto but would like to see more diversity in our new housing stock with an effort at developing more affordable housing. Inter-generational and mixed income neighborhoods are of interest to me.
Edited 1/1/2006 6:37 pm by pino
Pino, you and I are probably in total agreement again, on this issue.My point is that the builders are pragmatic. They build what the market dictates. In the market, as in everything else, it seems, the lowest common denominator wins. Unfortunately, that LCD is big, wasted, has to be heated and air conditioned, did I mention wasted, cheap foo-foo, wasted, keep up with the jone's... wasted space.Everyone else gets dumped into apartments, and that is about as pragmatic as it gets...
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength. ~~ Eric Hoffer
Kinda what the industry folks said to me at last night's party. The subject came up as a Catholic school three blocks from my house is being torn down with the new school built a few miles away. I was advocating for some kind of subsidized or affordable housing - kind of a church / developer partnership. In a case such as this, it seems to me that the pragmatism and market forces that run against affordable housing might be mitigated by the church's "higher calling".Local neighbors are not opposed to affordable housing but are opposed to an apartment complex, hence my idea for sub-1000 sq ft affordable housing.The idea of a small cottage development simliar to that linked by Huck seems appealing.
Pino,
I've often told my wife that there is a fortune to be made on sub 1200sqft housing. As my 1600 sqft Townhouse with three bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths and a finished basement nears the $200K mark I've been saying it even more.
I still see some difficulties to overcome. First is land cost and size restrictions. More and ore around here townships that want to limit development just increase the minimum building lot size. Second is the Big Builder mentality. They'll only have $X profit in them so big staffs and offices will just add to $X and push the company towards bigger projects with more income.
I've been doing a ton of research and believe that in the near future I'll have enough of the answers to be able to make a comfortable living by building six to eight per year. Land selection and tight control over material and schedule will be key. But the biggest part will be the design.
Then all I gotta do convince someone with money that it's a good idea.
check out this website - you will find the execution of some of those concepts you mention
Thanks for the link, it looks very interesting.
As I understand it 64 SQ feet per person is the legal minimum. For myself I could see living in that for a time.
Given a climate and situation where you could spend a lot of time outdoors only retreating to the house for the night and food perhaps a few months wouldn't be too bad. For living on a remote site where the days are going to be working with home life secondary I could see it as ideal. Tow it down to NOLA, hook up a solar panel, deep cycle battery and a gen set for surge loads or recharge in cloudy weather. Some provision for water. Your good to go. All the bases covered.
I could even see it for a couple for a long weekend as long as they were on very familiar terms. Newlyweds could get by with a pup tent, a canteen of water and a can of beans.
Of course a considerable proportion of humanity in third-world countries and some Katrina survivors it wouldn't be too bad. Given the possible rise in heating costs some may envy its efficiency.
that is really nice. be great for hunting camp, lake retreat, vaction get away. I really like it.. 2+3=7
This looks like one of the houses that was featured on the HGTV show called "Small Space, Big Style". A young couple was living there full time. I think you'd have to really, really like each other for two people to live in that amount of space.
If I recall correctly, the toilet looked like a step-on garbage pail. Maybe it was a composting toilet? They had electricity by plugging in a long extension cord from the pole outside. I can't remember how the water was connected. There was a teeny, tiny kitchen (the couple said they ate out a lot) and you had to access the sleeping loft via a ladder which was stored away during the day.
in one of those photos, you are looking at the pedestal sink in the bathroom. Thge pocket door saves space and the shower stall is on the right with the stool on the left. It is right inside the left most window in the exterior view. The house has a five foot deep cellar accessed via trapdoor nearest the sink in bathroom, for the pressure tank, and misc.
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That window placement is too scary!
I didn't see the show - sounds like the same setup, 'tho. At least, that's how I pictured it. Eat out a lot, or cook outdoors. Compost toilet. But its an interesting alternative to the 2300 sq. ft. average home.Condense. Simplify. Organize. I sometimes think I'd like to live like that...BUT, then I'd go to work at my large spacious office, next to my large, spacious shop, and drive my large, spacious truck/trailer/van/whatever to my jobsites. ha ha.
I'm always looking to simplify, organize and condense. That's why I enjoy that TV show about small houses. Mine is a 1,190 sq ft brick cape cod. But with 2 bedrooms and 1 and 1/2 bath, it seems like a mansion compared to some of the places they feature on that show.If I had a bigger house, I'd just have more "stuff". Several years ago I was sent on an assignment to Monterey, California, where I rented a small studio apartment on the beach. Yeah, I know...tough assignment :)
I knew I was only going to be there 9 months so I didn't bring much with me. I brought a few kitchen things... a couple dishes and some pots and pans, one suitcase of clothes. I bought a black and white TV, a bookcase and a house plant. What amazed me was that I never missed any of the stuff I'd left behind. I try to remember that whenever I'm tempted to buy more "stuff".
will you marry me?oops, I'm already hitched.;)But she tells me she needs more room for her stuff, while I think she needs less stuff for her room...
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/20/HOGGU9T1RS1.DTL
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Thanks for posting the link to the Japanese apartment.I have always admired the Japanese sense of space and proportion. That floor plan looks to be around 20'x 30', 600 SF. I have lived in places with less room and much less efficiently laid out at that. Worked for me. I could easily see the posted Japanese floor plan as being appropriate for anything up to a couple with a young child. I could see it as comfortable quarters long term.If well and solidly built with strong insulation and weather seals It could also be efficient. If slotted into a building with concrete walls, floors and ceilings the plan, as intended, would work quite well for high rise apartments.Given a strong exterior and structure the same plan would work well as a individual unit, duplex or triplex. Fairly efficient modular interior unit. Which could be taken advantage of by mass production in a factory. Which is my understanding of much of the Japanese market. Site built concrete frames ans bearing walls and then the modules are trucked in. Placed by crane and bolted down. Utilities being made up by standardized connectors a little larger and slightly more complicated than a large cord cap.
thanks for sharing those great abodes!
on that principal residence / is it insulated to code or are you able to build 3 season house?
I don't think we can build something like that for occupancy here these days - in my past I've built a number ofr bunkhouses, boathouses & guest cottages under some shadetree (aerial tax photos) or beyond the authorities' radar but would not chance it today
anyway very nice! happy new year John
Like I said, it was built for seasonal use.But it is close to good re energy. The walls are the 4x4 studs you see, clad with 1" pine. Over that, to the exterior is 1" of polyisoanurate foil faced foam at R-7 and then the raianscreen and clapboard. So the wall there is about R-8.5. The wainscoted lower three feet has an added R15 FG in the stud spaces under that interior finish.The roof has 4" of dow foam at R-5.2/inch, so it provides about R-22 The owners report being quiet comfortable in spite of the high cieling. With the foam, it is tight and had less draft than their older downtown home built in the early sixties - probably with rock wool R-9 or R-11 batts
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I googled 'japanese apartment size' and found dozens of similar links, that being one of the best and more efficient presentations of information. One thing in common was the description that the size of rroms and of apts is advertised in "****" ( I forgeet the word, but a throw rug that is stnadardized to about 3' x 6', a convenient sleeping mat size. In that culture, the old homes had no bedroom perse, but a closet where the mats and blankets were folded and stacked during the day. So every room is some multiple of that arrangement historicly. I got some interest in their architectured when I built a house here for an electronics engineer who worked for Ford Aerospace in that country for 30 years more or less. He wanted as much like Japanese as possible and gave me a couple books to study first.
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In some weays that original posting reminded me of the sheepherders wagon/shacks I saw when I first went to CO and NM
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How is waste water handled? I imagine the john is a composting toilet, but there would still be gray water.
I'm definitely intrigued by the concept.