[GET] Tiny House Design Build

Very nice! I would love to see your tiny house but we live up here in Montana. I have a dream of building something like this someday.

Seeing my tiny house pull out of the driveway and around the corner, I wondered if I might feel the same way someday seeing a child go off to college for the first time.


Then the doubts crept in… will the trailer hold up? Will the siding hold up? Will something break? Will that old suburban make the trip?

Some, I caught before it was too late. Some I didn’t. Some were easy to fix. Some cost a few extra bucks I would have rather not had to shell out.

If you’re planning to build a tiny house, learn from others’ mistakes. Personally, I wish there had been more resources available.

I got the books and read the websites. I could have invested the $475 plus travel for the live workshop but I didn’t. I figured I wasn’t trying to build an expensive tiny house so why bother.

I’ve since gotten a set of official tiny house plans. They wouldn’t have helped. My trailer was slightly different. I would have wanted to have made alterations. There was no information on alternate materials. I don’t want a dang boat heater in Texas but I do want an AC unit.

Don’t get me wrong. If I were going to hire someone to build a tiny house to look exactly like a certain style, I would have wanted those plans for the contractor to follow. But I’m no contractor.

I’d argue what makes tiny houses unique from everything else are that you build them individually for individuals. No one will be mass producing them for the foreseeable future. Each one is custom tailored and one set of plans can only take you so far.

I’d never used a miter saw (aka chop saw) before I started this project. I’d seen one used and I knew how to use a circular saw so I figured that was good enough. I knew if I started and kept working, I’d eventually figure it out.

I didn’t know about framing, drywall, wiring or plumbing. I figured it all out along the way. And I made some boneheaded mistakes along the way. You’ll have my experience to build on to save yourself the frustration.

At first glance, I questioned whether I had anything to share since I’m not a contractor or design professional of any kind. Then I realized that’s exactly where many tiny house builders start out. Maybe they’d see that if I could do it, you can too.

That was $8500 and 11 months ago. That’s what I spend building my tiny house. A good chunk of that was my learning curve. The supplies I ended up actually using ran me $6000. I know I could have saved even more.

Now that I’ve finished, I went back and created the resource I wish I’d had before I started building.

I kept all the receipts, took over 1000 pictures, blogged on the major steps and recorded 3 video tours. I even did an interview with a local documentary producer.

This is great. You did a good job of explaining the details and the photos clarified or reinforced your details. Most importantly to me, it has helped me with my own plans. Thanks for going to all of the trouble you did to share this. Your TH is looking great!

Really impressive work! Until the economy changed I began dabbling in carpentry and became fascinated with the concept of tiny homes before I knew they were indeed a category.

Wow! Love the house. Nice work and thank you for the tour for those of us who couldn’t make the open house. Did you build the kitchen sink setup yourself or did you purchase it somewhere? It’s a fantastic idea!

I enjoyed this very much. thanks. If it is in my future I hope to get one built in one of my kid’s back yards.

I love your idea using the plastic chair. It can be removed from the house, scrubbed down and hosed off and sun bleached. Very sanitary! Your house is awesome!

Thanks for the video. It is help and inspiration. Maybe if I have a question or 2 along the way, I can ask you?

I have enjoyed watching your progress all along and Thanks for the inspiration. I have wanted to do this for years and may just try now this year.

Hey, nice work. Must be exciting to be building your tiny house and I’m looking forward to keeping up with your progress.

Enjoyed the open house. Your hard work was showing. Hope you sold it or had some offers. Thanks for sharing!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog about building it. I want to build one of my own in the next three years. You’ve inspired me to do so!

Hey! I am TOTALLY interested in being part of a community of tiny houses. If this develops and we can bring it into fruition, I’m down!

Your idea sounds great to me – making the tiny houses more affordable, especially because I’m still in high school and my dream is to live in a Tumbleweed House. I graduate this year but I definitely don’t have $50,000. I’ll keep watching! (:

That’s 19 videos, 7 SketchUp files, 4 pdfs (one with 351 pictures), 1 spreadsheet and 34 other pictures.

In considering how to price this workshop, I considered several things. This information would have saved me many hundreds of dollars and weeks of work.

All the other workshops out there are at least $200 per day plus travel expenses.  Some people charge the same price for workshops whether you’re there in person or get the DVDs…

Tiny House Design Build