Tiny house

[Zack]

Interesting, thanks. In my life laundry has been a pain because my jobs have always covered me in food, grease, dirt, mud, rock powder, etc. I tried washing my clothes by hand once when I was especially broke and didn't want to go to the laundromat, and I ended up cursing existence and the very idea of clothing. Along the same lines, I got rid of any jeans I've had because they are annoyingly heavy and bulky, both to wear and to wash. I now wear the same type of lightweight cloth pants year-round, which are just easier to deal with, and in colder weather Army surplus polypropylene long johns underneath (something like this, which work TOO well and will make you almost too hot, even in frigid weather). I've rarely washed these long johns and usually don't notice any reason to.

Since it may not have been clear and because this thread mentions a bunch of different types, the notes I left describe building something like this:


http://oaklandtinyhouse.blogspot.com

[Jhanananda]

Nice cabin.  I especially like the tiny hanging couch on the tiny porch.

[Jhanananda]

Here is a link to a number of tiny house ideas. Simply super sheds.

[Zack]

I am in the beginning phases of designing and getting started my own tiny house started. The first dilemma was whether to buy a pick-up truck (I don't own a vehicle of any kind, besides a bicycle that I can't store where I currently live) to make what will likely be a slow, drawn-out construction easier, but I have decided there is almost no way I can afford one, followed by the upkeep, insurance, gas, etc. I have local family members who can help with any hauling I need to do, it will just likely limit me to weekends.

So that throws me head-on into the second dilemma, finding and buying a flatbed utility trailer. This will be a few thousand dollars at the most, a little less used, so it seems for the time being I have to pick up more hours at my day job and try to save what I can. If I can get a small loan that would mean I could get a trailer now and start designing and building to the exact specifications, but I also don't think I would be able to get one.

I will come back with updates if there are any worth noting for others thinking of the same thing, or if I actually get something started.

[Jhanananda]

Hi Zack, thanks for sharing with us your ideas about designing and building a hermitage.  My goals in designing and building a hermitage for myself began with the fuel problem that you are confronted with.  My solution was to make my own fuel out of waste products.  It has worked pretty well for the last 8 years, although figuring it out was troublesome, and it took me a long time. Ten years.

Now that I have a fuel source secured, and a proven method of converting garbage to fuel, now I am starting on the hermitage, about 10 years after I started the design stage.  My plan is to just acquire and put a camper on the back of a deuce and a half, which will haul it and me into remote locations where I prefer to camp.  I have been keeping an eye on Craig's list and found that old campers are often given away for free.  All one has to do is show up with a truck and pick it up and drive off with it.

About 10 years ago I concluded that the deuce and a half had a number of advantages: 1] it is available with a multifuel engine, which was designed to burn anything from gasoline to motor oil. 2] It is a 2 1/2 ton vehicle, with an 8ftx12ft flat bed, so that it can haul my camper/hermitage; 3] Finally, it is a go-anywhere vehicle.

Now, after owning a 2 1/2 ton deuce and a half equipped with a multifuel engine; 2 winches, one in front, one in back and an 8ftx12ft flat bed; I have to service it to bring it up to a reliable level of performance.  Last year I replaced all of the hoses and belts.  That took me about 2 months.  Now, I have to rebuild or replace all 6 injectors, injector hard pipes, all of the return lines, and its leaky fuel tank.

[Jhanananda]

This morning I came across this novel Tiny house idea.

Impressive green home emerges from a tiny block of land

This one offers an all-glass home, which could be made nearly for free from recycled window glass.

Photon Space glass home to help residents get in the (circadian) rhythm

[Jhanananda]

Every homeless person I know would love to have a cabin in the National Forest that looks like a boulder:

Like a rolling stone: Tiny Alpine cabin resembles an oversized rock

[Michel]

Interesting, Jhananda. That's what you'd call fitting into the environment. That is at least visually.

Quonset huts are interesting structures...

Mini-Quonset hut: http://www.tiny-house-living.com/mini-quonset-hut.html

[Jhanananda]

I like that little quonset-hut you posted the link to.

[Jhanananda]

JF-Kit House makes you pedal for your breakfast

[Jhanananda]

Latest S House prototype can be assembled in just 3 hours


Professor living in a dumpster for a year to investigate sustainable living

[Jhanananda]

To me the pit house represents the ultimate in Tiny Houses, and thus the perfect home for the mendicant.  As an archaeologist I have studied them extensively.  They are essentially an Igloo that is made of mud.

The basic design is a hemisphere made of twigs and limbs, basket-like.  It is then covered in mud.  Most often it is semi-subterranean, which is where the dirt comes from to make the mud.

pit houses can be small enough to accommodate one person, or large enough to accommodate an entire family group.  They are easy to make, and can be made in a day.

When I found myself camping along the Rio Grande near Alamosa, CO, I seriously considered building a pithouse along the Rio Grande to winter in, because they have excellent insulation; and the basic design includes a central fire pit, which vents out of a hole in the ceiling, which makes the pithouse more like living inside of a harth.

A pit-house (pithouse) is "a dwelling partially dug into the ground and roofed over." [1] Besides providing shelter from extremes of weather, these structures may also be used to store food and for cultural activities like the telling of stories, dancing, singing and celebrations. General dictionaries also describe a pithouse as a dugout[2] and has similarities to a half-dugout.[3]

In archaeology, pit-houses are frequently termed a sunken featured building (SFB)[4][5] and occasionally (grub-)hut[6] or grubhouse after the German name Grubenhaus[7] and are found in numerous cultures around the world. These include: the people of the American Southwest, including the ancestral Pueblo, the ancient Fremont and Mogollon cultures, the Cherokee, the Inuit, the people of the Plateau, and archaic residents of Wyoming (Smith 2003) in North America; Archaic residents of the Lake Titicaca Basin (Craig 2005) in South America; Anglo Saxons in Europe; and the Jōmon people in Japan. Anglo Saxon pit-houses may have actually represented buildings for other functions than just dwellings.

Usually, all that remains of the ancient pit-house is a dug out hollow in the ground and any postholes used to support the roof.

[Michel]

Now that's the idea. No need to go to Costco to get 2X4s, etc.

My father built an igloo for me when I was a kid. It was very cozy.

I was looking at caves and underground houses (flooding is a problem).

[Jhanananda]

Yes, flooding would be a problem for a pithouse, except the basic design involves a covered crawl entry (igloo-like), which is lined with dirt and rock above grade, and they often have a door of sorts to keep out the critters and the rain, but it has to allow for airflow to feed the fire.

This does remind me of one of my favorite Gary Larsen cartoons, in which he shows two polar bears breaking into the top of an igloo. 

[Jhanananda]

A Shipping Container Costs About $2,000. What These 15 People Did With That Is Beyond Epic














I like this one the most because it employes earth as an insulator.