I’m continually amazed with the creativity and craftsmanship coming out of the tiny house community recently. This tiny house is another excellent example.

Laird lives up in the Yukon Territory, Whitehorse to be precise, and has just finished building his second tiny home. This design is called the Leaf House; here’s what he told be about it:

“This home is 20′, and I spared no expense on it. The winters are quite cold (in the Yukon), so it features triple pane windows, spray foam insulation and a wrap of 2″ of insulation. It has a full-size propane range, half size fridge, instant tankless hot water, 35 gallon tank, shower & compact bathtub, composting toilet, bathroom sink, queen size loft, pull out couch, hardwood flooring, and granite tiles.”

He also used FSC (Forest Stewardship Certified) lumber, reclaimed materials, natural finishes, and other ecologically friendly building products in the home. But what blows me away are the interior details, the softened wood trim and details, the contrast between the natural woods and white walls, and the clever built-ins that provide storage & function. I also really like how he built the loft to extend over the living area and is accessed by an assortment of dual-function steps.

This house is also for sale… and just in case you’re curious, TinyHouseDesign.com receives no money for homes posted here for sale. I post them in the hope of connecting folks like Laird with folks looking for quality built tiny homes.

To learn more about this house visit tinyhousing.ca.

Adam, one of my long time readers just sent me a link to a tiny house he built with his brother. The home’s design was inspired by a few of the free tiny house plans I offer here. Their adaptation of the plans really turned out a great design. I really love the use of materials, various exterior finishes, and attention to detail.

Here’s what Adam says about the house:

This past winter, my brother and I decided to try our hands at a tiny house build.  With my skills as a builder and my brother’s as an artist and designer, we set out with a rough design and many things to learn.  We began with a modified plan that was inspired by two of Michael Janzen’s solar house plans from tinyhousedesign.com.  The final product is the beaming rustic modern tiny house you see above.

Our spacious tiny house began as a 20′ trailer with dual #3500 axles that transported a lowly camper in days bygone.  Painted and leveled, construction was ready to begin.

The now completed rustic modern home is 21′ long, cantilevered a foot off the back, and semi-divided into three seven-foot sections.  The square footage is approximately 130 sq ft, not including the additional sleeping loft.  It has a maxed out 8′ 6″ width and towering 13′ 3″ height, with a folding deck and removable awning for travel. While the weight is yet to be determined, it is estimated at 5500 – 6000 pounds.

The front and rear sections of the house are constructed with 2×4 floor framing.  The center section raises above the wheels with 2×10′s.  Sheathed underneath with 1/2″ painted plywood and topped with 3/4″ subfloor the floor is covered with 3/4″ stained pine flooring. The majority of the exterior is 1×4 cedar rain-screen siding, with a ply-and-batten backside and painted pine left frontside.  Nine Crestline double-paned windows fill the walls and a Crestline low-e swinging patio door transitions the space from inside to out.  On top of it all is an exposed fastener steel roof.

Inside, the ceiling is 12″ maple plywood with a narrow reveal. Walls throughout the house are painted hardboard. Corrugated galvanized steel surrounds the shower, toilet, and closet in the bathroom. Five-inch-wide pine tongue-and-grove covers the floor, stained and sealed with Danish oil.  The cabinets and countertops are custom-made from 3/4″ maple plywood.  The cabinets and ceiling are sealed with linseed oil and the counter has a clear gloss epoxy coating.  The loft, covered in the same pine flooring, is large enough to fit a low-profile queen mattress or pad.  A small open storage area is accessible from the kitchen, with additional closet space in the bathroom.

The house is plumbed and wired, similar to the common camper.  A water hook-up is underneath, supplying water to the sink, shower, and 6-gallon Bosch electric water heater.  Power comes through a 30 amp camper hookup.  Inside, there is a 4-circuit sub panel with two 15-amp and two 20-amp circuits.  Originally designed to be heated by a small electric space heater, it was later decided that heating is a personal preference.  Knowing that some would prefer propane or wood heat, these can be easily incorporated.  While it does not currently contain a heater, one can be installed one or you may supply your own.  The bathroom houses a sawdust compost toilet, but is able to be converted to an RV toilet if you have a full-time sewer hook-up.  The living room has a ceiling fan for circulation and the windows provide excellent cross-ventilation as well as ample solar heat on a cold sunny day. A window air conditioner could also be easily added in the summer months.

The house comes furnished with an IKEA sleeper loveseat and IKEA banana leaf rocking chair.  The refrigerator is an Igloo two-door fridge and freezer.  The kitchen’s propane stove is upcycled from the original camper.  The entryway prides itself in its custom-built pine storage cubby and two IKEA chairs, able to be pulled up to the multi-purpose counter.  All furniture is included in the price and decorative items may be purchased at an additional charge.

With my brother and I both being a towering 6′ 7″, Tall Man’s Tiny House was born.  Everything was built with those who are vertically blessed in mind.  The low points on the main floor are the standard door and entryway ceiling at 6′ 8″.  Both of us are able to crawl into the spacious three-and-a-half tall loft.  This house was built as if it were being building it for ourselves, no detail left undone.

The asking price is $27,000 with buyer arranging transportation.

Visit their website, Tall Man’s Tiny House, for more photos, information, and contact information. The house is currently located in the Columbus Ohio area.

For about five years Kirsten and Nicolás have been visiting and filming people in their tiny homes. This documentary brings together all those interviews into one story about the tiny house movement.

Learn more about We The Tiny House People.

Dan Louche and I are collaborating on a new website called TinyHouseMap.com. It’s a map-based classified listings site that we hope will help connect the tiny house community outside of cyberspace. The internet is great, but when you’re looking for the closest tiny house builder, workshop, or open house it’s tough. This new website should fill a much needed gap for the wider tiny house community.

You can also add yourself to the map! - If you’re not comfortable with posting too much personal information online keep your listing simple by adding city/state info and use just your first name. Be sure to add a photo though, it’s nice to be able to connect a face to a name.

We’re open to suggestions too. If you have an idea for improving the map we’d love to hear it.

If you run a tiny house related website and publish relevant location-centric content via RSS, you could get it listed on the map. TinyHouseMap.com is built to aggregate content from other sites to help bring us together. We’re stronger together.

For data integration possibilities or suggestions please contact Michael Janzen at email hidden; JavaScript is required.

This is a preview of a new documentary on the Tiny House Movement. The full film will be released on April 23, 2012. For about five years Kirsten and Nicolás have been visiting and filming people in their tiny homes.

This documentary brings together all those interviews into one story about the tiny house movement. Learn more about We the Tiny House People. Watch the full documentary.

Anderson Cooper has a great story scheduled for Monday April 9, 2012 about a family that is rebuilding their lives by leveraging tiny house living.

Carl and Hari were restaurant owners in 2008 when the recession hit. Like so many small business owners they lost their home when their business failed. Extreme times call for extreme measures so they built a tiny home for $12,000 as a stepping stone to a mortgage-free future. Eventually they plan to build a larger (yet still small) home when they’ve saved enough money. In the mean time they avoid rent and high energy bills. Their overall consumption is also limited by the physical size of their home – saving them more money.

In 2007-2008 many of us found ourselves trapped in upside-down mortgages or in foreclosure. We had grown complacent and convinced that home ownership came with few risks. Now that the bubble has popped and has little possibility for re-inflation, we now understand the true value of paying our dues up-front instead of mortgaging our futures.

By sharing their story on television, Carl and Hari are showing the world an option the majority may have not considered – an option that values frugality, saving, and financial freedom. If you’re feeling the financial pinch yourself, consider extreme downsizing and living simply.

In my book, Tiny House Floor Plans, I show many examples of tiny houses just like this one. I also just finished a house plan for an 8′ x 20′ tiny house on wheels, which is just one foot shorter than the house pictured below.

You can follow these folks at TinyHouseFamily.com.

Read more about this family at AndersonCooper.com. Photo credit AndersonCooper.com.

I just posted an updated version of the Prospector’s Cabin Framing Plans. The look & feel of the plans have been updated to the same style as the Pioneer’s Cabin plans making them easier to read and use. I’ve also included a lumber materials list.

The Prospector’s Cabin measures 12′x12′ and the walls are 10-feet tall giving the loft a bit more headroom than normal Two roof options are included in the plans, a 12/12 and 8/12 pitched roof. The price of the plans is unchanged from the original $9.95. Learn more about the Prospector’s Cabin.

I’ve also sent updates out to everyone that has previously purchased a set of these plans. If you purchased these plans in the past and did not receive your updated download link please email me at email hidden; JavaScript is required. Thanks!

I just posted an updated version of the Pioneer’s Cabin Framing Plans. The main improvements in this update are:

1. The addition of a lumber materials list;
2. An lookout framing improvement to the eaves;
3. End-wall sheathing improvement.

The Pioneer’s Cabin measures 16-feet wide by 20-feet deep. The roof has a 12/12 pitch. A 10-foot deep loft covers half the second level. The price of the plans is unchanged from the original $9.95. Learn more about the Pioneer’s Cabin. You might also be curious to see some floor plan ideas for a 16′x20′ tiny house.

I’ve also sent updates out to everyone that has previously purchased a set of these plans. If you purchased these plans in the past and did not receive your updated download link please email me at email hidden; JavaScript is required. Thanks!

One of my readers, Nils, sent me a link to this TEDx video. Jon Jandai speaks about finding happiness and includes a piece about how building his own earthen home helped show him that life is easy. Here’s a quote from the video description on YouTube:

Jon is a farmer from northeastern Thailand. He founded the Pun Pun Center for Self-reliance, an organic farm outside Chiang Mai, with his wife Peggy Reents in 2003. Pun Pun doubles as a center for sustainable living and seed production, aiming to bring indigenous and rare seeds back into use. It regularly hosts training on simple techniques to live more sustainably. Outside of Pun Pun, Jon is a leader in bringing the natural building movement to Thailand, appearing as a spokesperson on dozens of publications and TV programs for the past 10 years. He continually strives to find easier ways for people to fulfill their basic needs. For more information visit www.punpunthailand.org.

Thanks again for sending this my way Nil!

Brad Kittel, owner of Tiny Texas Houses, has some great ideas about how and where we the people should be taking our freedom – starting with our homes. I’ve admired his tiny houses for years now and really happy to see him cranking the tiny house movement up a notch.

Brad is suggesting that we’re surrounded by vast amounts of free resources and that if we choose to, we can build a better life from what has been thrown away.

Or you might say that Brad is articulating one path to the paradigm shift our civilization needs and will eventually require. The current paradigm based on debt, consumerism, and what amounts to imperialism can’t and shouldn’t last. New ideas, new business models, new lifestyles, new jobs, new politics, will emerge and replace the current failing system.

We can allow the current powers-that-be to control the shape the new world takes, or we can choose to take it back. Unfortunately the current powers-that-be are so dedicated to the old paradigm that they seem willing to do anything to see it continue. Another challenge is that most regular folks are also married-to/stuck-in/trapped-by the old paradigm. After all at some point in our lives we’ve all tasted that Kool-aid. We need an antidote.

One antidote is tiny houses, not just living in them but the life change and values they convey. Another is building value from the valueless and rethinking true (not monetary) value. Brad has found a clever way to combine these two by producing beautiful tiny homes from what was once trash. But now with the message the Pure Salvage Living Movement sends, he’s showing what a new viable paradigm looks like and how easy it would be to make the transition.

Below, Brad talks about his life, company, and vision for the Pure Salvage Living Movement. He gave this talk at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Austin, Texas on March 12, 2012.

To learn more visit www.tinytexashouses.com and www.puresalvageliving.com.