Before we left on our bicycling tour, we designed and built a tiny house on a trailer that we intend to live in upon our return. At 260 square feet (180 ft² ground level + 80 ft² sleeping loft) our home allows us more freedom to live simply, to easily relocate (if necessary), and to use less resources.
Our Tiny House
The exterior of the home was built and sealed off from the elements before we left on our travels, with the interior design to be completed later. As we travel around the world, we’re learning as much as we can about how others build and live so that we can implement the smartest and most efficient interior design possible.
Our tiny home includes a kitchen, living room, bathroom, sleeping loft, small storage loft and an extended porch. We’ve incorporated the use of cathedral ceilings, dormers and an open-floor plan to create a light-filled, livable space.
We used as much local and/or reclaimed lumber and non-toxic materials in the building process as possible, while also paying particular attention to energy efficiency. Our plan is to keep it simple: point of use plumbing, wood stove for heat, composting toilet, mini-fridge in the summer & natural fridge in the winter, marine alcohol stove/oven for cooking, and12 volt/LED lighting. Long term plans include use of solar power (passive to heat water for showering/cleaning and panels to provide electricity) and capturing of rain water for every day use.
Sharing What We’ve Learned
We have documented much of the design-process and the building of our house through this blog so that others could learn from our (in)experience.
Find all our posts on our Tiny House Posts Page or skip right to our videos to watch 22 weeks of us building our home. Also check out Our Story and find out why we built so small.
We’re writing a book about our experience designing and building our own Tiny House. Detailed diagrams, photos, floor plans and mistakes we made along the way as first-time home builders – we’re sharing it all!
Subscribe to our Tiny House Newsletter to receive updates about our Tiny House Book, including notification of the release date and book giveaways.
