Building the Tiny House

During my formative years, I grew up in a rural area of the country settled by Scottish immigrants. Even though they had landed in the 1700’s the culture was, and still is, definitely Scottish and thoroughly ingrained. There are many jokes about the stereotypical stingy Scot. The fact is, it is more than just a joke – there is some truth in it. I think it was not so much a conscious effort to be stingy so much as a dogged determination to survive in impoverished conditions. They learned early on, both in their Scottish homeland and in the new world, that if they spent less and reused everything, then they needed much less to live. There was one man in particular that I remember, a bachelor, who lived in a simple and very small house - probably close to 150 sq. ft. in size. He lived less than 1 mile from the closest town, and rode his bicycle into town for food and supplies. In the winter he walked. He obviously had very little money. But he did have his own home, his own space and independence. That was the first functional tiny house that I remember. The other very small house I saw in those days was a cabin in a forest at the back of my cousin’s farm. The cabin was somewhat remote, taking at least 40 minutes to get to regardless of the way you traveled. It was in the middle of a mature sugar maple forest and it was used during the sugaring season for overnight stays when they boiled down the maple sap into syrup. This cabin was probably 8’ x 10’, had a bed, a wood stove, a chair and table and a window. I loved it as soon as I laid eyes on it. What a great place of solitude it was! For some reason, knowing about these small and inexpensive houses is a comfort to me. Perhaps it is an inner voice that always asks: “what would you do if you lost everything?” These tiny houses help to answer that question giving me a bit of comfort that I will probably not be living on the street even if the worst of circumstances come my way. There are several resources for those interested in building a tiny house either for recreation or as a main dwelling. Most cities have minimum size regulations for housing 2005and they are usually bigger than these houses so you will need to locate a tiny house in the country or as a second building on someone else’s lot. The following books and websites have some good ideas for building small houses: The Tiny Book of Tiny Houses , By Lester Walker.
The Cabin: Inspiration for the Classic American Getaway, by Dale Mulfinger, Susan E. Davis You can find both online and second-hand on www.Amazon.com .
Websites:
http://www.coolhouseplans.com/index.html (see the small house plans section, but be warned, the plans aren’t cheap. The online floor plans may be all you need if you are an experienced builder.)
http://www.bcmountainhomes.com/homesearch.php?category_id=1(Nice plans here. Worth the visit.)
http://www.insitebuilders.com/ (Small steel houses.)http://www.peak.org/~skinncr/smallhouse/resource_small_house.html(Small house books.)http://www.tinyhouses.net/index.htm(Tiny houses inspiration.)www.minicabin.com(a cabin in process.)
Scrooge