So then I started looking at finished houses. But with each one I kept thinking about things I would want to change to make it my own. Though there were many, many houses out there, I couldn't find one that was exactly what I wanted with all of the exact details I would choose.
Luckily, there's a middle ground. It's called a tiny house shell. You have a builder get the project started and then you finish it. Most builders will do as much or as little of the work as you want them to, but the typical shell comes with the exterior finished (including siding and windows installed); the plumbing and electrical work done; and the trailer, of course, unless you're planning to build your tiny house on a foundation.
This is also a great way to save money on your tiny house, since a shell costs a lot less than a finished house. Though, of course, you still have to pay for the materials to finish it.
Here's what the interior of a shell looks like.
(Photo cred: Tiny Home Builders)
After much thought and number crunching and pro/con listing and praying, I settled on having a shell built for me that I will then finish myself. It seems like a great compromise between wanting to do it all myself and realizing that my time is limited and that there are certain parts of a build that would require more of me than I'm willing to give.
Once I was set on a shell, it was time to come up with a floor plan. I know it seems like there wouldn't be much to figure out in a tiny house floor plan since the space is so small, but there are still lots of little decisions to make. These range from how big you want the overall space to be to where to locate the bathroom, kitchen, bed, and storage space.
If you're planning to live in a tiny house at any point, one of the best exercises you can do is to make a list of all the activities you do in your house on a regular basis and figure out what kinds of spaces you need in order to do them.
For example, my list looks something like this:
sleep
work on my laptop
eat
cook
use the bathroom
shower
get dressed
put on make up
do laundry
have random dance parties
read
write in my journal
store clothes
store books
store food
maybe have a friend or two over and have a place for them to sit
Now just because I happen to have sixteen items on that list does not mean that I need sixteen separate rooms in my house for all of those things to happen in. That would just be crazy.
In fact, by combining items on my list, I can get down to about five or six spaces in which I can do all of those things:
1. sitting area
2. desk space (can be used for working or eating)
3. sleeping loft
4. bathroom
5. kitchen
6. storage
So that's one set of things you have to think about. Then there's stuff like passive solar design, where you want your utilities to be, how much the house will weigh, and what you can use to haul it. Not to mention road height and width restrictions and standard window and door sizes and what the house will look like from the outside. All sorts of things.
But luckily I've had years to consider all of this and in those years, I've found out what kinds of spaces I really need and what really matters to me in terms of design and aesthetics. For example, many tiny houses these days are built with a shed roof like this . . .
(Photo cred: Rocky Mountain Tiny Homes)
or with dormers like this . . .
(Photo cred: Tumbleweed)
As nice as those things are for giving you more head room inside or additional space for storage or sleeping, I just can't stand the way they look from the outside. For me, one of the things I'm not willing to compromise on is that classic, steeply pitched roofline. It just screams home to me.
That's one of the reasons I've always been drawn to Jay Shafer's designs. In case you're new to tiny houses, Jay Shafer is like the original tiny houser of our era. He founded Tumbleweed Tiny Houses and now owns Four Lights Tiny House Company. And he's been designing and living in tiny spaces for nearly twenty years now. I love his designs because they're simple and efficient, but they take their inspiration from classic architecture, which means you get a house that is small and functional, but still homey and endearing from the outside and the inside.
Sorry this post is taking so long. I keep waxing tangential.
The point was to show you the house floor plan and exterior that I'm planning to use as my model. I'll be making a few changes to it in order to get it exactly as I want it, but in essence it will look like a Four Lights Tiny House plan called The Weller.
(Photo cred: Four Lights Tiny House Company)
This house is small. Really small. The floor plan looks like this:
As you can see, there's a sleeping loft and some storage above and the downstairs area isn't much bigger. Since I don't need an extra bed downstairs, I'll be converting that area into my office with a desk on one side and storage on the other. There are a number of things I like about this house. I like that it's small (obviously). I like that there are more windows on one side than there are on the other. That's good for a passive solar design. I like that the kitchen doesn't take up too much room because I'm not planning to do much cooking in my house (more on that in a future post). And I love the window seat in the front room.
If you're interested, you can see another example of a finished Weller on the Four Lights blog here.
Once I knew what I wanted, it was time to talk to builders about how much it was all going to cost to make sure I could actually do this in my budget. In the past few weeks, I've met with a couple of different tiny house builders in Utah about my plans. And the good news is that I think I can make this happen! I've been saving a lot of money while I've been living with my grandparents, and between that and possibly financing or taking out a loan for a portion of the amount I'll need, things are looking really good. I'll write a more detailed post in the future about the costs of tiny housing and how people make it work without a mortgage or typical financing.
But for now I just wanted to let you all know that this is definitely still happening and that progress is being made, even if you can't see it. As always, if you have questions, feel free to comment here or contact me directly.
Thank you so, so much to those who responded to my last post about needing a place to park my house. I am looking into a couple options for parking, but I keep hearing about more and more people who are interested in renting land to park on in Utah, so if you're interested in tiny houses, have space for me or someone else, and would like to earn a little extra money, please let me know and I'd be happy to tell you more about that process.
Till next time,
Keep dreaming,
Heidi
