Jay Shafers Video on the Politics of Small Homes

There is a lot of chatter on the small homes front today.  This interview with Jay Shafer, founder of Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, and Guru of tiny homes in general, is definitely the lead story of the day.

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Categories: homes, Jay, of, on, Politics, Shafers, Small, The, video

Small Cottage on a Beautiful Lake in Vermont

This waterfront cottage in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom is less than 500 square feet. It also happens to be where my wife and I stayed for our honeymoon almost 14 years ago.   It has a galley kitchen, three fixture bathroom, gas fired "wood stove", sunken living room, and screened-in dining porch.  It's decorated in a rustic style with furniture by Old Hickory.  The lakefront location with its own dock on one of the prettiest lakes in Vermont is hard to beat. 

Sunken living room decorated in rustic style.

Essentially the only thing this lakefront cottage lacks to make it a viable full-time home is a washer and dryer.  

The massing, steep roof pitches, and covered porch of this little cottage make it look bigger than it is.

The kitchen is probably 6' x 8'.  It looks like the stove is only 24 inches wide, but that's big enough.

I'm featuring this little cottage because as I said above, if you added a compact stacked washer and dryer, you would have pretty much everything a normal full-time single family dwelling has, except of course, more bedrooms and a lot of wasted space.   I'd sacrifice a bit of the bedroom closet to squeeze in the washer & dryer.  If you feel you must have a dishwasher, you could fit a compact 18 inch wide one on either side of the sink, depending on your preference. 

The one bedroom.  It's probably about 12' x 12', including the closet.

Nice screened-in dining porch with a million dollar view!

If you were to build something like this for yourself, think of how much money you'd save by giving up that extra 1,500 square feet found in most homes built today.  Then think of all the money you'd save on heating, cooling, lighting, maintenance, and so on.   Raise your hand if you want to be a mortgage slave.  Yeah,  me neither.

That million dollar view I mentioned.

I just made a quick, hand-drawn sketch of the cottage based on what I can recall from 13+ years ago coupled with information gleaned from these photos.  I never measured the place, but I think it's pretty accurate.  I know it's just a sloppy sketch, so please forgive me.

The floor plan, as I recall it.

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Categories: a, beautiful, Cottage, in, Lake, on, Small, Vermont

Small shipping container home Auckland New Zealand

This small shipping container home can be used as a spare room, studio, home office, sleepout or anything you want. The transportable 20 foot container unit can include various home devices for any taste and budget and so generates portable rooms with various functionality and can be delivered anywhere in the world.

Design: One Cool Habitat

Categories: Auckland, Container, Home, New, shipping, Small, zealand

Get Small homes built from shipping containers

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7 homes built with shipping containers - cbs news, Manifesto house james & mau arquitectura. outside the shipping containers, james & mau arquitectura added two "skins." wooden panels line one side and recycled wood.

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Categories: built, containers, from, homes, shipping, Small

Small shipping container prefab homes by mekaworld

645 sq. ft. modern shipping container modular home, This is a 645 sq. ft. modern shipping container modular home called the kiev by nova deco which is an international manufacturer in australia that builds quality.

Jetson green - first container home in new orleans, This home was designed by the toronto-based maker of prefab homes, mekaworld, and is the first container home in new orleans. it is made up of two shipping containers.

Diy container housing - p2p foundation, Discussion. eric hunting: "container housing has been very popular of late and works well. it's a very well proven means to very durable low-cost housing, but costs.

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Categories: by, container, homes, mekaworld, prefab, shipping, Small

Bornay Two Blade Small Wind Turbines By Preston

  For more information go to Jetson Green WebsiteJETSON GREEN

 

 

Bornay Two-Blade Small Wind Turbines

from Green Building : Jetson Green by Preston

It’s been a while since I’ve seen anything new in the world of small wind, but I recently noticed that Bornay turbines from Spain are now distributed in the United States.  The company has several models, including two-blade models rated at 600 watts, 1500 watts, and 3000 watts, and a three-blade model rated at 6000 watts.  The Bornay 1500, for example, is about a nine-foot turbine that weighs 90 pounds and cuts in at winds of six mph.  The 1500-watt kit is sold for $20,000 by Electrex Industrial Services.

[+] Video: how Bornay produces small wind turbines.

Related Articles on JetsonGreen.com:

1. Small Wind Turbine Available at Lowe’s
2. The State of Small Wind [Interview]
3. Gearless Wind Turbine Launches Today

Categories: Blade, Bornay, by, Preston, Small, Turbines, two, Wind

SPACE SAVING STAIRS LADDERS FOR SMALL HOMES

In small, tiny, or "right sized" homes, you don't want to sacrifice usable space if you can avoid it.  That's why you see so many ladders leading to the lofts of tiny homes. It's the perfect solution for some, but others may want something that makes loft access more, well, accessible.  The idea of negotiating a steeply pitched ladder in the middle of the night might deter many otherwise would-be small home owners.  I'm going to discuss space saving stairs and ladders including ship's ladders, alternating step stairs, and spiral stairs.

Gorgeous narrow diameter wooden spiral staircase.

When space is at a premium, but you don't want to climb an ordinary ladder, a ship's ladder may be just the thing.  They're steeply pitched to save floor space, but not quite as steep as ordinary ladders. They can also have wider treads, and handrails to make climbing and descending safer.  Handrails can be designed in ways that they make entering and exiting the ladder less dangerous.

Ship's Ladder

Ship's Ladder

   
Ship's ladders come in a variety of styles.  There are the more common variety pictured above, and the less common alternating step stair variety pictured below.

Alternating Step Stairs

Alternating Step Stairs

   













The advantage of ship's ladders, alternating step stairs, and spiral stairs over ordinary ladders is that they are easier to climb and they can be climbed "hands free", but keeping at least one hand on a handrail is recommended for all three types.  The advantage of all three over conventional stairs is that they save lots of floor space, enabling more useable space for other, more frequently used functions.  To get an idea of how much floor space is sacrificed by conventional stairs, take a look at the image below.  It is showing a savings of 14 square feet for the alternating step stairs.  That's equivalent to seven linear feet of kitchen counter,  two side by side three foot wide closets, or an entire two fixture bathroom.  And that's enormously significant in tiny houses, which are typically 150 square feet or less.  Truly conventional stairs are even bigger space hogs.  They are three or more feet wide (not two feet like in the picture), so that really means a savings of at least 21 square feet.  If there are landings add another 10 to 20 square feet saved.

A comparison of alternating step stairs and conventional stairs.

The picture above also illustrates that one can descend alternating step stairs facing forward, even when carrying something.  Don't try that on a ladder.  The thing about alternating step stairs is that if you get halfway down or up, and then realize you need to turn around, well, you pretty much need to finish the trip first.

Pictured below are some other variations on the alternate step stair theme.

Alternating step stairs

Alternating step stairs

View down alternating step staircase, surrounded by book shelves.

And below are a few more ship's ladder images...

Nicely crafted ship's ladder

Ship's ladder detail image

Here's an interesting space-saving staircase...
It looks conventional, but narrow, and each riser (vertical part) is actually a pull-out drawer for storage.
 

SPIRAL STAIRS

Spiral stairs may work in certain situations, but they are tricky.  Advantages include aesthetics and saving space.  The smallest overall diameter for this type of staircase is about four feet. Current code regarding spiral stairs says that the tread width must be at least 7.5 inches at a point 12 inches from the narrow end.  Risers can be up to 9.5 inches, and like any stair, the riser height must be consistent. 

Now the drawbacks...

One rule of thumb is that the more narrow a spiral stair is, the more dangerous it is to climb or descend.  You definitely want to keep a hand on the handrail at all times.  You also want to try to keep your feet toward the outer edge of the treads because they are wider there, and your feet are less likely to slip off.  

My research suggests that by code,  spiral stairs are only permitted for residential use in areas that are not frequently accessed.  A sleeping loft or bedroom would presumably be accessed daily, and therefor not be permissible.  In the case of a tiny home, like the kind built on trailers, codes are considerably less restrictive, but most truly tiny homes can't afford to sacrifice the space these stairs require.  Consider that in tiny homes the sleeping area is often a loft that may be difficult to sit up in, let alone stand up in.  If you arrive via ladder, you can crawl off into your loft.  When you reach the top of a spiral stair, you require plenty of headroom, something that often doesn't exist in many tiny home lofts.

Spiral Stairs

If you are going to use a spiral stair, I suggest purchasing a stair kit or buying one ready-made because working out the details of a spiral staircase is challenging.  Simply having the right diameter, tread width and riser height to span the overall rise of the staircase may not be enough.  You'll also need to figure out how to make sure you can get on and off in the places you want to be, while simultaneously being sure that the stairs "get out of their own way" so that you don't hit your head on the bottom of treads above you.  As I said, they are tricky.   Finally, you would find that you would be quite limited  in terms of the size of objects you could carry up or down a very narrow diameter spiral stair, especially considering the need to always keep one hand on the rail.

Spiral Stairs

Lastly, let's take a moment to be totally impractical but whimsical & fun.  I've yet to see anything like the ideas below incorporated into a tiny home for loft access, but who knows?  Maybe I'll start something.

Climbing Wall

All kinds of ideas for loft access here.

Bubble Wall

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Categories: for, homes, LADDERS, SAVING, Small, SPACE, STAIRS

Architects Small Connecticut Home

When Connecticut architect Duo Dickinson and his wife were starting out 30 years ago, he designed and had this beautiful small home built.  The budget was limited, the site presented numerous challenges, but the solution is unique and impressive.

The home is located in one of Connecticut's most charming small shoreline towns, and has a very nice view of a salt marsh.  Being located so close to a near shore wetland area, codes dictated that living spaces needed to be elevated ten feet above grade.  This presented an opportunity to create a car port under the house while at the same time saving a little money on the foundation itself.

Overall, the house has about 1,100 square feet of modest yet elegant living space.  It features one bedroom, one bathroom, a two story living and dining area that opens onto a deck, a home office, a small but functional kitchen, and covered parking below.

The two story living and dining room features a fireplace and an unusual indoor bay window that brightens the upstairs hallway while offering views outside and to the interior space below.

Detailed floor plans appear below.  Thanks Duo!

First floor plan

 

Second floor plan

Check out Duo Dickinson's website via the following link...  
http://www.duodickinson.com/Index.html

Also see his interesting blog, Saved by Design, with this link...
http://savedbydesign.wordpress.com/ 

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Categories: Architects, Connecticut, Home, Small