Arched Cabin Kits

Teresa sent me this. Amazing interior space and huge variety of sizes available. Looks like really good bang-for-buck.

http://www.archedcabins.com/index.html

“Bestie Row” article

Tiny house community for a group of lifelong best friends.

http://lightersideofrealestate.com/real-estate-life/cool-stuff/tiny-house-bestie-row

CountryPlans.com site – might be some good stuff here

Came across this link in a post on a forum I visited.    http://countryplans.com/

They also have a forum with nearly 9K members.  That could be a useful resource all on its own.

The site description says:  “Here you will find expandable and modifiable home plans for those who want to build their own small home, cottage or cabin. You can modify our standard plans to fit your site, budget and building style. Click Plans and home design tools to get your home building project moving.”

Man builds house, then finds out cable Internet will cost $117,000

Disconcerting article on getting internet to a rural location. Definitely a cautionary tale.

Tiny Houses for Sale

A website where people who have built tiny houses try to divest themselves of said house, often because they hate it or are getting a divorce: prices reflect reasoning.

Use the search by state feature.

http://tinyhouselistings.com/ 

A great $16,000 example for sale in Yelm: http://tinyhouselistings.com/tiny-homecabin-shell-unmatched-quality/

Battery to Power Them All

Tesla, of course.

 

Powerwall comes in 10 kWh weekly cycle and 7 kWh daily cycle models. Both are guaranteed for ten years and are sufficient to power most homes during peak evening hours. Multiple batteries may be installed together for homes with greater energy need, up to 90 kWh total for the 10 kWh battery and 63 kWh total for the 7 kWh battery.”

  • TechnologyWall mounted, rechargeable lithium ion battery with liquid thermal control.
  • Models10 kWh $3,500For backup applications7 kWh $3,000For daily cycle applications
  • Warranty10 years
  • Efficiency92% round-trip DC efficiency
  • Power2.0 kW continuous, 3.3 kW peak
  • Voltage350 – 450 volts
  • Current5.8 amp nominal, 8.6 amp peak output
  • CompatibilitySingle phase and three phase utility grid compatible.
  • Operating Temperature-4°F to 110°F / -20°C to 43°C
  • EnclosureRated for indoor and outdoor installation.
  • InstallationRequires installation by a trained electrician. DC-AC inverter not included.
  • Weight220 lbs / 100 kg
  • Dimensions51.2″ x 33.9″ x 7.1″
    1300 mm x 860 mm x 180 mm

Self-watering rain gutter gardens

This is being billed as a way to have gardens that do not require constant attention to watering.   One of the videos mentions that this is something a lot of people who have vacation properties like to do – they drive out on the weekends to stay and harvest, but during the week their gardens grow and are kept reliably watered with no extra effort.  I am thinking of trying a few tomato buckets in a kiddie pool next year and see how they do for us.   Warning:  Country Music on some of these.

Skip the Trailer: 13 Tiny Houses Built on Foundations

Though it does not get into much detail, this is a good article for showing some approaches to stuff that’s larger than the common trailer-based tiny houses.

SIPs as building material

Snow has a co-worker that has built a lot with SIPs (structural insulated panels), and he swears by it. It’s apparently fully structural, and that means you use a lot less in the way of studs. The insulation is inherent in the panel, and compares favorably in R-rating to other insulation methods (actually, it outperforms them by a lot for other reasons).

He has a fair amount of it that he’s got stored and is willing to part with, so we will almost certainly be giving this stuff a try as we build our first structure. Should allow us to get something up faster, and be much better insulated than a traditional approach would allow for.

$2k 14×14 cabin with loft

The entire BoM for this is supposedly just $2k and includes sleeping loft, windows, solar power. Uses mostly finished lumber, except for the deck. (video below the break)

Looks pretty solid. Need to mute the earbleedingly horrible “music” in the video prior to watching though. 😉

M – Found the Simple Solar Homesteading Ebook that describes the process.

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