Building a tiny house

[Stagleton]

I like the idea of buying a plot of land in a cool area I want to live and building a tiny house http://tinyhousebuild.com/. Then I think what is the difference between this and an RV? An RV is cheaper (6k on craigslist) and I could just park it on the land where I want to live and not worry about plumbing etc. Then I think about how ugly an RV is and I lose interest. After a while I come back to the tinyhouse idea and the circle continues.

What do you guys think? RV or tinyhouse?

[EvenKeeled]

I don't know what kind of tiny house you're thinking of, but some are built on a frame with wheels. So you could park it and later easily move it.

I imagine a tiny house would have more insulation than an RV. RV's would be better if you want to be able to tour the country, of course.

My dream is to build a small house with the option of adding onto it later. This would require a different shape and plan than these tiny houses.

Someone else on the forum wrote about the difficulty and expense of getting building permits. My advice is to do a ton of research into the regulations before buying any land.

[totoro]

I lost my fascination with tiny houses after I read this article: http://www.businessinsider.com/i-lived-in-a-tiny-house-2014-8?op=1

Doesn't mean it couldn't work well for some people, I'm just not tidy or minimalist enough for it.

[highcountry]

Tiny house, but maybe something not stick built. Bodega Portable Homes does some interesting work that I recommend checking out.

RVs are not all that pleasant, and I've heard repairs on them cost a lot. Tiny houses can be really lovely, though there aren't as many on the used market, and they will likely disintegrate slower, making them more expensive. 

[devan 11]

  I tested the RV route and for me, it was very flimsy. RVs seldom last more than a few years. Weight is a huge issue when you are towing your home around by a truck.  So is balance.  The trade offs in design make an RV into a less desirable option for longer term housing. If I were to go the tiny house route, I would design around a fifth wheel frame and build it myself.  If I ever needed to move it, it would be much safer to go any distance.

  The outside-the-box solutions that caught my imagination were straw bale houses.  A local monastery built a couple as retreats. They were heated by the hot water tank, refrigerator, and occasional stove use.  The heaters were put in place for code, but are never used. Utilities were $35 a year. They also were powered with solar panels which kept electric cost out of the calculations.  They were quiet, very quiet. Straw bales remind me of the forts that I built in a
loft of a barn when I was a youngster.

I am also looking at gabion and earth bag construction.  I have some land and will be building an uber designed shed to try a couple of ideas out. There is a quarry about a half mile away, so using their waste appeals for a few reasons, too.

[The Architect]

Old traditional methods of home construction (straw bale, earth/sod, cob) might peak your interest - most are free to do if you own land (and can get permitted- that is something that doesn't always fly!) since the materials are just lying there.

I'd lean toward an RV vs. tiny house. Get one used, see how you like it, sell it if you don't. Either an RV or a tiny house is going to be difficult to add onto later. Then if you're inclined to build something, build a nice core plan - put all of your utilities, bathroom, kitchen, etc. in one small area and put your easier rooms around that. Then you can build out to expand a kitchen into, say, a kitchen + dining room; add a master onto an existing bedroom area, or a living room into a larger great room. If you make the walls and foundation strong enough for a second floor at the outset, you can expand upwards as well.

Whatever you do, plan it all in advance - that way you should be able to save time, money, and headache by doing some of the work at the start - your foundation and rough-ins might be in place for the future full-sized house, but you just frame the smaller version and keep the pads for large patios until you decide to finish it, for example.

[paddedhat]

It's important to get a real solid understanding of exactly WHERE long term habitation of a stationary RV or tiny house is going to be acceptable.  Bottom line is, the vast majority of local governments in the states are going to have something to say about it, and typically the answer is no. There are a few very progressive locations that welcome tiny houses, and similar efforts, and lots of extremely rural areas with basically little to any rules, but the vast middle ground has little interest in seeing RVs or tiny houses setting up in their neighborhoods, and they use building code and zoning regulations to prevent it.

[nawhite]

I'd lean toward an RV vs. tiny house. Get one used, see how you like it, sell it if you don't.

+1

I'm a big fan of trial runs with any plans like this. This teaches you what the "Unknown unknowns" are. After a trial period, you can use what you've learned living in a tiny space to inform your decisions about what you really want.

[MikeBear]

The smallest "tiny house" I'd consider would be 600 sq ft. That's the size of our very first house, and I could live in that easily. The problem I have now, is we live in a 1600 sq ft house, and my wife keeps looking to get one larger for retirement. We certainly don't need one larger.

We owned a vacation cabin on a lake once that was 2 bedrooms, at 864 sq ft, and it was perfectly laid out. I dream of getting one like it for retirement, as it would be just the right size.