Micro/tiny homes

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The People Still Living in WW2 - Wartime Prefabs 2024​

Aug 8, 2024

A few hundred people still live in WW2 - that is, they live in accommodation designed as short-term emergency housing in response to German aerial bombing. But almost 80 years later, these humble houses are still in use. I found one of the largest collections of these houses still remaining - join me for an exploration!

For more information and an interactive map showing surviving prefabs, visit the Prefab Museum: https://www.prefabmuseum.uk

10:00
 
At this point in my life I want less of everything from taxes to maintenance to responsibility. Bring on a quonset hut on 10' stilts over looking some body of water not near many people.
 

From Shack to Tiny Home - Off-Grid Tiny Living​

Aug 23, 2024

Description and links can be found below the vid on youtube.


17:24
 

Quit his job to build dream cliffside hamlet in Appalachia​

Sep 15, 2024

While on a bike ride outside of Asheville (North Carolina), Doug and Jen Mielke fell in love with an overgrown high mountain pasture and spent the next 10 years convincing the owner to sell. When they finally purchased the land 15 years ago, they began to recreate shelters suited to the place.

Having worked as a pipe fitter, journeyman and welder, Doug wanted to return to his youth when he "grew up feral" building shacks in the boundary waters of Northern Minnesota. In the past 15 years he's built a cliffside cabin perched on top of granite, a 60-foot-tall treehouse, a "Divide Cottage" where the bed straddles the Eastern Continental Divide.

Now age 71 with plenty of space for his 4 kids and 12 grandkids, he’s just finishing his Treewalk Village, where Ewok Village meets a “symbiotic Swiss Family Robinson”, which has 3 interconnected treehouses with one two-story that sleeps six.

Despite loving the creative freedom of his new life, Doug says it’s easy to complain on the cold and windy days about carrying firewood up 60 feet to the treehouse, but then the mountain takes over. “There’ll be 80-mile-an-hour gusts and it will be 10 degrees outside and I’ll be carrying wood up there and bouncing off the trunk of the tree from the wind and I’ll just start laughing out loud, ‘This is crazy. This is awesome’”.

“One of our family sayings is ‘to not let the mundane cover up the wonder’. So the mountain is never mundane, we’re the ones who get mundane and we’ve got to wake up. The mountain always delivers.”

Raven Rock Mountain https://www.ravenrockmountain.com/


34:23
 
Wait until that lets go.

That's flat shale, there...easily fissured, horizontally. And once a seam does fissure, it's not at all hard to cause vertical cracks in the layers.
 

She Built Herself An Epic Off-Grid Tiny Homestead! ❤️​

Oct 11, 2024 #tinyhouse #offgrid #homestead

This tiny home is something very special indeed. Situated on an idyllic small farm and surrounded by animals and a beautiful rural landscape, this off-the-grid tiny house homestead is a dream come true for it’s owner Louise.

After purchasing the shell of the home from a local builder, Louise, together with her father fit out the home as a DIY project. Working together, they created a home which was not only functional, but also beautiful, filled with character and art.

Sadly, Louise's father passed away several years after the home was completed, but his memory is kept alive, built into the walls of the home and helping Louise to still feel very connected to him.

With the home now complete, Louise enjoys a simple life of art and quiet comfort, surrounded by the animals that she cares for. Living with zero debt and very low cost of living thanks to her off-the-grid tiny home, she is also able to spend a lot of time traveling and has already visited an impressive number of countries all over the globe.

We hope you enjoy the tour of this very special tiny home.


19:22
 
So apparently amazon.com sells a bunch of prefabbed tiny homes from ~$8k to $40k. Search for "tiny homes to live in for adults" if you'd like to browse their selection.
 
This post may contain affiliate links for which PM Bug gold and silver discussion forum may be compensated.
I built about 12 homes in South Florida over the years. Some were primary residences and most were specs.

I want to downsize and designed a hurricane proof home that could be built anywhere. It starts with a 12' platform with concrete pilings. The ground floor would serve as the garage with one full bathroom containing an additional small urinal and work wash basin.

The second floor made of CBS would contain 1 BR with bath, LR and kitchen.

The third floor made of Quonset heavy steel or CBS with metal roof would contain 1 or 2 BR with bath for each and an office.

Permanently loop 2 or 3 telephone pole cables over the roof and tie them intothe base to keep it wind rated.

There are no basements in FL because of the high water table, but this can be done in as little as 1000 sq ft up to 5k. Run.lights down the cables, use hurricane proof windows and mini split air conditioning.
 
If you want a basement in Florida, you cut into the side of a hill or you build your basement and pile up dirt around it, both still rare.
 

36-year-old in Denmark quit his job and built himself a tiny home in the woods for under $13,000—take a look inside​

For years, 36-year-old Anders Boisen lived in apartments all over the city of Aarhus, the second-largest in Denmark.

Despite having a comfortable living situation — a two-bedroom apartment he shared with a girlfriend at the time — and a job working in city development at a local municipality, Boisen tells CNBC Make It he felt confined by his lifestyle and the societal pressure of what life should look like at his age.

“I had this claustrophobic feeling about living in an apartment, not so much because of the size of it but more because of the lifestyle that seems so predefined,” he says.

More:

 
Fatrat said:
If you want a basement in Florida, you cut into the side of a hill or you build your basement and pile up dirt around it, both still rare.
Click to expand...
If you're living six feet above sea level, it just doesn't make sense to have one.

Frankly, the money would be better spent either on a sturdy storage structure, or else commercial U-Stor space.
 
True enough, that and land is/was so cheap building on top made more sense.
 

Self-Sufficient Man Built an Off-Grid Tiny House Homestead & Lives on a Minimal Budget​

Jan 19, 2025 #offgrid #tinyhouse #homestead

Anders is living off-grid in a tiny house that he built on a budget, along with his sweet dog Borsimat.
He built the tiny home over 4 years ago with natural and sustainable materials, including untreated larch wood, recycled metal, wood fibre insulation, and secondhand windows. He has solar panels and batteries for his electricity, he collects rainwater from his roof for all his water needs (including showers), he heats the house with wood from his forest as well as with scrap wood purchased from a nearby mill, and he has a composting toilet in an outhouse to keep smells out of the house. He is also growing a lot of his own food in his permaculture gardens, including fruit, vegetables, and soon to be mushrooms. This type of self-reliant off-grid homestead lifestyle is a lot of work and there are constantly chores to do, but Anders really enjoys the benefits of spending more time in nature, living with fewer expenses, learning new skills, and having more time to spend with his family :)


17:20

You can follow and find out more about Anders and his tiny house life here:
/ @andersboisentinyhouse
/ andersboisen.dk
 
Yeah, looks nice.

But in heavy weather, it will make an old trailer, set in a muddy park 50 years...make it seem like a stone fortress in comparison.
 
Shipping containers can be fun or a problem. I like the idea of no concrete pad and having the plumbing and electrical underneath for easy upgrades. However, insulating containers can be a bitch in humid environments. In addition, using a.mini split for HVAC is the only way to go.

Add a quonset on top for a.loft or additional story and forget about a roof.
 
Or, simply put it under a pavilion roof. Getting it out of direct sun and precipitation eliminates a lot of problems.

Moisture, condensation, is a more-difficult problem - a wood structure will absorb occasional condensation from weather changes, but solid corrugated steel is just going to rust. Ventilation inside the wall, to outside, will be key - and what you're left with, is JUST your inner wall for any sort of insulation.

I don't know if all the carpentry work to make things liveable, is more work or less than just building a frame structure. Advantage, the containers provide an immediate framework and protection from weather, while finishing to taste. Is it enough? I'm not sure.
 
VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
Looking for an affordable way to downsize without giving up comfort? In this video, Jacob and Grace share how they transitioned from RV living to a beautifully remodeled tiny home — and how they did it cost-effectively! 🏡✨
Their tiny home journey started when they discovered retired cabins from Fort Wilderness at Disney World for sale. With a layout that’s 12 feet wide by 46 feet long, tall ceilings, and an open concept design, their cabin offers far more space and comfort than a traditional RV — all without the hefty price tag of a traditional home or apartment.

Our Tiny Home Was Once a Disney Resort Cabin!​

 
This one's a bit different. It's about a couple who fixed up a twin in W Philly. I think they did a good job so I figured I'd share.

How seasoned DIYers revived their downsized home in West Philly​

Over the past three decades, Christopher Poehlmann and Kate Kramer have gutted and rehabbed four homes, all of which they lived in.

The first was in Fort Myers, Fla., then Milwaukee, and when they moved to Philly in 2011, they transformed a neglected garden twin in West Philadelphia into a beauty.

“We turned that one from the lowest priced home at the time into the highest priced sale in the history of that block, just prior to the market shifting about four years ago,” Poehlmann said.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/rea...e-in-west-philly/ar-AA1G3RAu?ocid=socialshare
 

Can I Retire in My Tiny House? Here’s How I Will Do It​

Jun 13, 2025
Is it possible to live in a tiny house in old age? I discuss this topic in relation to three main themes: the practical aspects, economy and health.


27:38

Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@andersboisentinyhouse
 
pmbug said:
So... uh... yeah...

Click to expand...

We'll ignore, for the moment, how Chinese quality-of-manufacture doesn't come up to even the mediocre standards of the American RV industry.

I have had two experiences with tight quarters. First, about ten years ago I found a Ford Transit Connect for sale, used-and-cheap. Had been used as a pilot vehicle for a service that escorted WIDE-LOAD trucks on Interstates. Easy work for such a truck - cruise all day at 65, relatively-few stops.

It had problems, moar related to the Ford nine-speed automatic transmission (my first experience with a modern automatic, POS) but it was sound and a good driver. I planned to camp in it.

First weekend trip showed the problems. With food and gear for a weekend at Yellowstone, I found inside space a bit tight. AND I found that even with door windows cracked, the air got THICK in there after sleeping a few hours. The moisture built up quickly. And the space was claustrophobic - this from someone who did four years in the Navv.

FAIL. That was the start of my short-time trifling with bigger RVs.

Second time was, earlier. My wandering phase. I had just moved to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to take a job (CN railroad, US side) and needed quick lodging. One place with "cabins" for rent (now, life in the UP is like going back 40 years in American culture, or it was, 17 years ago) was looking for off-season long-term tenants. The tiny cabin had recently been refurbished, new paint, new furniture (that's a joke!...no real ROOM for meaningful furniture) and new fixtures.

Looked very nice. I found that just showering, or even washing dishes, turned the place into a sweaty, sticky, condensation-covered mess. Warm fall days you could open the windows. When it's 10 degrees out, and you heat with electricity, you do not.

I lasted a month, finding a MUCH moar expensive off-season summer-home rental.

That toy is designed to sell, not to be used. And that three-wheel design, with all that height...you'll tip it over, inside of 20 miles.
 
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