SF Gate Slide Show on Tiny Homes

Some great designs to peruse...

http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/44-of-the-most-impressive-tiny-homes-you-ve-ever-6301843.php#photo-8084885

Sites, Ideas and books...

So far in my exploration of design and construction ideas I've ran across a few resources that I'll share.

First off, Derek 'Deek' Diedricksen and his site Relax Shacks is a truly great resource. He also has a You Tube channel chock full of tours of tiny cabins/homes, which are great at getting those design ideas flowing. And he has a book as well, Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, that's kinda unconventional, but I'm willing to invest $14 in it to check it out (I'll give it a review when it comes in). Derek's site and channel are the best out there at cobbling together a lot of the information on tiny houses/cabins.

http://www.relaxshacks.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/relaxshacksDOTcom

Here's a video of an awesome A-Frame design that Derek sells the plans for...

I also acquired  The Barefoot Architect by Johan van Legen. It's a well written and thought out book. But it's wide scope---from city design to building design---is just way too broad to be of much use. If I were joining the Peace Corp and was going to be shipped to some random location around the world, this book would probably be indispensable. But for my goals, the scope of this book is way too broad.

A step up in usefulness is Tiny House Living, Although it strays too much into extolling the virtues and ideas behind wanting to build/live in a tiny house, it still has a lot of good observations and ideas. It's loaded with a ton of great photos---which can help to spur on your own ideas, as well as helping you to determine what tiny home design features you would find most desirable. I would say this book would be excellent for someone considering the leap into living in (and possibly building) their own tiny home.

As the books continue to roll in, I'll post some brief reviews of each one of them!

Changing Design

Designing something always means there will be iterations. Just like when architects design a building, the engineers have to bring them back to reality and tell them what's possible. And since I am both the architect and engineer of my project, I get to tell myself what is possible.

In the case of my first design I find two things wrong. First, the roof layout is a bit too complex for something I hope to have a large roll in building. Framing a wall with a roof that has two raked (angled) pieces is quite a chore. And something not for a first time builder. Second, since the target building size is 10'x16', having those two roof segments on a 10' wide space does not look visually appealing. It's very busy for a 10' wide roof. I thought about extending the roof edges out in all directions to make for something that gets closer to a pleasing visual ratio, however this just means more difficulty in the build.

So alas, I must say goodbye to my dual pitched roof. The solution I designed is simpler, and I'm actually not too thrilled with the look. But a simpler design is easier to build.

I have kept the full cabin width windows up high, but now they are just on the side of the cabin, rather than being where the two roof segments met in the old design. I am also still working on the window layout. At first I had two 4'x4' windows side by side, but this looked too much like eyes to me, and the symmetry just didn't feel right. So I kept one 4'x4' and added a more vertical 6'x1' window to try to get a better look. One note is that the living space is behind the large window on the right side of the cabin, and the sleeping bunks are on the left side. So keeping the windows smaller on the left side will probably be appreciated by late sleepers.

I have did a couple of rough previsualizations of the design on photos I have of the existing foundation. Not the prettiest thing to look at, but it gives me some idea as to the look...a look I am not that happy with yet...I little too utilitarian looking to me...but hey, the design is still in progress...and I'm sorry I don't have a front on view of the foundation so we could see what it looks like from the 'pretty' side...

Initial Design

Hacking away in Houdini in an hour, I assembled the basis for my design.

Exterior Layout

This would be the front view (to the south) facing the lake. The windows on the south side consist of double sliding glass patio doors, a 48x48 window and an upper loft window a foot tall and spanning the length of the cabin. An entry door will be located on the east side with a small 16x8 window. The north/back wall will have two 16x8 windows at opposing ends. And then the west wall will have a 16x8 window as well.

Design Thoughts

Using typical energy efficient design methods, I want the top roof to overhang the front (lower) roof enough to shade the loft window during the summer when the sun is high. But allow direct sun into the cabin when the sun angle is low during the winter. I also wanted to limit the use of windows on walls other than the front. Mainly for cost reasons, for vandalism reasons (people just love to break windows) and also to keep the focus on the view out the front to the lake.

The rough footprint of the cabin would be 11' wide by 17' long, providing roughly 160 sq ft of interior space. But I'm not set on that size just yet...

The inspiration for this design was this mini cabin a friend posted to Facebook...

http://www.dortemandrup.dk/read-nest-prefabricated-studio-box-2008

I'd love to get crazy with the materials and hardware too, but cost is one of my primary concerns.

THE GOAL: Construct a modern, efficient cabin/home on my family's old lake property

This is "The Lake." As a kid there were various places my dad or brothers or sister or me could have gone...The Lake was one of them...

"Where's dad ? He went to The Lake."

Located in Pike County Indiana, just outside of the town of Winslow, it was just about an hour and a half drive from our house in Newburgh. It played to host to countless weekends with my father, numerous camping and survival trips for Boy Scout Troop 305 and a few fun weekends with the other owners involved in originally creating The Lake.

The Lake was built on land that had been stripped mined for coal in the 50s or 60s. My father originally purchased the property and built the lake via the 'Little Lake Corporation' with four partners---the Shultze's, Kiley's, the John's and a family I can't remember. Over the years various partners dropped out. Mr John's had a heart attack while traveling and died---with the Kiely's buying his shares. The Schultze house burned down and their lot was left vacant. The family I can't remember sold their lot and house, however a few years later the new owner fell asleep smoking one night and burned the house down while he was inside. Their lot and the Schultze lot have since been purchased by two brothers whom I do not know. So as of late there are now three shareholders in the Little Lake Corporation, the Estep's, the Kiley's and the unknown brothers.

"The Shed"

In the beginning our property had one VERY rudimentary cabin. Basically a shed that was 8 feet wide and 18 feet long. It had a kitchen area one one bed. I guess in a way it was a 'tiny cabin' before tiny cabins became all the rage. However, my father had much grander plans for The Lake and sometime in the mid to late 70s began to construct a full house on the property. Located much closer to the actual lake then the 'shed,' the new house began with a cement foundation and cinder block walls. Using the help of my brothers and myself over various weekends, the new house took shape. The last completed step was putting down the subfloor for the second story atop first story concrete foundation. This made an excellent space to camp on during summer weekends when it was warm enough to sleep outside---it was elevated off the ground with wide open skies above for star gazing. Sadly, shortly after the subfloor was complete all construction stopped. I can't remember if it was my parent's divorce or maybe some health issues that caused construction to stall, but basically all worked stopped and the long downward slide into disrepair began. We still would spend a day at the cabin now and then, but we would never spend nights there again. And we would rarely---if ever---continue work on the place. It's sad to think that all of the concrete I mixed, and all of the blocks and my brothers set basically ended up abandoned.

The Foundation

All of the wood subfloor has long since rotted away, however the foundation is still in good shape. Some large trees have fallen and compromised a couple of the block walls but the damage can easily be fixed. My initial plan is to repair the block walls, re-lay the subfloor atop the concrete first story, and then construct my design on top. The size of the foundation is much larger than my floorplan, however, the extra space can be used as a wraparound deck. My only concern is how to cover it...

The red indicates the old driveway