Tiny House Considerations E-Course Kicks Off Nov 1st

Early Bird Pricing (20% Off) Available Through Friday, Oct 30th Register for Tiny House Considerations!

This course is specifically designed to help you explore the plethora of options, considerations, and decisions surrounding your design and build.

We'll talk about our inspirations and aspirations as we discuss layout, size, shape, and siting. We'll dig into fun design considerations related to windows, doors, kitchens, bathrooms, and built-ins. We'll also help you noodle through the plethora of building options and make smart choices about your systems for water and power. And, of course, we'll help you figure out if a tiny house is right for you by discussing regulations, cost, and timelines.

The best part is you'll get to do this with the encouragement of other people who are embarking on a similar journey. These folks may well be helping you build when the time comes!

This eight-week e-course will include a weekly lesson, a weekly challenge, and a weekly check-in with your fellow tiny house enthusiasts. The November course begins on November 1 and runs through December 20th. Check-ins are Sunday evenings at 5pm PST (8PM EST). 

The course price is $200. Through Friday, October 30th you can take advantage of the Early Bird Price of $160 (a 20% savings)!

Tiny House Design-Build Class Hits the News

In late July I co-taught the Tiny House Design-Build Class at Yestermorrow in Vermont with Lizabeth Moniz and Patti Garbeck. Over the course of 2 weeks our 14 students developed designs of their own and worked together to build the shell of a small shed house on skids. During one of our morning in the second week Alexei Rubenstein of Channel 3 News stopped by to see what we were up to. And our class made the news last week. Check out the Tiny House Class video clip from Channel 3 to see what Alexei saw when he visited! WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

A Week of Tiny House Design-Build

Yesterday evening we sent our Tiny House Design-Build students off for a much-needed 26 hour break. Since they arrived a week ago on Sunday evening, we’ve had a packed schedule with lots of hands-on learning. Today they're going for runs, swimming in the local swimming holes, watching a movie, napping, and otherwise enjoying a lazy Sunday in Vermont.

On Wednesday I celebrated another revolution around the sun by exploring tiny houses with my students and fellow instructors and eating lots of desserts (maple creemees, anyone?) We had the chance to go on six field trips to see a 12 x 20 owner-built tiny house, a small live-work space designed and constructed by Yestermorrow’s Semester Program, a wee 2-bedroom featured on Tiny House Nation, a treehouse overlooking a pond, a sculptural house with a barrel vaulted sleeping space, and little efficient guesthouse by the brook. That’s right up there on my top favorite ways to spend my birthday! (Though my Big Birthday Bash at the Tiny House Hotel was pretty good, too!)

In the studio, we’ve done presentations on a variety of topics ranging from considerations for site, climate, and finding parking to options for systems, foundations, and interior design. Our students brought a variety of design ideas including several tiny houses on wheels (THOWs), a portable sauna, a tree house, a one-bedroom flat retrofit, a tiny house truck, and a backyard library with sleeping nook. During our time in the studio they’ve been finalizing their programming, exploring layout through bubble diagramming, practicing their drafting skills, and building models. They have so many clever ideas I can’t wait to see what they come up with during our studio time in the next week!

In the field we’ve been constructing an 11x16 tiny house on skids so we’ve had lots of practice with measuring, cutting, nailing, leveling, remeasuring, plumbing, shimming, bracing, etc. The house has a shed roof, a sleeping platform, and two storage lofts in addition to the kitchen and hang out space. We’ll continue constructing the shell next week and we’ll take it as far as we can in the time we have. The tiny house will be available for sale, so if you or anyone you know is interested, please contact Yestermorrow!

Hello Again, Tiny House Design-Build

This evening we kicked off the fourth two-week-long Tiny House Design-Build course at Yestermorrow. This is my second time co-teaching the course with Paul Hanke, Patti Garbeck, and Lizabeth Moniz. (And I blogged about last fall’s class in a set of daily posts. You can read them here: Hello, Tiny House Design Build. It was a great course, which connected me with incredible students, including Laura Klement, my build buddy.) It’s wonderful, as always, to be Back Home at Yestermorrow. Vermont is a magical place any time of the year, but summers here are particularly splendid. It’s also nice to have a break from working on The Lucky Penny. I knew that between the Oregon Country Fair and the three weekends occupied by travel for Yestermorrow’s Tiny House Design-Build class, I’d have a whole month away from working on my tiny house. I knew I’d miss my little house but that it would also be good to take some time away. My goal was to get dried in before I left for the Oregon Country Fair, which was last weekend. I managed to do this with the help of my friends Mike and Eleanor – and a Pool Noodle! – so this break will be a good chance to recharge. When I return to my little house I’ll finish up the exterior – siding, shingles, and building a porch – and then turn my attention to the interior.

The same talented team will be teaching this summer’s Tiny House Design-Build class and I was excited to recognize a couple of the names on the class roster even before I met our fine group of students. One of them was a student of mine in a PAD workshop I co-taught with Dee Williams. And, of course, there’s our client, Katie, with whom Paul and I worked in March to develop a concept and basic layout for her tiny house. Paul has since developed the construction drawings for Katie’s house and we’re looking forward to bringing her house to life. After introductions last night I'm convinced we have another great bunch of people to work with this summer!

We started out with a parti exercise in which the students paired up to create a concept model for a structure based on inspiration from one of Paul's found objects. It was great fun to see the creativity flowing and the neat results of teamwork.

We have an action-packed schedule, which includes tiny house tours, presentations, construction, and design time in the studio. I don’t plan to blog daily this year, but I’ll be inviting our students to guest blog, so I hope some of them choose to share their experiences with you. Follow along for the fun!

Less Time, More Drafting

Our week of Less is More at Yestermorrow has flown by! It seems like just yesterday we said Welcome to Less is More and now, all of the sudden, tomorrow is our presentation day. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we had small home tours in the morning, a design lesson in the afternoon, and evening discussion and slideshows. You can learn about our Sunday orientation and our Monday tours in Welcome to Less is More.

Check out the Day 2 Slideshow for photos from Tuesday when went on 3 small home tours. First we toured Suzanne's home, which is rumored to be an old sugar shack.  She added a mudroom, a sunroom, and a small office when she remodeled a few years ago. Her home features wide counter tops, a trap door to the basement, built-in storage in the sleeping loft, and stained glass separating the bedroom from the clawfoot tub. I think if I lived in this beautiful home I'd spend a good deal of time soaking up sunshine in the sunroom with its wonderful views.

Then we headed to Sallie's small home, which I adore since it's fun to see a place that was designed by a woman my size. Sallie doesn't have any upper cabinets in her kitchen so it's nice and bright with sliding glass doors on one side and windows on the other. I am particularly charmed by the ship's ladder to the guest room and her octagonally-shaped bedroom.

Afterwards we explored Todd and Molly's log cabin, which has two cozy lofts - one for sleeping and one for knitting, TV watching, and reading. They have clever ladders, beautiful woodworking, and a great mudroom, in addition to a very cool vintage fridge.

Yesterday we headed to my co-instructor Dave Cain's place which is not as small as most of the designs being created in this class, but still not so big. Check out the Day 3 Slideshow to see photos of Dave's place and our design work! Dave's house features 12 inch walls which create deep windowsills and a nice quiet inside. He and his partner Nancy have included lots of lovely touches that make their home cozy and unique. I'm especially fond of the lighting Dave made out of old electrical insulators!

A big snow storm came through, dumping several inches of snow. Before it really got going we did a little walk around of Elizabeth Turnbull's tiny house, which was one of my original inspirations to attend Yestermorrow and design and build myself a tiny house.

Today the snow storm has provided just the right conditions for hours and hours of design. It's fun to see so many different design processes at work. Check out the Day 4 Slideshow for pictures of Drafting Day! We have students sketching, drafting, and researching. There are people taping out kitchen layouts on the floor and delving into SketchUp modeling. I've enjoyed answering and asking questions as the designs evolve. I can't wait to see everyone's presentations tomorrow!

Day 11: Roof Sheathing & Drawing Sets

Day 11 of Yestermorrow's Tiny House Design-Build course was our last building day since presentations will take place all day today. So most of us worked in the Hanger this morning and a handful of us were back there this afternoon so that we could finish up as much of the roof sheathing as possible. Meanwhile, the studio was abuzz with model making and drawing as everyone refined their work for their final presentations. (See more photos in the Day 11 Slideshow.)

Down in the Hanger, Laura and Lizabeth worked out the sheathing for the gable ends and got them buttoned up. Whitney laid the floor of the storage loft. OJ, Laura, and Annika attached the hurricane ties which connect the rafters to the walls. Cate cut additional sheathing and did a happy dance when Patti complained she couldn't figure out which side was the factory edge. Whitney, Patti, and I clambered around on the scaffolding, attaching sheathing to the rafters and getting those last rake rafters for the dormers secured in place.

With two weeks of working together under our (tool) belts, it was awesome to see how productive we were all able to be! Hooray for teamwork! At the end of the work day we all gathered up for a group photo.

Back in the studio in the evening everyone hunkered down at their drawing tables to pull their work together. It's been incredible watching everyone's designs evolve and there are so many downright brilliant ideas I am completely inspired all over again! As people piled up their drawings in neat little stacks and switched off their desk lamps they found their way down to the bonfire where we munched on goldfish crackers and burned the scrap wood we'd produced over the past two weeks of building.

I can't wait to see the presentations today. The anticipation makes this feel like Christmas morning!