Hannah's Tiny House Journey

Hey Everyone! My name is Hannah, I am 16, and i am building a tiny house. I am a homeschooler and an unschooler. I just bought a Tumbleweed 20' trailer and I have the Cypress plans. This is my blog of progress and inspiration. If you want to find just my progress posts, use the search bar to search "me".

[rabbitfolly]

Shinx line!

[tinyhousesgalore]

The Clara is a tiny cabin in Massachusetts built by Getaway.

[dreamhousetogo]

By Wishbone Tiny Homes

[procrastinationasperformanceart]

Let me tell you about my panda mini-washer

As an apartment dweller, this is a game changer. My current apartment doesn’t have a laundry facility and the closest Laundromat about a 30 min bus ride which is just not practical. The mini-washer is a life saver

The panda mini washer hooks up to the sink, is incredibly lightweight (about 28 pounds, so light even I can lift it) and easy to use. 

It has a surprisingly large capacity. The basket from the first picture represents about one and a half loads. The jeans took up a whole load while the rest filled the bin only half way. 

Here’s the inside. The left is the washer the right is the spin dryer. Yes, it even drys.

Basically you shove your cloths into the washer, fill it up with water and let it go. I use my shower head to fill it up so it goes faster, the sink hook up took about five minutes to fill the whole tub, with the shower head is is down to a minute an a half. I do it in three wash cycles, a five minute rinse with baking soda, a five minute wash with soap and a three minute rinse with water. You have to drain and refill between each cycle so it’s a little more labor intensive than a traditional washer. 

That’s the spin dryer. It’s about half the capacity of the washer so one wash takes about two loads to dry. The spinner is much more effective than I was expecting. A three minute spin gets my cloths about 90% dry. I hang them up to air dry for that last 10%. 

The machine cost me about 150$. When you factor in two dollars for the bus, five for the machines (per week), the mini-washer pays for its self after only about six months worth of laundry. 

I’m not great at expressing emotion, but I’m hoping you can tell how excited I am.  Let me just say that the panda mini-washer is great and I highly recommend it to anyone currently using a Laundromat.  

[ihatethebitchwhorunsthisblog-de]

Read this and immediately bought it on Amazon for $180. I spend $15 a week to have my laundry done so this pays for itself in 3 months for me. THANK YOU JESUS.

[thepushyqueenofsluttown]

OMG

[wasjopara]

@ all my nyc pendejas

[onlyblackgirl]

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2012 27′ FB (forward bedroom) International Signature

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1982 AIRSTREAM EXCELLA 34

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Podpad

It’s multifunctional and saves space. The Podpad is a wall-mounted desk and storage unit that folds open for use as a workspace & holds your laptop, mail & desk junk plus it also houses a built-in sound system & charging station.

[hannahstinyhouse]

Trailer is being prepped. It's rainy and gross today.

[hannahstinyhouse]

First day plans.

[hannahstinyhouse]

Tiny house build

I haven't been keeping up with everything here but my progress has been building up to today. (Hehe building up) Today myself and 8 others (two professional builders and 6 people in the workshop) start to put together my house.

[wildcraftedwoman]

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Uvogel

[hannahstinyhouse]

4/15 Tiny House Visit

Today I went to the tiny house of a man named Brad. He has been living in his tiny house for many months now. He wasn’t home when I went to visit (yes we had his permission) and so the group in the house was: My mom, Dermott (a friend and one of the instructors of the workshop in June), a woman named Christine(fellow tiny houser and is having her house built for her) and me. The house was really cool. It was nearly the same dimensions as mine and had a similar layout. Brad’s house had a shower that was too small for me, 2′X2′. His house also had a 2′ door which I like a lot. The house has a lot of personality and even has a few sconces where he had candles. With the four of us in the house it didn’t feel cramped (in most areas, though we had some trouble in the kitchen/hallway area). His house felt really bright and airy and I took a lot of measurements and have made more considerations about my plans. The build is happening in 6 weeks! I am so nervous and excited! I have been working my butt off in SketchUp and have been working on a physical model made of cardboard in the second floor of the barn on my property. The clock is ticking and I have been getting overwhelmed a lot but I am really happy with my progress.

[hannahstinyhouse]

The Silver Bullet w/ Vera

On Sunday 3/29 I took a workshop with Vera Struck. I took 2 pages of notes, which for me is a LOT and got a lot of information. I met a group of really cool people and we talked a lot. We hung out in Vera’s Silver Bullet  http://silverbullettinyhouse.com/ and discussed the planning and building in all stages. We played a game and I won. It was figuring out HER top 5 most important things to think about before you start your THOW (Tiny House On Wheels) journey. I got 3.5 out of 5 and was the top scorer. The things were:

1. How/What/Why you will live in it sustainably

2. What stuff you will take with you

3. What “systems” will work for you

4. Blank or Filled Canvas Design-(this one confused me but she means buying plans vs designing yourself)

5. Where you will build and park

Since I won, I got a shirt, which I thought was funny. I am trying to downsize my wardrobe, and she is teaching me how to downsize, and yet she is upsizing my wardrobe by giving me a new shirt. I will be giving the shirt out to a friend who likes tiny houses but will not be living in one. 

I think Vera is very knowledgeable and on the environmental and sustainable spectrum she is on the very very end of the extreme. This is not a bad thing by any means, and she made me think of my impact even more than this whole movement already does. Vera was very vocal in pointing out tiny housers that weren’t the most sustainable houses. She commented that Jenna and Guillaume from http://tinyhousegiantjourney.com/ used roofing that produced lots and lots of toxic chemicals. Actually, Vera feels that most building materials are toxic to you and the environment and are not sustainable. This made me think a lot about my materials I will be using. In retrospect, I am cutting down my impact almost regardless of the materials I use because I am downsizing, but at the same time, clean and sustainable is always better than toxic and limited. Everyone goes tiny for different reasons and until my workshop with Vera, I never truly appreciated the environmental reasons. Long story short, I learned a lot about the best materials, and what materials to put extra thought into before deciding.  

Vera also send us home with sample materials (about a 6″x 6″square). I thought these were not needed. I got home and took notes on them but then tossed them away because, well, I'm trying to downsize.  

Overall I did learn a lot and everyone was very interesting to talk to, both Vera and the other workshop members. I had a lot of fun and spending time in a tiny house is always good before living in one. 

~Hannah

[smallandtinyhomeideas]

TINY TACK HOUSE | photos via Chris Tack + Malissa Tack / text + photo via Billy Ulmer for Boing Boing

We’re much more mindful of how we can help each other out. Even filling our water tank, we do it as a team job. We could do it by ourselves, but we make it an “us” experience. It’s connected us a lot more than our last living experience. It turned out to work out perfectly for us.

—Malissa Tack

Related: building plans for The Tiny Tack House

submission via ryanpanos

[hannahstinyhouse]

I went to a Tiny House MeetUp in Cambridge today!

3/25

I got up early to meet Dermott for SketchUp today. We met at 10:00AM!! That is so early for me. He showed me new tools for building, helped me read my plans, build them in SketchUp, and sent me home with 3 new books to read! Needless to say I have my work cut out for me this week. 

Later in the evening I went into Cambridge to a tiny house MeetUp and met lots of new people! I am awful with names so I can’t mention anyone in particular but I met a couple who will probably end up taking the workshop in June. That would make 5 total sign ups an we opened up sign ups 3 days ago.

I also met a few people with tiny houses. I talked with a lot of people and I really enjoyed talking with members of my community.

I showed off my SketchUp progress to a group of people and it was a lot of fun. Lots of the people I talked to preferred either ladders or stairs for one reason or another and were curious as to why I have stairs in my design. I wanted to use my stairs as a closet. And more storage. That is the main reason for the stairs. Plus I think they look better than a ladder and are easier to climb. 

That just about sums up my day. I will try to keep you all updated on my progress! Thanks for tuning in!

~Hannah

[hannahstinyhouse]

Hello to anyone who wants to know more about the tiny house workshop! This link will take you directly to the website for Worcester Think Tank where you can watch a video about the last workshop or sign up.

The workshop is an educational experience and not a volunteer opportunity. As such, if you want to sign up, it costs $850 per week or $1575 for both weeks. 

In the first week we will be learning about tiny house structure. We will be learning: Building on a Trailer, Framing, Sheathing, Roofing, Windows, and Doors. Basically, we will be learning to build a shell for the tiny house. 

In the second week we will be learning about tiny house systems. This will include: Interior and Exterior Finish Details, Insulation, Wiring, Heating, and Plumbing. We will be learning about sustainable systems and what options exist. 

Check out some of my other posts as well as the link on this post to find out more about the teachers of this workshop!