The Tiny House I Built
This website started as a blog documenting the building of my tiny house, Ellen. The site name comes from an idea I wrote about in one of my earliest posts, that most Americans would be better off if they lived in simple, working class houses, the kind that their grandparents probably lived in, rather than the monstrosities that are commonly built in new subdivisions. There are inherent issues that come with a bigger house. All things being equal, bigger houses cost more, require more and more expensive upkeep, take longer to clean and have a bigger carbon footprint than smaller houses. Even worse, is their cost in time. People have to work longer hours to afford these oversized houses, have to spend hours mowing their lawns, and when a person has a bigger house they tend to spend more time in it, instead of going out in the world and doing things. Time is a non-renewable resource. You only have so much of it in your life, and when it's gone it's gone. No one ever died regretting that they hadn't spent more time mowing their lawn.
Here is a video I made about it on youtube:
And here's the reddit conversation where I'll maybe answer questions, if anyone asks:
And here are the archived posts from my [defunct] blog:
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The tiny house in winter
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I'm done with sleeping lofts
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Tiny house progress
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Siding and stuff
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An aside: the front entrance to the main house now has siding
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My second loft is _almost_ finished!
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The Tree
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A long overdue post on the framing of my tiny house
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My first loft is finished!
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Thoughts on making a thin loft platform
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Anthony Smith, geriatric explorer, RIP
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Things that have happened
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Roof design and loft space: doing the math
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My subfloor
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Chuck Marohn and strongtowns.org
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My trailer
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Still waiting on my trailer, but my design is "final"
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Waiting on my trailer
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Baths vs. Showers
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More design considerations
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Guiding principle --a working class aesthetic
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My design today, but not tomorrow
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Trailer Widths and Lengths --the law in Michigan
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My first big sacrifice: Goodbye, woodstove!
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About a bath
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Current House Design: Roof Options
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Current House Design: Exterior
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What am I going to do with a tiny house?
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Initial thoughts... what do I need in a tiny house?
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Introduction