This fairy tale worthy home appeared on the Tiny House Blog. Sitting near a riverbank in Cisco Grove, California, this tiny stone cottage is an historic monument. The roof has been rebuilt recently, but the structure is original.
These are just a few pictures I found at http://pbase.com/. This cob micro home is just too sweet! I wish There was more information about it.
One aspect common in micro homes is a mini refrigerator. Some people still squeeze in a larger fridge, but it seems to be a running theme to opt for a mini. But if you are anything like most, your fridge is already bulging at the seams. It can seem impossible to get by with just a tiny fridge! So how are these people doing it?
It turns out that we refrigerate many things that don’t need to be refrigerated at all! Eggs and butter for example. True, they both last longer in the fridge, but eggs will last 1-2 weeks on the counter, and butter lasts 2-3 weeks. If we are cooking at home, even just one person could use up eggs in that amount of time. Vinegar based products, like ketchup and pickles, can be left out of the refrigerator for a few weeks to a few months.
Why do we put fruits and veggies in the fridge? I’lll admit that I enjoy the taste of cold grapes more than room temp ones, but is that really worth the space and energy consumed by a large fridge? Fruits and
veggies are just fine on the counter, and asctually, we tend to use them more consistently when we can see them… surely I’m not the only one who finds rotting fruit in the back of the veggie drawer?
There are a few tricks I’ve found for increasing the shelf life of produce. First, always keep food out of direct sunlight. Also, produce needs to be able to breathe, so never keep it in a plastic bag or sealed container; baskets are wonderful here. Some produce can be put in water, just like cut flowers. Use this for herbs and lettuce, putting only the stems in water and keeping the leaves dry (for lettuce, be sure to cut off a tiny bit of the stalk, then just balance atop a pretty container of water.)
Leftovers take up a huge amount of room in the fridge. But I found this nifty trick! If you are cooking something in a pot, and have a tight fitting lid, you can use the same principles that canning uses to keep your soup good outside of the frdge. After you are done with it, heat it back up to boiling with the lid on. Make sure that it stays at boiling temp for about 10 minutes. Then, just turn off the heat and don’t reopen the lid until you are ready to eat it! Meat can last for 3-4 days this way.
Block cheese can be stored in a dark, dry cabinet, kept covered. The flavor is actually increased by not refrigerating cheese.
Also, leftovers can be canned pretty easily. Just follow the directions for canning. Most soups can be canned, though thickened stews don’t always come out right.
So what does need to be chilled? Milk. Milk can be at room temp for a day, and that’s about it. Yogurt also need to be kept cool. Cream cheese has to be chilled. Raw meats, or cooked meats that are not canned have to stay cold. Sauces and condiments that are not vinegar based have to be refrigerated.
Now, I love my fridge. I’m certainly not going to be going without electricity anytime soon. But in a pinch, or as a temporary solution (or even as a way of life if you’re hard-core) there are some really neat ways to keep things cold without a fridge at all.
One of the scariest aspects of downsizing to a micro home is the idea of giving up huge appliances. What will I do without a full-sized washer/dryer set? Is it possible to bake in a toaster oven? How can I possibly live with just a tiny fridge? And am I supposed to give up my dishwasher? But downsizing to a micro home simply doesn’t provide the space for all the things we are used to.
Having less space can actually be a huge blessing, as it forces us to examine the things we have and how they fit into our life. No more secrets hiding in dark closets. No more countless boxes of outdated clothing and toys in the attic. No more old, chipped dish sets stored in the garage ‘just in case.’ Moving into a micro home focuses our attention on what is actually improving our quality of life, and what is constantly getting in the way.
I’m certainly not an advocate of giving up all modern conveniences! If you use that deep freeze constantly, and can’t imagine living without it, then keep it. Or if you have a dozen children, then giving up a full sized washer and dryer probably isn’t going to happen. If you entertain all the time, a wine chiller or large oven might be mandatory for you. Use your best judgment to decide what you personally can and cannot do without. Choosing a smaller, simpler lifestyle is not a one-size-fits-all scenario. It has to work for you.
So we know that not everything will fit in the new, tiny house, but what can we do without? In this series of posts, I hope to show some smaller and/or simpler alternatives to the massive appliances that take up so much room in our lives. Take what you want and leave the rest. Let’s just explore a few ways to get by without things that we once thought were ‘necessities’.
So make notes, and think about your personal and family needs as you read through this series. Hopefully I can offer some ideas and tricks that will make life in a micro home, or any home really, a little less crowded.
I absolutely love straw bale I had my heart set on building with straw bale but that was when I still lived in Oklahoma. It’s nice and dry in Oklahoma.
Now I live along the Missouri river in Kansas. It’s not dry here. The humidity is unbelievable. In the summer we water the garden solely with the condensation from the window AC unit. Not kidding.
But that doesn’t change the fact that I love straw bale. I love the thick solid walls the deep cozy windowsills the gentle curves the smooth earth-colored plaster. It’s enchanting.
Like most straw bale homes the details in Carolyn has put into her home are amazing. Shapes are sculpted into the plaster. The floors are rich warm earth. Her kitchen is bright and happy with a cheerfully colored fridge and peppy tile. The entire home is a work of art.
This beautiful little house is just 640 sq. ft. Although it is too large for us to consider it a micro home it is one of my favorites and I had to share. Built with a bedroom downstairs and a sleeping loft for company it is plenty roomy for its owner Carolyn Roberts. She built the house by hand for just $50,000. Her website is a treasure trove full of information on building with straw. She describes the process has photos of every step and even a list of all the expenses she encountered.
Was it easy Absolutely not Carolyn describes the process as the hardest thing she has ever done. but also the wisest. Her friends and family said she was crazy. She had to pass multiple building inspections. There were numerous obsticles for her to overcome. But now her house stands as tribute to her spirit and determination.
Carolyn has since written a book about her experiences A House of
Straw. While many straw bale books are just full of pretty pictures Carolyn puts a ton of practical detail into hers. It is definately a must-read before building a straw bale house.
Her home now surrounds her with lovliness every day from the atrium she built for her birds to the breath taking views of the Tuscon mountians. Carolyn enjoys the freedom to write about living sustainably and enjoying a simpler way of life.
In preparation for a recent trip to California with his family, Michael Janzen was searching for the perfect place to stay. The family didn’t want to stay in a large, busy hotel, but they were on a limited budget. They finally found a tiny cottage they could rent. The old fashioned character, the detailed architecture, and the quaint décor all spoke to Michael. He was so enchanted withthe lovely little cottage that he came home with an idea. The micro home Coastal Cottage was born!
This plan is brilliant. It is another micro home built on wheels. He uses a longer, 28’ trailer as a foundation. I love this! Most of the micro homes I’ve seen are on a 20’ trailer at the longest. Using the longer trailer would allow a tiny bedroom at the back. Perfect for people who have trouble with ladders, or maybe a small family that needs a master bedroom and kid’s loft. The idea is fantastic.
After a bit of poking around, it seems that 28’ trailers are harder to come by, and cost a bit more. Perhaps that is why most micro homes are built on a smaller one? Michael suggests finding a manufacturer of a triple axle enclosed car-carrying trailer, and asking them to build one without the enclosure.
The inspirational cottage home had a wonderful, large bay window overlooking the street. Michael has incorporated the gorgeous bay window in the front of his Coastal Cottage. In such a tiny space, the added room is priceless, but even more than the space, I love how the bay looks. So much character packed into such a tiny house. The whole thing is absolutely adorable!
If you haven’t found it already, I encourage you to checkout Michael’s site Tiny House Design. The Coastal Cottage and other plans are available over at his website. I think he’s currently asking less than ten bucks for his plans.
Be sure to check out his blog while you’re over there.
Thanks Michael! Keep writing!
First Earth put out a fantastic video series on natural building. As they describe, it is not a ‘how to’ so much as a ‘why to’.
Although the videos are not just for micro homes, they illustrate the same housing problems that drive people to downsize their living.
The McCabe Home in Devon. Provided by First Earth.
Check it out.
Start with the first chapter on you tube or visit their website for all the chapters.
12 years ago, Jay Shafer, a young architect, was frustrated and worried
about the unsustainability of current housing trends. With everyone buying way
more house than we need, resources are being depleted at an alarming rate.
These huge homes need to be heated and cooled, furnished and decorated. The
idea of two people needing to occupy 3000 sqft or more is ridiculous. 
So Jay Shafer set out on an experiment in living sustainability. He built his first micro home, later dubbed the Tumbleweed. It had just 89 sq ft. There was just enough room for a tiny kitchenette, bathroom, desk and two chairs. The queen sized bed was above in a loft, which also had clothing storage.
The house was heated with a tiny boat heater. It was cooled by opening
windows. The loft had a window in each end, and a fan that turned the
whole space into a wind tunnel on hot nights.
It fit him perfectly. He loved the lifestyle, the slower pace. Now 12 years
later he still lives in a tiny house. He has made it his mission to help others find the freedom he is enjoying.
Tumbleweed Tiny House Company is a company he organized to help him share his ideas with others. He designs plans for tiny houses. He has created a book that completely walks the reader through building their own tiny house (including which 14 tools they need, most of which they already have). He also tells his story and explains what made him choose this simpler, fuller lifestyle. Recently, he has started offering some of his micro homes in pre-fab kits, which I am super excited about!
Jay can now be found traveling the country in his tiny house on wheels, giving tours, hosting workshops and making friends all across the US. He runs his business from a laptop in his tiny house. And he gets to spend his days doing whatever he likes; often waking up to amazing views of some of the United States most beautiful scenery.
Jay Shafer is living his dream and changing the world, one micro house at a time.
Click here to visit Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.
Here are a few of my favorite articles about Micro Homes.
Micro houses are an exciting new phenomenon that is sweeping the country. Instead of asking ‘how much house can I afford?’ some people are starting to ask ‘how little house do I really need?’ In a time of raising interest rates and plummeting property prices, as well as layoffs and salary cuts, many people are looking at smaller houses as a viable option to meet the demands of the new economy. Radicaly smaller. Some of the houses are under 100 sqft.
Who would live in such a tiny house?!? Well, lots of people. From a family with a teenage son, to an architect and his girlfriend, to a handy woman, people from every region are making the switch. A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to watch a tiny house on wheels being built near my university. It was amazing fun to drive by it every day and watch the progress. I dreamed about the freedom it would afford the owners, freedom from rent, freedom from high utility bills, freedom from location.
Not all micro houses are on wheels though! (but building on wheels can allow you to get around building codes) They have been built anywhere from driveways, to backyards, to mountain getaway sites, to big cities… or even up in the trees! Some are built from conventional building materials. But others are much much different. They are built of everything from old tires, straw bales, cinder blocks, rammed earth, cob, earthbag, logs, papercrete or even old shipping pallets!
Some micro homes can be primitive and rustic, but many are beautiful and offer all the amenities of a traditional home. They can include a bathroom, kitchenette, wood or conventional heating, air conditioning, electricity, internet and everything that makes life easy, just in a smaller and easier to maintain space. Styles vary as much as materials, ranging from traditional, to rustic, contemporary, and craftsman.
Zoning often doesn’t include houses below 100 sqft, so it can either be incredibly easy of difficult to put of your tiny house depending on where you life. In many areas, you do not need permission to construct a tiny building. But sometimes this rule only applies if a home is already in place. In such a case a micro home would make an excellent guest room, artist studio, teenage or adult child’s home or workspace.
There is something incredibly appealing about the simple life a micro home affords. No mortgage, barely any utility costs (one home owner spends $8 a month to cook with and heat her home, in the coldest months of the year.) and less maintenance promise a slower, easier lifestyle full of time for the things that matter most to you.