Tiny House Design Workshop in Asheville, NC (April 4-8, 2016)

I'm delighted to be speaking again at this year's Tiny House Conference in Asheville, NC about tiny house design considerations and strategies.

I'm also excited to be teaming up with Laura LaVoie of Life in 120 Square Feet and John Labovitz of Polymecca to teach a week-long design intensive in Asheville from April 4-8, immediately following the Tiny House Conference.  If you'd like to join us, please register for the Tiny House Design Workshop in Asheville, NC.

If you're planning to build your tiny house this summer, the week you spend in this design intensive with three instructors who designed and built their own tiny homes will prove invaluable to you. You'll be able to learn great tricks, learn from our mistakes, and save yourself a lot of money, not to mention headache and heartache!

Registration Deadline: Monday, March 21st 

Here's more info: Are you dreaming of a tiny house of your own? Are you trying to figure out the best way to maximize the space? If so, this workshop is for you! In this workshop you will develop a well-considered design for your tiny house in all three dimensions.

We'll talk about inspirations and aspirations as we discuss layout, size, and shape. We'll take you on fun tours to see tiny houses in a community and a tiny house builder's facility. We'll dig into design considerations related to windows, doors, kitchens, bathrooms, and built-ins. You'll have plenty of time to ask questions, work on your own design, and get feedback.

Your three instructors - Laura LaVoie of Life in 120 Square Feet, John Labovitz of Polymecca and Lina Menard of Niche Consulting - have all designed and built their own tiny homes. Laura and her partner Matt live in a tiny off-grid ground-bound home in North Carolina, John has parked his tiny house truck in the orchard at his family farm in West Virginia, and Lina lives in her vardo in a tiny house community in Oregon. We are excited to introduce you to tips, tricks, strategies, and information to help you design a fabulous tiny home of your own!

This one-week design intensive will take place in Asheville, NC on April 4-8 immediately following the Tiny House Conference. If you sign up with a buddy, both of you will receive a $50 rebate! If you'd like to join us, please register for the Tiny House Design Workshop in Asheville, NC.

Registration Deadline: Monday, March 21st 

Tiny House Design-Build Wrap Up

Yesterday we wrapped up our Summer 2015 Tiny House Design-Build class at Yestermorrow. After A Week of Tiny House Design-Build our students had their noggins full of considerations and their drafting tables full of bubble diagrams, inspiration boards, and sketches. The tiny house shell we constructed had its two long walls framed and sheathed and we were ready to put up the end walls.

This past week everything seemed to accelerate. In the field, we framed and sheathed the end walls, put up the rafters, sheathed the roof, installed the storage loft joists and decking, and installed the interior walls and the bed platform. (This tiny house is available for sale! If you’re interested in learning more, please contact Mark at Yestermorrrow.)

In the design studio, students synthesized their design ideas into drawings and models. Three special guests, Mac Rood, Kathy Myer and Chris Cook, all architects, joined me for desk critiques in the evenings to serve as sounding boards for the volley of ideas and questions. It’s always remarkable to me to see how everyone’s designs evolve over two weeks as they wrangle their hopes and needs into spaces that could facilitate the lifestyles they desire. We even snuck in another field trip to the fabulous and well-thought-out home of Ethan Waldman of The Tiny House.

As I noted last time I taught Less Is More, Presentation Day is always a bit like Xmas morning for me. There’s so much anticipation and so much delight in seeing our students designs revealed! I’m especially a sucker for the elegant details everyone comes up with!

This time around we had a variety of tiny houses on wheels with clever ideas such as:

• A closet tucked under a raised bed with drawers that interact with the stairs
• A workbench for projects the length of an end wall
• A mosaicked shower under a sleeping loft with a peek-a-boo view
• Rotating quarter-moon disks to increase counter space in a kitchen
• Rock climbing holds to access a loft
• A swooping countertop with a corner sink
• A fabulous customized desk
• A movable wall that transforms a space into three different rooms

We also had a set of ground-bound structures, including:

• A speakeasy-inspired summerhouse
• A long rectangular house that plays with windows to bring outside in
• A fire-tower inspired octagonal book and puzzle library
• A backyard yoga hut
• A family farm house with a courtyard
• A cozy addition to a fifth generation lake house

I look forward to seeing some of these designs become reality over the next couple years!

Next up for me: spending the weekend with some VT friends (and maybe lending a hand with a tiny SIPs house), a couple days in GA to discuss tiny house feasibility in Atlanta, and then a flight to CO so I can speak about tiny house community with Lee Pera of Boneyard Studios at the Tiny House Jamboree. There are nearly 10,000 people pre-registered! See you there!

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, Less Is More!

I'm back in snowy Vermont for more Yestermorrow goodness. I spent my weekend in the Design-Building a Successful Design-Build Business class, taught by Adam Cohen. He was a wealth of information and wisdom and I learned just as much from my classmates who were quick with questions and ideas. Last night we started up another round of Less Is More: Designing the Small or Tiny House. I'm honored to be teaching with Dave Cain who is a creative designer, a bicycle adventurer, and an all-around great guy!

Last night we kicked-off class with introductions, complete with inspirational imagery and then we launched into our first design project. The photos in the gallery are the result of that exercise. We have an action-packed week lined up, including tiny house tours, programming, intro to drafting, presentations, and lots of (but never enough) studio time. Final presentations will be all day on Friday and I'm already eager to see what this creative bunch will come up with!

Follow along this week on our adventures! Meanwhile, you can read about last year's class here: Welcome to Less Is More, Less Time, More Drafting, and Less Is More Presentations.

Less Is More Presentations

On Sunday night Dave Cain and I kicked off Less is More at Yestermorrow with photographic introductions and a parti exercise. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we had field trips and design time. Dave and I also lead a series of mini-workshops covering everything from tiny home regulations and financing to structural considerations and humanure systems. By Thursday it was Less Time, More Drafting. And Friday we had our final presentations from twelve wonderful students. Check out the photos in Day 5: Less is More Presentations.

Fortunately, Paul Hanke (one of my co-instructors for the Tiny House Design-Build course - which has just a few more open spots for July!) and Kathy Meyer (who has taught small house design courses at Yestermorrow before) joined us as jurors to give feedback and suggestions. We got to see these amazing presentations:

• Elliot's tiny home on wheels with a triple-duty multipurpose table and a complex arched roof
• Reese's snowboarder's heaven on wheels, outfitted with everything needed for hitting the slopes (perhaps even including the slope of the roof?!)
• Eli's get-away with shaded verandas and big fans to beat the Georgian heat and room for dance parties to dance to the beat
• Addie's tiny home on wheels with a lofted sleeping nook accessible by a clever ladder with built-in storage
• Anna's cat-friendly cottage with a reading nook tucked over the stairs
• Geoff's timberframed cruc home featuring a sunken living room and just the basics to live happily (like a baby grand piano!)
• Jody's tiny home on wheels with a cozy window seat, a bay window, and a clever ladder
• Hannah's small home featuring a krunkle (or two) and an alleyway for access to the porch and art studio
• Caitlin's Oratory - a garden shed/beekeeping workshop/eventual sauna built from reclaimed materials and flooded with light from handmade stained-glass windows
• Annie's cabin which employs permaculture principles to heat water and use graywater from the tub for greenhouse plants
• Greg's gypsy wagon for farmers, which borrows inspiration from sheepherders wagons of old
• Jenna's desert oasis for family gatherings, including a soaking tub, a dining patio, clever sleeping nooks, and a simple humanure system

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!