8x40 Shipping Container Home Design

I've designed and drawn-up my first 8' x 40' steel shipping container home plan.  It's a 320 sq. ft. tiny home design.  While it's specifically designed for a shipping container, there's no reason it couldn't be a stick-built tiny home plan as well.  In fact, if you did that you could put on a gable, gambrel, or shed roof to get some extra storage or sleeping loft space too.

View from the kitchen looking toward the great room.

Wood-Tex Adirondack Cottage

Every time I drive past the Wood-Tex place in Himrod, NY, I stop in to see if I can get some photos of the interior of this cottage.  I've been trying for months, but this model is always locked-up tight, so I was happy to finally get in last weekend.  

Front view of Wood-Tex Adirondack Cottage

Wood-Tex advertises the model as 16' x 40', but those dimensions include the 16' x 6' front porch.  The enclosed space is more like 16' x 34' which by my calculation is 544 square feet.  Their brochure calls it 510 square feet, but I'm not sure how they calculate that.  They are probably subtracting wall thicknesses or something from the square footage.

Kitchen view

A Remarkable and Beautiful Sustainable Building

It's obvious that this building is neither small scale nor a home, but it is a great showplace for many elements of sustainable energy and building practices.  That interests me a lot and hopefully it interests you at least a little bit too.  Let me show you around this living laboratory of sustainability. 

Canopy over the main entrance to Sustainability Hall

South side of Sustainability Hall  (photo taken autumn 2012)

North side of Sustainability Hall (photo taken February 2013)

 Just to quickly sum-up some of this building's cool features, here's a partial list...

1. 170 photovoltaic solar panels (w/ space to add 144 more)
2. Three wind turbines
3. A 400 kW fuel cell
4. "Green" roof 
5. Radiant slab floor heated and/or cooled by geothermal heat pumps
6. Rainwater management/reuse system
7. Four electric vehicle charging stations
8. Efficient LED dark-sky-friendly outdoor safety and security lighting
9. High performance building envelope
10. "Green" wall 

That's not a complete list, but it's some of the highlights.

A Houseboat as a Small Home

Houseboats are pretty much by definition smaller than houses that are not boats.  I'm not sure what the square footage of this nice houseboat is, but I'm inclined to say it's considerably less than 500 square feet.

Houseboat exterior

Of course a houseboat doesn't have a yard in the common sense of the word.  They tend to take full advantage of any outdoor space, decks, roofs, what have you, to gain a little outdoor living space.  In this particular case, the outdoor spaces span many levels.  Stairs can eat-up a lot of space so ship's ladders are used to move between levels, both indoors and out.

SPACE SAVING STAIRS & LADDERS FOR SMALL HOMES

In small, tiny, or "right sized" homes, you don't want to sacrifice usable space if you can avoid it.  That's why you see so many ladders leading to the lofts of tiny homes. It's the perfect solution for some, but others may want something that makes loft access more, well, accessible.  The idea of negotiating a steeply pitched ladder in the middle of the night might deter many otherwise would-be small home owners.  I'm going to discuss space saving stairs and ladders including ship's ladders, alternating step stairs, and spiral stairs.

Gorgeous narrow diameter wooden spiral staircase.

Refined Living with no Electricity: Off Grid Living Part 2

Living with no electricity may seem primitive, inconvenient, or lacking, but Michael and Diana Lorence of northern California have been living that way for years by choice. They do it with surprising style and grace, all within the confines of a 12' x 12' tiny home they call "Innermost House."  To them, their life in this tiny home without electricity or hot water is not one of deprivation, but instead it's a life of luxury.  See if you agree.

View from sleeping loft into sitting area.

New 8' x 20' Shipping Container Home Design

When I set out to design my first shipping container home, my goal was to keep it simple and affordable.  The resulting design is not fancy, but it has pretty much everything one person needs.  In my view, this is too small for two people for an extended period of time, but one person could be comfortable here.  It could be a great vacation home, guest house, or place for an adult child who has returned home after college, as many are doing these days. 

Front view of the 8' x 20', 160 square foot container home design with an 8' x 20' deck.

I was surprised that I was able to shoe-horn this much into 160 square feet.  There's a three fixture bathroom, a tiny kitchen, a stacked washer/dryer combination, a "great room" that combines living, dining, sleeping, and study/work space, plus two closets.  The dining table doubles as a desk, and the futon couch folds-out to become a full-sized mattress at night.

Floor plan for an 8' x 20', 160 square foot shipping container home with an 8' x 20' deck.