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How a Tiny House Can Fit Any Lifestyle

Do a search on the internet for "Tiny House" and you'll find a lot of information. It seems this tiny trend is catching on all across the world. Individuals, couples and small families are choosing to downsize their lives to live in much smaller spaces that are usually much less expensive than conventional houses. Small houses like this can range in size from less than 100 square feet to up to 900 hundred square feet. So, you're interested in knowing more about the Tiny House movement? Before going through the process of building or buying you own, this information can help you narrow down your small living choices.

Tiny Houses are often on wheels, but not always. One of the leaders of the small living movement, Jay Shafer of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, suggests building the little houses on trailers so they can be moved easily. This also helps get around some of the laws surrounding such small homes. Many municipalities have codes that don't allow people to live in spaces under a certain square footage. By building a house on a trailer, it is no longer a house and it becomes an RV. Not everyone builds these small homes on wheels. Check your local codes to see if a small house might classify as a "building of no consequence" before starting your project

Tiny houses are often sustainable, but not always. The small home movement and environmentalism seem to go hand in hand. Many builders use sustainable building products and create environmentally friendly systems in their homes. It is not unusual to find a small home built with all reclaimed wood. Sometimes it is difficult to build a conventional home using these items, but the scale these houses allows the builder to use much less of the product making it effectively cheaper. Many small homes are also off the grid using solar energy or rain catchment systems for water use.

Tiny houses are built with all the necessities of a conventional house. There will typically be a seating area, a dining area, a kitchen, a bathroom and a sleeping area which is most often a loft. The beauty about the tiny house movement is that the each owner and builder can customize the space to work best with their own lives.

If you're interested in considering your own small home there is a wealth of resources available online. It is also a very tight online community and you can often find individual blogs from tiny house enthusiasts from all over the world. Tap into these resources, talk to some other tiny house builders and learn just what kind of space will be good for you and your needs.

Go Small, Live Green

Living small oftentimes means living a lifestyle that is friendly toward the environment. Consider small prefabricated homes, homes that are among the fastest-growing "green" homes in environmentally conscious circles. A green home features such eco-friendly things as rainwater capturing systems, a roof designed for solar installation, carpeting made of recycled materials, and wind power. While it's not necessarily the case that the smaller the home the greener it is, the case can be made of prefab homes built with that goal in mind.

Green prefab homes are built with one essential goal: to reduce the homeowner's carbon footprint on the planet. An eco-friendly fact of green prefab homes is that they are built in a factory, which means a sharp reduction in the material waste that usually accompanies residential construction. Another benefit to the environment is their construction material.

Many are built with sustainability in mind, from "cradle to cradle" in environmentalist parlance. Materials such as recycled glass and reclaimed wood are used, as is special construction for elements such as green or "garden" roofs and walls. Some homes are finished on the inside with special paints and varnishes that drastically reduce or eliminate home-interior "off-gassing" associated with standard articles such as fabrics.

Shrinking homeowners' footprints was the motivation that drove Copeland Casati to start Green Modern Kits, Green Cottage Kits and Green Cabin Kits (GreenModernKits.com, GreenCottageKits.com and GreenCabinKits.com), companies that produce passive-solar prefab house kits. These homes are designed "to collect, store and distribute solar energy," according to the U.S. Department of Energy, with the help of passive-solar design that uses fewer heating and cooling systems.

Another example of a company that successfully merges the concepts of "green" and "small" is the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company (http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com) founded by Jay Shafer. Shafer started building small homes out of his concern about the impact a larger house has on the environment. These "tiny" portable homes come fully insulated with double-pane windows and an adequate efficiency heating system.

Topping the larger end of the green prefab scale, Blu Homes, Inc. (http://www.bluhomes.com) recently came out with its newest home, the Blu | Balance, an eco-friendly and spacious house that measures more than 1,600 square feet. The one-story home has a flexible floor plan and comes with two or three bedrooms and two full bathrooms. As with other green prefab homes, Blu models come with low-flow fixtures, energy star appliances and architectural characteristics that maximize passive heating and cooling. But what makes this company stand out is its unique home-folding design. The folding technology and computer modeling is put to use in the factory construction, allowing Blu to build quickly and economically ship anywhere, where the home is unfolded and completed on-site.

These and more designers and companies are showing up from the four corners of the Internet. As we move into the second decade of the 2000s, there is much to build upon green prefab homes that already prove that green design can be modern and chic.

From prefab cottages to tumbleweeds houses, home downsizing options abound! Visit http://www.thesmallerhome.com to learn all about the joys of simple living.

Andrzej Kozlowski has written numerous articles on topics ranging from home downsizing to simple living. He is also editor and co-author of the book, "Living Smart: The Money Saving, Eco-Friendly Guide to Downsizing Your Home and Belongings."

Small Green Homes

A small home can pack a super-sized punch when it comes to reducing a house's environmental footprint. Energy-efficient, sustainable homes tend to be smaller homes, which inherently have less square footage inside and less acreage outside. The inside costs less to heat, cool and light, leading to less energy consumption, and a minimal-sized lawn-if any-needs minimal maintenance, reducing emissions and contributing to a much healthier environment. But there's more to a "green home" than meets the eye.

A green home does not need to look as if it was built for the year 2100. In fact, many green homes look, from the outside, like other homes going up in new subdivisions. But on the inside and some unseen places on the outside, these abodes are unusual. Features such as rainwater capturing systems, a roof designed for solar installation, carpeting made of recycled materials, and wind power are just a few ways that a house is built with the environment in mind.

The greenest of the green are residential homes built to be certified to the highest standard of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. Conforming to the standards provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Building America Program, LEED has long been used for commercial and government buildings, but home certification is a relatively new phenomenon. One way that a green home is defined is its rating as being at least 40 percent more energy efficient than standard-code homes.

For the pure sake of building cost, smaller homes are the most likely to be built as "green" homes. Many of the systems that are constructed as eco-friendly are not cheap, and the fewer solar panels and the smaller self-sustaining heating and cooling systems equate to a smaller build-out budget. The elements that make a home a green home have dropped in cost over the past several years, but constructing a basic LEED-certified house still runs about $3,500 more than it would cost to build a regular house. The highest-level LEED-certified home costs about $29,000 more. The smaller the home, the less expensive the process. The same concept applies to existing-home renovations or "greening up" an older home.

One example of a company that successfully merges the concepts of "green" and "small" is seen with Tumbleweed Tiny House Company founded by Jay Shafer. Shafer started building small homes out of his concern about the impact a larger house has on the environment. More than 10 years later, these "tiny" portable homes not only minimize square footage, but the green homes are fully insulated with double-pane windows and an adequate heater.

More and more homebuilders are greening the American Dream. It is suggested to verify a builder's credentials by asking for their ANSI-approved ICC-700-2008 National Green Building Standard certification (see http://www.nahbgreen.org for more information). Check out these builders online:

Atlas Home Contractors, atlashomecontractorsinc.com
BPC Green Builders, bpcgreenbuilders.com
Castalia Homes, castaliahomes.com
Dominion Homes, dominionhomes.com
Grady O Grady, gradyogrady.com
Integrity Builders, homesbyintegrity.com
Jurenka Custom Homes, jurenka.com
Ondra Home Building, ondrahomebuilding.com
RC Green Builders, rcgreenbuildersaz.com
Summit Custom Homes, summitcustomhomeskc.com
Zero Energy, zeroenergyllc.com

Want to learn more about prefab cottages, tiny homes, and more? Visit my website at http://www.thesmallerhome.com to learn all about how to downsize to a smaller home and simplify your life.

Andrzej Kozlowski has written numerous articles on topics ranging from home downsizing to simple living. He is also editor and co-author of the book, "Living Smart: The Money Saving, Eco-Friendly Guide to Downsizing Your Home and Belongings."