Do you have what it takes to live tiny?Do you dream of simplifying your life, freeing up your financial resources, and ditching all of the clutter that's weighing you down? Learn the nuts and bolts of what it really takes to achieve this dream of designing, building, and living in a tiny house of 400 square feet or less!Tiny house professionals Gabriella and Andrew Morrison have been involved in the trade for over 20 years, helping others to construct their own tiny homes, and they have poured all of their expertise and firsthand experience into this guide.Tiny House Designing, Building, and Living is the one-stop manual into this innovative concept of minimalist living. Dozens of helpful images and a full-color insert displaying different types of tiny houses help you visualize your dream. • Advice on how to embrace the tiny house lifestyle! • How to design and build a house that's an ideal fit for your needs. • The nuances of foundation types, financing and insurance, and legal standards • Building techniques, must-have utilities, off-the-grid living, and home placement. • Inspiration for functional décor and storage. • Three tiny house floor plans, with detailed illustrations!
I was reading this book because I wanted to learn more about building a tiny house, and that's what I got so I can't really be mad at it. The only problem was that this book got technical, and I didn't know what the hell it was talking about. It has construction lingo in it of tools and ways that you connect things, and I didn't understand a word. I think that you need to read something about simple construction before this or come in with some prior knowledge because reading like ten chapters where I didn't understand anything wasn't fun, made reading the book feel pointless, and made me seriously want to put down the book. I got a $3.00 fine at the library from this book because I max checked it out and still went over on the return date. Even though, it sounds like I am complaining, the book overall was good. It was information and gave a lot of tips about how to downsize and build a tiny house from people who have actually done it. The only problem was my coming in with expectations of what the book would be like and that not being what it really was, and that's my fault. I REALLY enjoyed a lot of the opening chapters before it got heavy into the parts of construction that I didn't understand and opened my eyes more to how difficult it is to build a tiny house on your own and gets all the permits and be legal and etc. So overall very good, I just wasn't prepared.
This book was a very useful, if somewhat brief, walk through the process of getting from Idea to Reality. I liked their practical information about zoning laws, taxes and insurance, even though I didn't need that information personally. Their information on construction techniques, different types of nails and lumber, and other practical considerations for building were quite interesting. I'm going to keep this one a little while longer as a reference in my travel trailer remodel.
Very informative book, detailing how to build your own tiny home. This is something I'm seriously considering for the future, although I never really considered making it a tiny home on wheels. The book focuses much more heavily on that than it does anything else, so that is part of the reason for the non-perfect rating. However what I did find here was very informative and I think it'd be good for reference in the future.
If you have no background in construction, this is a great starter book to understand the pieces that need to come together to create your dream tiny home.
So informative. I hope to someday have a tiny house built. If I do, I'm now dangerous because having read this book I know of many details to trouble the builders with. Ha! The authors are just the best. Check out their website at tinyhousebuild.com.