the tiny : part 1

Last fall we started talking about some sort of structure to build on the farm that we could use as a guest house for visitors and rental income as a farmstay + air bnb. Forever ago, when we were young, we talked about buying an old bed + breakfast as a retirement gig. Our plans shifted, but we still loved the idea of creating + sharing some sort of space here on the farm. Initially we considered canvas tents/cabins. The ease of building only a deck and putting up a structure in a few hours sure seemed nice! But, after weighing options and thinking about it more, we decided a cabin was the way to go for our needs.

At the same time we were dreaming about cabins + tiny houses, our oldest daughter was thinking about her post college plans and we encouraged her to take some time off and live in the cabin. She and her partner (and their two cats!) have been here on the farm with us since late May, just after she graduated unceremoniously due to Covid, and the tiny house project started as soon as they arrived.

Joe looked at a whole lot of plans to come up with his own. 144 square feet is the largest structure you can build without a permit, the cabin is 14x10 with a 8x10 loft (loft space isn't considered into the square footage). It's a salt box inspired design, and the loft is six feet at the peak. It's off the grid, but we have some plans for minimal solar power. We scored some really amazing secondhand items from local friends: a composting toilet, a propane heater, and those lovely 80 inch windows. The cabin is a short walk from our house, but is tucked into a private setting that is very hard to see from the road and overlooks the woods, it's a really sweet little spot! Aside from the hit our savings account took due to lumber prices being at an all time high (thanks Covid), we are pretty excited about this project.

Here are a few pictures of the process over the last six weeks........

xo,