The Tiny House Family recently went on Anderson Cooper. As you can see, the actual-size outline of their home in black is even smaller than the show’s stage!
INHABITAT: Can you tell us a little bit about the Tiny House Family‘s home and its features?
Hari: Our tiny home is 8’ x 21’ with a full loft. The loft has 3’ of head space. We built two separate lofts for a bit of privacy. There are areas of the house dedicated to office, living, dining, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and wardrobe. Appliances and fixtures include a 12 gallon hot water heater under the kitchen counter, an apartment-sized range, a large hood (which vents the house in minutes), an under-counter refrigerator, a built-in couch and shoe bench (both of which open up for storage), a toilet, a shower, a hand sink and a kitchen sink. Each family member has his/her own cabinet for clothing. The windows and full-light door help bring lots of natural light inside making a connection to the outdoors.
INHABITAT: What made your family decide to build your tiny home?
Hari: It fit into our long-term plan to build a small mortgage-free homestead. After saving for and buying the land, the well and septic, and putting in a driveway, we weren’t left with a lot of money. We were also still in Florida, but we wanted to start building. Building on a flatbed trailer made it possible to start building while still in Florida. It was also possible to build to completion even with our small grubstake. Building tiny also made it easy to find salvaged/overstock/leftover construction materials. When you only need 12 sq. feet of tile, and 100 sq. ft. of flooring, it’s easy to find deals.
INHABITAT: How much did the home cost and how did you keep prices down?
Hari: $12,000. We kept costs down by salvaging, using Craigslist and doing all of the labor ourselves.
This family of 4 has 2 youngish children and while admirable to see a family of more than 1 or 2 living in a tiny dwelling I am curious to know if a family of 5 or 6 with teenage children could make a go of a similar dwelling and if so what kind of configuration would be necessary to create private space for all family members. I imagine bunk bed nooks with sliding French frosted glass doors on each level for privacy would probably work well especially if the nooks have a couple of built in shelves and a bedside accessible nightlight. By the way, brilliant job on the use of salvaged material. It looks very warm and inviting.
I bet Archer will be a talanted architect
I honestly think this is fabulous! Where I live, I see these ridiculously sized homes that make my toes curl, and not in a good way. What is the need for these monster homes? I give this family a kudos! I hope more and more people will realize just how much more efficient this is!
I love this article, and I love this family’s bravery for embracing what most of North America thinks is an embarrassment. I agree with the comment about Hong Kong and the rest of the world – this space is a palace to most of the people on the planet. Plumbing? Heat? Waterproof? Safe?? Shame on us.
This maybe unusual in the USA but the average flat size in Hong Kong is just over 450 sq feet. With many flats for entire families being well below that. Traveling makes me reflect the size of homes people think is necessary, normal and expected is really created by culture not facts.
Good to see the benefits of efficiency and having a light impact being taken up by this family!
I had a 16×24 cabin on 5acres until the downturn. Your place looks great. Congratulations on living mortgage free!
The plant in image 5.. is it a sunflower or a young Paulownia tree? If it is Paulownia, they are highly invasive in the Southeastern U.S. Please look up information on it and remove it to maintain your area’s native habitat.
~~ lovely home, by the way, hoping to do something similar! ~~
Thanks for sharing this story!
Neither the photos nor the story are loading, it would be great to see and read this inspirational story….thanks!