Some Things I Need

Since I'm in the very beginning of designing my Tiny House, I'm focusing a lot on what things I need my house to have. This means evaluating my life and seeing what I can stand to get rid of and what I absolutely need to keep, as well as thinking about what I want out of life in general. Here's a condensed list of things:

• Solar power
• Rainwater catchment system (with pressure pumps)
• A large closet
• A place to sew
• Rabbit-proof

That doesn't seem like an awful lot, but I feel a bit self-conscious with my decision about the closet when every other blog I've seen about going tiny includes getting rid of a lot of your clothes. But I'm very involved with an alternative fashion, and I can't see myself ever giving it up. The sewing place goes hand-in-hand with that. I make most of my clothes, and I'm starting to sell them online, so sewing (and crafting) needs to have a dedicated space of its own.

Because of my determination not to have to downsize my closet, I've found myself abandoning things I originally wanted included in my house. These things include: a front porch (I can just build an extension that isn't on the trailer), a large kitchen (I don't cook much anyway), and tansu stairs.

Tansu Stairs

I really do love the idea of storage stairs, and I don't particularly want to use a ladder every time I need to pee at night, so I found this sketchup file of a tiny spiral(ish) storage staircase. I'll be altering my own staircase to be even smaller than the 3x3 included in the plan, though.

Click for source

Rabbit proofing is sort of self-explanatory, I think. I have a rabbit and I want her to be able to run around the house freely. Her bedding box will be accessible to her either from the bathroom or the cleaning closet, I haven't decided yet.

Also, because I want to be powered entirely by solar (I'm thinking a 1kw system to start with, then I can add more if I need to) I can't have the electric stove, heating, and water heating that I've been used to my whole life. This has required some research, but I think I've come up with acceptable alternatives.

I'm pretty dead-set on having a wood stove to heat my house. I don't want to use propane because it isn't a renewable resource. Having a wood stove means having more storage space to put wood (I'm not really worried about this) and having to do maintenance and clean up once in awhile, but I don't mind that.

For the stove I've decided to go with an alcohol stove; probably a two burner, so I can make tea and cook at the same time, if the mood strikes me. In the place of the oven I'll have a toaster oven and a microwave (both will remain unplugged until I need to use them).

As for the water heater... well, I kind of came to a compromise. I'll still be using an electric water heater, but I'll be turning it on when it's time to take a shower, and off when I'm finished. I don't take too many showers anyway, so having a 15-ish minute time limit doesn't mean much to me. At the moment I'm considering a Japanese soaking tub as an alternative to a bathtub, for those times when I have enough water and feel like relaxing with a bath. I haven't decided on that yet, though.

Japanese soaking tub

There really is a lot of give and take when figuring out your tiny house. That's not necessarily a bad thing, mind you. It's not even really that surprising.

I'm working on learning sketchup and I plan to post some pictures of my house concepts (even if it's just on gridded paper) eventually. All in all, I think I've got a pretty good floor plan mapped out, and I've managed to fit most everything I want.