back to blog
Watch our Tiny House Video Tour and Interview by Faircompanies.com
Today is a very special day and we couldn't be more excited! Anjali and I are so incredibly appreciative of Kirtsten for spending the time filming at our house, and for all the hours of editing needed to create this wonderful 23 minutes video tour of our tiny home. Thank you, Kirsten! She got us talking about all kinds of great topics, and we LOVE the way it turned out!
For those of you who haven't seen Kirsten's work, she's amassed a HUGE number of AMAZING videos on tiny houses, alternative living, self-sufficiency, DIY projects, etc. Check out her website at www.faircompanies.com or watch them all directly on youtube.
Thank you for letting us see the inside of your home! (Sometimes the scale of a picture doesn't do the space any justice..) Out of curiosity, does the dog come upstairs with you? I have a large dog and the biggest obstacle I can foresee will be getting him up the ladder.
I can't wait to purchase the plans and get started! Thank you both for all that you have done and for sharing so much.
Hi Erin! We don't bring our dog up into the loft. Especially when she's shedding that would be a big fuzzy mess in bed, so it's the one place we keep to ourselves as our special space (just the humans). Others have suggested moving things around a bit inside to make room for a small set of stairs. The stairs could be pushed back into the current closet space behind the ladder, and the overall floorplan would not change much at all. That's something you could do if you wanted stairs using our plans.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
Thank you for your response! after talking with my husband about it I think we've decided the same. I have a second question: How tall are you guys? I'm 6'1 and my husband is 6'3. From the plans (which are awesome, btw!) It looks like the height of the doorways are 6'8, is that correct? Also, do you think it would be possible to extend the living room area instead of having a porch (or just start with a 24 foot trailer instead)? I noticed that the porch area was different from the trailer area and was curious if it had different restrictions, ext. Thank you for all of your help!
I'm just under 6'. The main door is a totally standard sized door. It's not tall, but not short either. 6'8" sounds right, but I'm not looking at the plans. Any door manufacturer will have the same standard size. Yes, you could start with a longer trailer and extend the living area! That's a great idea! If the trailer is 24' to start with, then you could build the house 4 feet longer. My trailer looks different because I added 3 feet to the end, but starting with 24' would be different.
That's a nice video of your tiny house, the design is awesome and quite spacious (or say well designed by utilizing each nook and corner of the house). It's nice to see fellow MUM student on faircompanies.com . Happy new year!
You did a great job with that tiny house! The loft and the kitchen were especially well done. What I least like was the pitiful desk the lady has to studio from. I cant imagine a grad student having to put up with that.
I hope you build Miss Anjali Krystofiak a tiny study/music studio like she deserves instead of her hoping/waiting for a community place to come into existence. When you move again, you can tow the house, she can tow the studio.
Thanks you. I'm glad you like our house. Many people have deemed it necessary to judge our decisions and come to all kinds of conclusions about our life and relationship from just a short, edited video. To respond to directly to your comments, the fold-down desk is exactly what Anjali wanted. She'd prefer to stand to work as it is healthier than sitting. She also uses the table to study when she wants, and often uses my desk as well when I am out of the house each day. Anjali did not give up music to live here. She has not had a piano since living in her childhood home and even in the last two places we lived, she would rarely take the violin out if its case. I know the video may have highlighted some of the compromises that Anjali has made to live in the house (yes, those are real and numerous, for sure), but it would be very misguided to think that she needs her own music studio to be happy, or that as a grad student she needs and deserves a particular kind of work space. Is it not your place to make those judgments. Although this video does give a great glimpse into our lives in the tiny house, it only is a glimpse, and couldn't possible give any viewer the complete picture of our lives, our house, or our relationship.
I think it's very brave of you to share something so personal with strangers - and inspiring! It's a shame that some people clearly jump to conclusions and feel the need to share them. I saw the stand up desk and I thought ' I couldn't cope with that' - but I just assumed that you collectively designed the space and what works for you, might not work for me (that's rather the nature of a house that you design for yourself, IMHO).
On the hand, your idea of tiny house Cohousing was an idea that I thought would work for a lot of people and something that I haven't come across before. Your own plots and houses, but shared space for larger get togethers/guest rooms/workshops/music....genius! 🙂
I've viewed at least 100 different tiny homes online, and I keep coming back to yours. It's perfect, in every way. It suits us completely, down to the "turn around" space in the kitchen. You've done an amazing job. You've really designed something with everyday functionality, which is missing from so many models we've seen. If we do this, we will buy your plans. You deserve compensation for all your hard work and research. Kudos!
Thank you! This kind of comments really makes me happy and it's why I want to continue to be part of this movement. I'm so glad that you like my design! Good luck in your tiny journey!
Hey guys, your trip and the tiny are great. Ignore those nosey folks who want to insert their opinions of your life style. We did. Your adventure is something to base a lifetime of work around. Right on! Just stay out of the mainstream as long as possible, because it's likely to flow its own bid muddy way and will gobble you up if you let it. We went back mainstream and had difficulty escaping a second time, but what a refresher it was to edge back toward voluntary simplicity. There's a lot of interesting good work to be done, and your tiny construction and travels are an ideal foundation!
Hi guys!
What a great project and house! I'm week 2 into researching tiny houses and planning to build our own starting this July. We liked your design the most and will likely get the plans (or at the very least the photo book). Most people say that tiny homes are not designed for frequent travel. Our idea was to build a 16-20' long house and travel from NY to the west coast for a period of 1 year, stopping on the way in all sorts of places, living off the grid and meeting other tiny house owners. Could you speak to your experience of how your layout would measure up to frequent towing (much like an RV) and what the weight of the house+trailer ended up being? One other question that I can't seem to find an answer to anywhere is whether SIP panels are a more sturdy solution to frequent driving over stick construction. Thanks for any hints and ideas and I hope we'll get to meet you on the road!
Hi Vlad -- I think if you keep it 16-20' it will be fine for travel. I would just try to keep it as light as possible. I actually don't know the finished weight of our house, but my guess it about 10,000 lbs in total. Some different materials choices could definitely help reduce weight. However, we traveled 2300 miles from Iowa to California and had no problems towing it. Sure we didn't got very fast and gas mileage wasn't great, but it made it just fine! No damage at all! I think SIPs would be great, but stick built tiny homes can easily withstand frequent travel if built well. We used diagonal wind-bracing as part of the wall framing, 1/2" ply sheathing, and closed-cell spray foam insulation (which adds a lot of structural rigidity), so the walls are very strong and house traveled very well. Another thing to consider is to frame it with steel instead of wood, which will reduce weight and create a very strong frame.
Thanks Alek!
Great advice on foam and other specs. I actually just bought the photo book and noticed the diagonal wind-bracing. Will keep you guys in the loop once we get our blog setup and building humming.
Hey guys, At 80 yrs. young we are beginning to research tiny house living in order to re envent our lives so as to not get stale. We have restored a 100 yr house and have lived here for 10 yrs but are going crazy for projects. So we plan on moving back to Ca. to build our tiny house. We really enjoyed your tour and wish we were young again. Yea for you. Ever onward.
I just ran across your blog today and loved the tour of your tiny house. After googling and reading every blog and video I can, I love the layout of your house. I am very interested in Tiny house living and am currently in my first month of living in a 5th wheel for a year to see if this is really what I want to do. So far it's looking good and someday I may build a tiny house as well. Don't sweat the naysayer's, and good luck going forward.
Take care,
Teri~