So here's the latest tree house I've built for a family (third one this season). Its definitely simple, follows my love for A-frame cabins (see my "Transforming A-frame cabin plans" below) and was built in panels and trucked out to CT to save time (as you'll see in the video). This tree cabin could make for a cool, simple, affordable, glamping rental (for airbnb or for hipcamp) and while only a mere 7' by 7' at the base, it is able to sleep two adults in sleeping bags, or fit an air mattress.
Here's a real time walk through tour of it, AND some sped up time lapse sequences of the build process.
Check out the tree house zip line in action too!
I might have plans for this down the road so keep checking the plan link banner on this website.
Check out this brand new tiny house village, or "Pocket Neighborhood" (based on the principals of author Ross Chapin) located in Atlanta, Georgia. This is an entire tiny house compound or neighborhood worked into a mere .57 acres of land- talk about plot efficiency! One of the site and project designers for the Micro Living Institute, Will Johnston, share a video tour with us....
This is a great step towards the further legalization of tiny house and tiny house villages.
Yep- YEAR TEN NOW and we're hosting yet another Tiny House Workshop at our TEN ACRE spread near Orleans, VT. Its fully off-grid- but fully fun (so don't let that scare you!)
We've made it so much more than just a hands-on tiny house workshop too- its basically become a DIY Summer Camp for adults. We'll explain shortly...
We want to keep it smaller and more intimate this year too (this way we can all keep safe, keep our distance (its all outdoors too)).
BUT WE WILL STILL WILL HAVE....
-Actually building on a group build/project or two
-Live demos
-Guest speakers
-Tour tiny houses
-See tree houses (and have a chance to ask LOTS about their design methods/approach)
-Camp out (FREE)- lots of space for tents and RVs
-Take a wild-edibles walk with wilderness survival guide/host Matt Gabriel- Youtube's "Animal Man Survivor"
-Tour various cabins and shelters on a FUN(!) nighttime candle-lit hike in the woods
-Learn many alternative building techniques- salvage-material construction, etc
-Hang and network with many builders and designers!
Many don't know that in addition to running a shelter, tiny house, tree house, and small structure channel on YouTube, I also run a smaller side channel called "Streets Shall Provide". Basically, this channel serves as a place to funnel and post videos related to my other interests that aren't directly small house related- travel, odd tourism, abandoned exploration, and flea marketing, street picking, and even dumpster diving sometimes.
Which brings me to this little journal style video whereupon I do a little dump picking up in Maine while on vacation AND find a few items that certainly will resell (or will stand as "keepers" in the case of the super vintage/weird/ugly stained glass lamp I grabbed). The small stuff on the other hand, could be sold at a flea, yard sale, or on ebay.
So check it out, and consider checking out some of the other videos on that channel (and maybe even subscribe if you feel so inclined).
Here's a look back at the THE VERY WORST tiny house that I've not only seen in person, but had the "thrill" of spending a night in. When I say "thrill" I mean "the place was so shady and poorly built that it was hard to sleep at night and my mind and heart was racing from the experience". We literally considered not sleeping in the space- especially when a small storm came through at night and we could see the wind slowly moving the cabin walls back and forth. YES, I talked to the renter/owner afterwards and warned him, "You're gonna kill somebody with this place at some point".
So ladies and gentlemen, here it is- THE WORST TINY HOUSE I'VE EVER SEEN!
Want to learn how to actually build, well, we have TINY HOUSE SUMMER CAMP 8 coming up on a 10 acre spread in Vermont- free camping, live building, guest hosts, demos, speakers, tour tiny houses, treehouses, and more! The banner at the top of ANY page on this website has the link to sign up AND the link to our cabin plans and more! ACTUALLY build and design with us in Vermont! (Orleans, VT).
12 Yard Sale Tips- Ones you might not have considered
This topic comes up A LOT in the small house scene Facebook groups. People are looking for ways to save for their dream tiny house, but before they can do that (and while they do it) they need a means to downsize from their regular or current mode of living. So how does one go about that?
Why not host a yard sale? Yes, they're work, but THEY WORK.
However, if you're going to take the time to downsize while attempting to turn your stuff into cash for whatever future project, here are a few off beat tips on how to ensure your yard sale, tag sale, rummage sale, or estate sale, is a big success.
The methods and tips I recommend here are ones I DO NOT usually see people talking about- things many neglect to consider, and for that reason I feel that this little video might be worth your time.
Meanwhile, check out my newest book "MicroLiving"- CLICK HERE
While I don't live on the road, I OFTEN see people post on tiny house or homesteading pages asking "How can we make a living while living on the road or off grid"? Well, I feel there are a TON of ways to do it, and perhaps I'll get into that in another post. Again, I don't live off the road, nor off grid, but I do make a good deal of my living from "nothing"- repurposing the discarded waste of others and making it into art, fixing some of these items, flipping them, and so on. All of this can be done with minimal materials, with limited space, and its fun! Furthermore, these flat art items wouldn't take up much space (especially smaller pieces) in your tiny home, RV, or cabin. Canvases don't have to be frame either, you can simply paint them and roll them for storage or shipping if you are worried about space.
Here's one I recently found/did. Its a bit more on the experimental/urban/weird side....
So lesson ONE- if you have an inkling of artistic ability, considering rescuing some of those "wine and paint night" monstrosities you find curbside on trash day, and painting over them. You can then use this art for your own home decor, or possibly sell it (which I've done dozens upon dozens of times now). In fact I just made a huge graffiti piece that was shipped all the way to Miami to reside in a VERY swanky oceanfront apartment. This shipping ALONE was $250- which the buyer was fine with. Apparently they REALLY wanted this piece- which was flattering as heck, and profitable.
But back on track...
SOME of the art you find might actually be cool and/or fine as is, so before you paint over whatever, do consider its value as it already exists (and DEFINITELY look up artist names if the pieces are originals!!!). I've sold many pieces this way without having to do ANYTHING to them at all. Posting this type art on social media will also help with sales, but don't overlook old-school approaches. About once or twice a year I will rent a booth at a flea market and display some of my larger pieces there. These pieces (wildly colorful) are what I call "eye bait"- they are distracting/attention grabbing and draw people in out of curiosity. My intent often isn't even to sell these pieces, but to lure people in, who then end up buying the other junk I have laying around. Getting people to your booth is half the battle. These art pieces have also served as networking pieces too in that they frequently result in side jobs for me from the people that see them (graffiti mural work in a house, selling a few paintings to tv shows as props, and so forth- all connections that DID actually happen as a flea market. I even had a couple buy a piece of me at a flea, then contact me later on to make two more custom paintings for their home.
So give it a whirl. Even if they never sell, its STILL a lot of fun and there are worse things you could do with your time.
Oh yeah, want to support me/this page? (I'd love ya for it)
Check out my newest tiny house, cabin, cottage, and small huts book!
Not sure I could do it, but there is a certain romance about daydreaming of living in such a small space, or any tiny house for that matter. Regardless, I came across this insanely tiny a-frame cabin on Facebook marketplace and thought it was kind of neat in its simplicity, and possible affordability (the VERY reason I designed a set of A-frame cabin build plans many years back- you can find them at the link below). Check this guest tiny house tour out though, and again, its for sale with the asking price of $8400 USD. It was NOT built to transport on the road with the given trailer, for the record.
As the listing states- this might make a great hobby or craft space, a cool guest cabin, or even a rental tiny house/cottage for airbnb. Me? I might toss it on a small barge and make a houseboat out of it, or place it in a strong tree house platform.
HOW TO BUILD A TREE HOUSE- The SIMPLE (and affordable) WAY....
Here's one for those not looking to remortgage their homes (or tiny homes) for one of those super mansion treehouses you see on tv and in coffee table books all the time, because lets face it, few of us are gazillionaires (never mind recent lumber prices). So, here's a short video on a couple of tips (budget friendly ones) when it comes to building the base of your small or medium sized treehouse. This is a cost effective way to get started on that tree fort or tree office- so check it out and I hope you grab some ideas from it.
Lets face it, lumber is getting "stupid expensive"- in fact its been just as stupid-expensive since April of last year and I'm not sure we're going to see prices go down anytime soon. SO.... word to the wise, salvaging lumber just might be saving your butt AND your wallet for any upcoming projects you have. Furthermore, you might actually be able to make a tidy profit from found architectural salvage and trashed materials as you'll see in this video. Whether its buildings being renovated, dumpstering with permission (most will be more than pleased to let you reduce their dumpster weight), dismantling old buildings, or just finding stuff on the side of the road, it seems that the getting is not only good, but frequent. Keep those eyes and ears open!
I talk about the value of some of the stuff I found for FREE in this video here. You'll also get to see a bit of a walkthrough on a 120 year old building that was being partially gutted to make way for some new framing and joist work.
