Looking to Buy or Design a Tiny House? Think About This

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

We’ve received several questions regarding small homes and tiny house design.

To help shed some further light on tiny house purchases or custom design, we highlight a question from a reader below

A Tiny House can be a great alternative to investing heavily in traditional real estate. However, there are many factors that you’ll need to consider beforehand. 

Q.“Hi 8TFive Studio, I am looking to buy a little house for year around a retirement home big enough for 2 bedroom open kitchen and living room bathroom that will take a walk in tub small unity room for small washer & dryer bedrooms to take 1/2 beds all one floor.“

We received the following inquiry after the popularity of our post on Tiny Houses.

Original Post: 20 Tiny Houses for Living in Small Homes

We do not directly sell any sort of pre-packaged tiny home floor plans or layouts.

However as an architect, I believe that manufactured homes are affordable and work for many people. But they are not unique to the local area or truly represent who you are.

See Also: 7 Trendy Tiny House Floor Plans

Editor’s Note: A collection of our current favorite tiny house floor plans so far in 2016.

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The average size of a new single family home in the United States in 2013 happens to be about 2600 square feet. This increased from back in 1978 when it was 1700. The Tiny House movement means significantly reducing building footprint and environmental impact to usually within 500 sf. Even under 1000 is considered small.

So looking to buy a tiny house can certainly be a challenge in today’s market.

The most important aspect to account for initially is …

Mobile Tiny House or Small Home on Foundation?

See Also: Tiny House Village in Iowa Proposed for Des Moines Homeless

Even before you consider buying or building, you’ll need to know what you are looking for.

This can change not only the price tag but also where you look and what information you need.

Once you’ve decided on a tiny house then you can move onto the next step, where to go?

Where to Go when Buying or Building a Tiny House

I’ve seen many different companies offering many different models, trailers, shells of a home, floor plans, books and so much more.

So what is worth your time and investment?

Well it depends upon what you want to do exactly, buy or build a tiny house?

There are many aspects like these to think about when buying or building a tiny house for yourself, a family or even a vacation or retirement home. This is similar to what our reader inquired about.

So where do I go to purchase a tiny house of my own?

We’ve highlighted in several tiny house manufacturing or construction companies that have standardized plans for many tiny house designs.

These companies usually offer “customized features” like selecting a vehicle.

So if its “option A’ or “option B” you’ll know before hand what you are going to get.

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At 8TFive Studio, we are design professionals who focus on home design.

If you’d like to know more about our Services, looking for basic Project information, or if you are specifically looking for some design consultation, Contact Us!

We’re happy to help and provide any assistance we can.

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Others also offer the ability to purchase the exterior shell of the tiny house. Then let you build the interior however you would like.

Or for the Do-It-Yourself specialist, there are trailer options with plans. These basically give you the starting point to craft the tiny house on your own.

You can certainly shop around, check out different plans and order one online.

But here are some tips to hopefully help you along the way.

Selecting the Right Tiny House for You

Make no mistake about it, although you can certainly best define for yourself what works for you … there is a value to consulting with a design professional.

They can listen to your wish list. A good designer will advise you on not only different ways to achieve these functions but also recommend what works best in the grand scheme.

See Also: Smarter way to use Space in your Home

So did you get your years of experience designing for yourself by watching HGTV shows?!

A trained professional not only considers what you like but how will it function, how much will it cost you upfront for installation as well as operation.

Even perhaps to the level of how does a product effect the environment.

Green practices are often established by such organizations as the United States Green Building Council which I happen to be a proud member of.

They help define strict performance metrics to ensure a sustainable building.

There are also a number of different local or state regulations that meet these standards in establishing baseline environmental performance of a building, be it a tiny house or not.

Living Small in A Tiny House just for You

So once you have decided you’ll be downsizing and have questions like our reader, we can provide you with some aspects to the process to consider at the early stages.

We here at 8TFive Studio are design professionals. As an architect myself, designing a tiny house just for you is certainly in the wheel house.

You can reach out to me directly, comment below or contact me via social media if you have specific questions relating to your particular tiny house investigation.

There are many areas that require more one on one attention.

Simply listing out what to think about exactly will depend on you.

We do however summarize a few considerations below for buying or building a tiny house.

‘What you want out of it, how big, what’s important to you, your daily routine, etc.’

It all varies from person to person. That is why I personally believe a manufactured home is OK because it serves the basic needs of shelter …

However to craft or modify an existing structure to fit your needs is a true representation of home and a reflection of you, your lifestyle, culture, etc.

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The process can be intimidating at first but here are some things to think about:

Where will You be Keeping the Home

Similar to the earlier question regarding if the tiny house would be on wheels or a foundation, you’ll need to know where the home will ultimately be planned for.

Will a small cottage be built on a foundation as an accessory structure upon an plot of land or will it be on wheels and need to be kept in an RV park?

Different regulations and restrictions will apply even when just thinking about what local justification the plot of land might exist upon.

This can and probably will have an impact on how big it can be. Also, where it can be situated on the site and in some cases how it might appear to some extent.

What do You Need out of Your Tiny House

In our reader’s question it would be acting as a retirement home. This will have different requirements and goals for the design than, say, a young couple.

Do you plan on having children in the tiny house you plan for? What about pets like cats and dogs? Do you plan on entertaining people to some extent?

These questions can influence how open the tiny house might want to be. They also affect where spaces are located and what they are adjacent to.

I would recommend about 100 sf per person.

This just provides adequate and comfortable living quarters for everyone.

Try Before Your Buy or Build

Once you have an idea for what you might be considering as a life change to downsizing your home, try it out. Take what you plan on buying or building and take a vacation in one.

Rent a small cabin or RV for a week and test out the downsized living quarters.

This might be a surprise to some or it might just further help you in developing your own.

Where certain things might be located, loft spaces, storage space, etc. might help inform your perspective for what you’ll ACTUALLY need and use in the environment.

I know Air BNB offers some tiny houses you can visit as well.

Maximize Your Use of the Outdoor Room

Even though you are downsizing the overall footprint of your home does not mean sacrificing spaciousness. Try incorporating porches, decks, patios and landscaping around to create space.

You certainly want your tiny house to have a connection to the outdoors.

This may vary depending upon location and climate. But there is a way to create connections with the outdoors to enhance and expand your living space.

Plan for How Your Tiny House will Connect to Utilities

Are you locating in an RV park that has connections? Most manufacturers have standard connections like an RV but if you are building then incorporate these.

If you are building a tiny house upon a foundation, then will it be municipalities or well water you use, electrical grid or completely off? Maybe it’ll be a hybrid system for utilities.

Not only will the connections be different but the space it takes up in your structure will vary.

For example, if you are building upon a plot of land in a more densely populated area then it could be that your local jurisdiction restricts or prohibits rain water collection systems.

If Building, Construct to Codes and Standards 

They exist for a reason and ultimately are in your best interest for building performance and life safety. This is something a design professional could assist you with.

Height restrictions, structural loads for wind or snow, transportation requirements and material selections just to name a few could be regulated in your area.

International building codes, state building codes and local regulations account for your design restrictions that you’ll need to abide by. These requirements vary.

Considering it is such a vast aspect to tiny house construction, contact me with questions.