While many people dream of getting wealthy and having a huge home and lots of stuff, I don't. I grew up in a large home and often it felt like a prison that kept me from living life, due to all the work that needed to be done in and around the house. I am working to build a Solar Business that could give me the financial freedom to have a large home while doing something good and meaningful for the world, but my housing dreams are tiny. 187.5 square feet to be exact! That's smaller than most people's bedrooms in the USA. I have struggled between a tiny house and a studio apt. in a mixed use building. The apartment might actually have a bit smaller carbon footprint due to shared resources, but the vanity of wanting to live in a space that is my concept and that I own, is winning out here. This post is really intended most as an easy online reference for ideas when I get to the point of working with an architect or designer. Now there is a lot I like about tiny houses, but there is one thing I hate and that is the loft bed that most of them have. So I have been coming up with concepts that worked around that, my favorite up to now was this one. The green sofa is actually the bed, which slides out from under an elevated kitchen. The kitchen works out pretty well to providing a two tier theater style concept for viewing movies with friends. It's also about 11x31 inside giving about 350 Sq. Ft. of space. I have been living in about 144 Sq. Ft. the past five years which I really love. A few more feet would be good for some socializing, along more efficient design, built ins, etc. but I really don't want or need to more than double the size of my enclosed living space! Besides, with built in's, better space planning and a high ceiling (mine now is about 7 feet, this will be about 9-12 feet) it is already likely to feel about twice as big. With a screen porch added it actually will be. So below is what I have come up with... Lot's of details to be refined and worked out. Such as wanting totally sustainable and non-toxic materials throughout, one good reason among many to hire an architect or designer to flesh this out. The bathroom has a washer/dryer combo, something I am missing now. There is a clothes wardrobe or closet between the bath and front door. The table between the sofa and front door can be moved and expanded so two or more could use it to eat on using the two chairs and sofa for seating. One note: The kitchen design here seems to indicate a gas stove, absolutely not! My goal is to move away from all gas use ASAP, including car. No, that is a solar powered (Big Grin) smooth top electric! The sofa does turn into a bed and has storage underneath, but it is not the main bed. (I'll get to that in a moment) A countertop runs across the end providing a desk area and a lot of storage under all but the work station area. Opposite the sofa is a floor to ceiling built in bookcase with space for a large flat screen TV. My first design concept here did have the sofa turn into the main bed, but then I saw what designer Ana White did in one of her tiny houses and it is absolutely brilliant! An elevator bed! Bed is totally up and out of the way during the day, at night it comes down right over the sofa without having to mess with the sofa, but if you have a guest you can turn the sofa into a guest bed, and bring the main bed down only part way (there are locking pins to keep it from moving) bunk bed style. Very cool, and cats would love it too! The interior floor, walls, ceiling, cabinets, bookshelves, etc. are all natural light wood, like the ceiling in the photo above. The ceiling is board and beam. Some cabinet doors in kitchen or wardrobe may have a punch of color, but most would be natural. This is a shed roof design with the high end over the bathroom for a storage/guest loft. Very modern, yet woody design. Exterior siding is most likely corrugated steel. Here is a very simplistic idea of the entrance side without a porch. This will be high quality, sustainable, and well designed I love the simplicity. However there is at least one "luxury" that I would really like to have, and that is a hot tub. For that I want a screened covered porch. (which expands the living space a lot!) OK, how to do a porch that adds to the design rather than being just a tacky add on? I recalled the new beach pavilions near where I have been living in Florida. They have a pretty cool design element that could work. On my tiny house it might look a bit like this, with a splash of color on the non-structural pieces. The porch is a basic rectangle 10 feet wide. The roof on left side does angle out to shelter the entry area. The blue area represents solar panels (of coarse!) which would be either on the porch or the main house. The porch roof has the same pitch as the tiny house roof but runs side to side rather than end to end. Those bright add on elements around the porch, are opaque tubes with programmable, color changing led lights inside, that will be fun! It would be something like this video!
FYI, for those interested I created my floorplans using Floorplanner, and my elevations using Photoscape.
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Wow, I post to Facebook everyday but haven’t posted here since I came out as Asexual! Many things have happened since including my being on Dr. Darrel Ray’s Secular Sexuality podcast. You can give that a listen here. Educating myself on asexuality and coming to terms with it, I feel helped me understand and accept myself more, and that is good. But I also thought it would help me find an online community of more people that I identified with. It really didn’t do that, because the communities that I found seemed to be largely filled with people who complained about how misunderstood they are, rather than people glad to understand and accept themselves more. Victims rather than Victors. Not liking what I saw there has helped me re-evaluate other areas of my life. Some time back I came across an opportunity that really fit me to help promote Solar Energy and sustainability. I love the purpose, culture, mission, and accomplishments of this company. Just one problem, I don’t live in a market they serve and personally don’t know people who do. So I became a victim of that situation. While I have great friends here, and there is much to enjoy, I have also felt stuck (like a victim) in Florida. It’s a great place to vacation in the Winter, but it’s not a place that has ever felt like home to me. For home I want seasons, mountains, valleys, waterfalls, walkable communities with good history, that are close to major cities with great culture. I am committed to moving from victim to victor. To getting unstuck. Such a life change can be hard, but I have been in the victim spot for too long, don’t like it when I see it in others, and for that to change, to get unstuck, I must move forward. So here’s to change and becoming a victor! |
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