Tiny House Design

Julia ran across this garden cottage company last night while on craigslist. I also just noticed that Christina had posted an article about these little cottages on Tiny House Blog back in December. EcoScape Outdoors manufactures their cottage components before transporting them to the building site. Installation only takes 3 to 4 days. They can build stationary or portable cottages. The prices below are for the stationary cottages.

These are not complete tiny houses with a kitchen and bathroom but they do seem like a very good start and could probably be retrofitted by the owner. The cost seems reasonable too and right now they are offering a $1,000 discount (check their website for details).

Their smallest stationary cottage measures 10′ by 12′ and costs about $7,500 without the discount. A 10′ by 20′ is less than $10,000. The largest cottage they sell measures 20′ by 30′ and costs less than $20,000. In most communities these larger cottages would require a building permit but the little ones can often be installed without a permit as long as it meets your planning department’s description of a shed.

In terms of design these don’t look like much more than very nice sheds. For example a Tumbleweed tiny house uses higher quality materials and includes a kitchen and bathroom. Jay Shafer also puts in a lot more effort into every detail.  At the end of the day I guess you get what you pay for because if you want Tumbleweed Tiny House quality you’ll pay more for it but if you’re looking for simplicity and value these little backyard cottages seem like great deal.

If you’re handy with a saw and hammer I’m certain you could build a shed for less money but the time and trouble savings would be very hard to beat. Photo credit EcoScape Outdoors.