House Plans & eBook
Below is a growing collection of tiny house plans and ebooks. More will be added regularly.
 Tiny Prefab, A Do-It-Yourself Prefab Building SystemPDF format 90 pages $19.99 Includes complete plans and free updates Learn More & Watch Video  |
 Tiny Solar House – Simple Do-It-Yourself Tiny House PlansPDF Format 40 Pages $9.99 Includes complete plans and free updates Learn More & Watch Video |
Free Updates
Today the plans are complete but over time I’ll make improvements and additions as reader suggestions are incorporated. When I do I’ll send out a link to the free update to everyone who has already purchased the ebook in the past. So in many ways purchasing an ebook from me is really more like subscribing to an expanding design resource.
Affiliate program
If you’re interested in selling this ebook on your website you can earn a 40% affiliate commission for each sale. Learn more about the Tiny House Design Affiliate Program.
11 Responses to “House Plans & eBook”
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[...] Tiny Prefab – eBook & Plans [...]
[...] weeks I missed posting an issue of Tiny House Living last week. I was busy finishing up my first Tiny Prefab ebook. I’ll try to plan ahead better next [...]
Nice idea. Unfortunately, I need a tiny prefab lot with prefab tax payments to go with these plans. Oh, and a place where the dogs can run.
I want to build a cool, tiny, off-grid container house from a 20′ highcube container. The interior is approximately 150 square feet. I’ve already drawn up the plans. What I lack is a space to manufacture the prototype – my apartment parking lot won’t allow it, and volunteered back yards are exposed to the elements. Most residential workshops don’t have the area needed, and commercial space that does costs approximately $5000 a month, and the leases are never month to month. I estimate 6 months to build the prototype and work out the kinks. (Things on paper never transfer perfectly to reality.) I have the funds, I just need the space, a PE to bless the plans, and some technical help on welding. Oh, and a support network of tiny home enthusiasts!
Everything in my off-grid house is green and sustainable. I also designed it to endure harsh conditions; one reason to use steel shipping containers – they are very strong structurally. They even float.
I paid careful attention to heat gain because I live in a hot climate, and I used a geothermal heat exchange system. A cold climate would be easier to manage because the interior space is small (a big steel box is easier to heat up than cool down), but in my cold weather plans I still used all the design tricks I could to make an energy-efficient, homeostatic eco-system.
My climate has abundant rainfall, so a cistern provides sufficient water as well as a heat sink. In a drier climate, a well would need to be dug, or water trucked in, which could also be stored in the cistern. I have a greywater reedbed treatment system, and use a composting toilet. The rest of the energy needs come from solar panels, and I use a mechanical battery along with traditional batteries for energy storage.
As much as possible, the house systems technology is pre-industrial revolution; the less electricity you need, the less solar power and energy storage you need. I’m a big believer in old technology, because those ideas had to be filtered through thousands of years of use, so often they are very workable and efficient.
Because of their portability and strength, I was hoping someday to manufacture my container houses for disaster housing. The price point is much less than equivalent disaster housing, which are not green and not off-grid. It’s even possible they could be donated outright to disaster victims at much less cost to the taxpayer than the way this issue is handled now. They would have an asset to help get back on their feet, instead of temporary handouts like rent assistances.
There is a huge demand for small off-grid houses, and hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs could be created here in the USA to manufacture small housing that everyone can easily afford. Using containers for housing mitigates industrial blight. It’s a win-win-win all around.
All I need is a place to make it happen, and a small support network for technical advice and encouragement.
awesome design, seems very straight forward and versatile.
OK, here ya go…
I have a single wide trailer frame that I salvaged from a single wide left for me by the previous owner of my small farm. With that, I hope to cut it down to 20 ft. and build a “Fensel” like little house but it would be 10 ft. wide by 20 ft. At 10 ft wide, I think I can add a wash basin in the bath and a little wider aisle in the Kitchen. I know that by the frame being wider than the 8.5 ft I’d need a permit to move it but the plan is not to move it. I’m planing around $20,000 (less the Solar Power) to do this.
I have salvaged some appliances and fixtures for use in the little house but some will be bought new.
I figure it could have solar hot water, solar power (maybe 2 KW), propane stove, propane heat and propane refrigerator.
The reason for all this is:
I’ve been working part of my property as an organic farm and have seen some general requests from students at the local University for some land to farm and a place to sleep. I figure I can get some students going in organic farming and make a small amount in rent while they utilize some of the land. Wonder if I’d ever get 20K back?
Rich
Diana – I just wanted to wish you luck. Your idea and the implications are brilliant, unfortunately it is hard for so many to understand the value in such thinking. I dream of living in a small community of off grid self sufficient homes, but modernized at the same time. I would like to meet others who feel as I do and maybe start a small commune (but not a cult) of people who want to reduce their enviro. footprint. If you have room outside that you want to be out in you do not need such a large home. I wish there was more people willing to take the plunge. It is scary I guess but think of the possibilities!
[...] I’m drawing up will be about 40-pages in length, cost $9.99 and will be available soon at Tiny House Design. To learn more about dogtrots in general read this article about dogtrot houses at [...]
Wow and wow again. I’m so exhilarated to find a whole lot of like-minded people. My plan is eventually to build a miniscule house in a cosmic place [which I have chosen]. I want it to be transportable so I can retreat elsewhere in the cyclone(hurricane) season. I am wondering if anyone anywhere has considered the whole business of private land owndership and the way it restricts small living. I hope the day will come when self-sufficient structures can be placed on any small piece of leased land.The present system does not favour this. As soon as you erect a structure, it is ‘affixed to the land’ and therefore owned by the landowner. At least this is the case in Australia. The question is how trasnportable must it be to avoid this legal quagmire.
Hi Cathie… the answer to your question really depends on location. The legal quagmire varies in depth in different places. In some places building anything is virtually impossible and in others the sky is the limit because nobody cares what you do. Often the level of difficulty increases with population density but this alone is not a perfect measure.
So my best general advice is to first look to see what precedents are set in the location you want to live and then try to describe your project in those terms. The reason is that to change other people’s minds and educate them takes time.
There’s always a right and wrong time to fight city hall. In my humble opinion the right way to fight city hall is to use guerilla tactics and get done what you want without causing a fuss or expending too much energy. As more people take this approach more communities will begin to understand the value of alternative housing.
[...] money’ writing about blogging; I’ll stick to selling something of real value, tiny house plans. So in other words… what I’ll have to say about blogging will be [...]