House of Cards -or- DIY Tiny House Kit
After posting the latest design variation for Nine Tiny Feet I got a few requests to make the house more lightweight. This seems like a pretty good idea since that project is really about getting the most value from the least amount of space. Initially I was thinking this only meant square footage but it seems perfectly logical to make it lightweight too. If I could find a way to make it super lightweight nine tiny feet could even be pulled by a bicycle.
But I digress…
These recent reader comments got my brain cooking up ways of building inexpensive ultra-lightweight panel walls. Then on Sunday night a very simple approach to making panels occurred to me. The design below is not for a nine square foot house, although I’m considering something like this for Nine Tiny Feet too. This design is 49 square feet and could be built for about $1200 in new materials, (less if you’re resourceful and scavenge a little).
Bungalow in a Box
I stumbled on this tiny house kit builder while looking at YouTube a while back. Bungalow in a Box builds panel-frame kits that setup in a day or two. You build the foundation and they deliver the panels to your site ready to lift into place. The video on YouTube shows one being erected in the snow.
Panel-framing is a bit of an unusual wall construction technique. They build up the walls in sections using 2×4 boards but not in the usual way. In fact I’m going to consider doing something similar (now that I’ve stumbled on this again) for my own Tiny Free House. It looks like this might be a way to reduce the amount of material needed to build walls with short pieces of pallet wood. Maybe?
Anyway, these folks are in Woolwich, Maine. The kits are fairly affordable but they are exterior shells only, you finish the interior. Aside from being very cute the speed of assembly seems to be the best and most unique feature. Photo credit Bungalow in a Box.
