The Tiny Life

Quick post for today, I found this really easy crafty project that you could do which is a neat way to store books in a Tiny House.  Pretty easy to figure out and would be useful to save space if you don’t have allot of books.  Perhaps a good xmas present too!

Source here

When it comes to Tiny Houses, they come in all shapes and sizes.  Even the definition of a Tiny House isn’t all that definitive as of yet.  Tiny Houses and the movement’s folks live in urban areas, they live in the most remote areas of the earth.  Diversity of what Tiny is, is in itself interesting as people take these ideals we share in the Tiny House Movement and manifest itself in so many forms.

This richness of various forms allows rethinking of traditional housing is so many great ways.  I have toyed with building a Tiny Home a la Jay Schaffer, which I would venture is one of the most popular approaches today.  The other option I have considered is a Prefab shed.  Today I was able to go see a model that I have been toying with the idea of purchasing and putting in the middle of a plot of land.

There are issues with this approach of course.  Like all other Tiny Home making this legal and to code is rather difficult by its nature of being Tiny.  One big advantage of the prefab shed option is that these structures will almost always pass code, are easily able to obtain building permits, if you even need one!  Of course officially this would have to be just a shed.  It gets a bit more complicated when you are not placing the shed behind a primary dwelling.  This is where I find myself.

When I was talking with the sales person at the shed store, she told me that they have had several customers live in these sheds.  They call these buildings “sheds” loosely, with models up to 1000+ square feet.

Why a shed though?  Well like I mentioned the ease of getting them legitimized of course helps.  Second they are cheap!  The model I show here is 192 Square Feet. Included are the windows, doors, installations, taxes, anchoring, site leveling and delivery all for the price of $4,200!  Figure adding in permits, running power, insulation and drywall (doing the work myself of course) I am looking at a sweet house for around five grand.  You could then deck it out with Ikea swag for another $500 and have a really really nice place!  The only drawback is there is no loft for a bed, so you have to deal with that, Murphy bed?

The other advantage to these houses is that you can move them!  Not as easily as Jay’s house on a trailer, but it’s possible.  The other advantage I see with this is that they offer payment plans of $70 a month, makes it pretty affordable, considering I have friends that pay over $1500 a month in rent.

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While I find coasters to be a hassle and I use the Bodum glasses which eliminates the need for them, there are many folks that use them.  In addition they make a great gift if you make them yourself.  So here is a quick way to reuse old magazine to make some fun coasters.

1. Tear out 6 magazine pages. Cut off the ragged edge on each, then cut each page in half lengthwise. I stacked them and cut them all at once with an X-acto knife and ruler. (To make a coaster with a finer weave, cut each of the half-page strips in half lengthwise again. And note that weaving will take you twice as long!)

2. Fold each strip in half lengthwise. Then fold the resulting piece in thirds, folding the cut edges inward first so they’re hidden inside. Now you have a long, thick strip. Fold it in half at the center. See steps pictured above. Repeat with each magazine sheet.

3. To start weaving, interlock two strips. This is the bottom left corner of your coaster.

4. Add another strip that wraps around the outside of the horizontal bottom strip.

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With so many sunscreens out there, why make your own?  check out the list of commonly found ingedients in sunscreen that causes cancer after the read more link

Materials:

• 8oz oil (olive, sunflower, jojoba, or soybean)
• 1oz emulsifing wax
• Sunblocking agent (zinc oxide or titanium dioxide) – available online
• Essential oils of your choice (optional)

Go to Instructables for complete instructions. Good luck – and of course care should be taken with this DIY to make sure your skin is properly protected.

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These great DIY lights are super small and inexpensive to make.  Add a magnet to attach almost anywhere

Reprint from Unplugged Range June 15 2009

Have you ever wanted to have small LEDs? LEDs that you could place all over the place without worrying too much about wires? Look no further, because these little LED clips can be used in this fashion. You can put them anywhere and they don’t have any wires since they are battery-powered. We thought that these lights could lead to a great bunch of home-grown designs for rooms and offices.

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