Tiny Houses, Where to Start

Ever dreamed of making a tiny house on wheels your new reality? This guide will walk you through the process, giving you insight from other tiny dwellers as well as sharing the journey of how we made it happen. Start creating your new tiny life now with this hands on book filled with inspiration, planning tools, exercises, and tips to help you make the tiny leap!

I see many folks on Facebook® asking, “Where do you start the tiny house building process?”

Little do they realize that they have already taken the first steps.

• You have determined that you need or want a change of housing and lifestyle.
• Just putting tiny homes on your list of options is a concrete step.

You’ve Already Started

1. 1. Investigate what others have done to see if tiny house living is a viable option for you is the first step.
   2. Probably most importantly, do your homework. The tiny lifestyle can certainly offer financial relief from large rent or mortgage payments, but there are other expenses you will incur, compromises you will make, and challenges you will face. It may well be worth it, but preparation in making this transition is essential.
   3. Once you’ve researched the physical, financial, and practical aspects of tiny living, decide what kind of tiny home would work for you. Though it’s just a beginning, visit our page on Tiny Types. You might be astonished to discover there are so many options.
   4. Then look at your day-to-day life, and imagine how it will play out in that smaller space, in your new neighborhood or community.
   5. Determine how much room you need to contain everything you want. If you are going to build, draw a basic floor plan on paper. Use graph paper and draw to scale.
   6. Where do you want to live? Check into every aspect of your location, including building codes and local zoning laws, utilities, property taxes, etc. Or would you like to be located in an RV park or Tiny Home Community? How about lot rent? Never start a build without knowing where you will be able to place your home.
   7. Once you’ve jumped through all these hoops, look for a professionally made plan close to yours and buy it. Then the real fun begins!

See what other tiny home dwellers have done

1. 1. • Attend a tiny home show. Ask the owners questions.
      • Take a Tiny House E-Course or Workshop.
      • Stay in a tiny house. There are many tiny house resorts around the country.
      • Join tiny house Facebook groups to get a “pulse” of what’s happening with tiny house dwellers.
      • Make a Pinterest® board and start saving photos of ideas you like.
      • Watch the tiny house shows and YouTube® videos.

Start downsizing now

Downsizing is always a good idea. Whether you finally make the plunge into tiny house living or not, we all can do with less stuff and more organization.

How much have other houses this size cost?

1. 1. • Estimate the cost of the size home you want. Refer to sites like E-Bay® or Zillow® to see what a used tiny home sells for. Check with tiny home builders to see what their models cost.
      • Start Saving. Expect a basic tiny house to cost from 50K to 80K.
      • Look for financing opportunities.
      • Understand that, one way or another, you will probably be paying to use the land you are parked on. You will also need utilities.

Start Saving Money

Start saving money and/or improving your credit score. See this page of our website for more information: Understanding Tiny Home Ownership Tiny Vs Conventional

Start thinking about where and how you want to live

1. 1. • Will you move away from your town or stick around?
      • Will you be fine renting a site in an RV park or would you prefer a different situation?
      • How much does land cost?
      • Will you be “off-grid?” Raising your own food? Chickens?
      • What are your county’s zoning laws and building codes? Are tiny houses even allowed?
      • Would you like to move around a lot or settle in to your private paradise?

The Real Question Behind the Question

More likely the real question people are asking is, “How do you select a path and get the courage to start spending money to make your dreams turn into reality?”

You can’t wait for a shipping container to float up to your front door to decide you will be building a container home, though that did actually happen to one couple.

Don’t expect someone to offer to sell you a Greyhound bus for a dollar, though that did happen to one lady I know.

You can look for someone willing to give you their old camper and remodel it; it has happened. More than likely, this will require a thorough and diligent effort on your part. The right path awaits you, and we here at Tiny Life Consulting have already done the research. Offering almost two hundred pages of free information, including the vast experiences and resources of countless other adventurers, just use our search bar or menus to find the information you are looking for. We are glad you are here!

Decision Fatigue

This package includes the book in PDF, ePub, and MOBI formats. The Workbook in PDF and DOC formats. For a bit more you get 8 video interviews with tiny house experts (2-hours), and 12 detailed video tours (downloadable or streamable) of crucial systems so you can actually see the inner workings of my tiny house.

There are a million questions that need to be answered and that many more choices to make while designing your dream home. Ethan Waldman, author of Tiny House Decisions, spent hours and hours fighting through decision fatigue to make choices that would result in the perfect tiny house for him.

“If I’d had a comprehensive guide to help me identify key decisions and understand my options, I know my house would have been done way sooner and with less stress,” Ethan says.  “It was only after I set up a Facebook page to share pictures of my progress and that’s how I realized that I wasn’t alone. Every day, I answered all kinds of questions from fellow tiny home enthusiasts. I loved seeing how all the careful research I did to build my house could help thousands of others build theirs. That’s how Tiny House Decisions came into being.”

You might make a huge mistake

Fear of making a huge mistake can paralyze you. This can happen.

A 77 year old lady in my town was convinced that she and her nephew could build her retirement tiny home. She invested 12k, her entire savings, and ended up with a pile of junk that wasn’t even safe to haul to the dump.

There were basic mistakes made from the very beginning that could have been avoided. Any of us in the tiny house field can help you make good decisions, but you need to ask us questions and take our advice.

When I suggest that you start with a professionally built tiny house trailer, spend the money for the trailer. Don’t think you can get away with a reclaimed RV trailer. Tiny house trailers have specific requirements. A reclaimed RV trailer will only cost you unnecessary time and money, and you’ll have to start all over again.

How To Avoid Disaster

1. 1. 1. Listen to the professionals.  If three professional advisors say: “Concrete counter tops are too heavy,” look for a different counter top. Don’t go looking for someone else to tell you what you want to hear.
      2. When estimating the cost of your project, expect to pay full retail for everything. If you happen to find brand new Pella windows “by the side of the road” great. If not, buy new windows, and your project can go on.
      3. Don’t overestimate your abilities. If your pot-smoking, out-of-work,  twenty-something nephew says you and he can build it: GET A SECOND OPINION.
      4. Expect to hire professionals every step of the way. You will most likely need to pay an electrician, plumber, and/or other tradesmen to get the job done right. If you can do some work yourself, that’s a bonus.
      5. Add 25% to your cost estimate and double your time estimate. If the project comes in less than that, its a win.
      6. Don’t start until you have a plan to finish.

Basic starting steps to building a tiny house

1. 1. 1. Settle on a floor plan, either one you’ve drawn or one you’ve purchased.
      2. Gather information on building codes and zoning restrictions for the land you want to live on.
      3. Find a secure location to build or contact a builder who will build it for you.
      4. Buy the right size, professionally built trailer.
      5. Make sure you have the right tools and they are in good working order.
      6. Order building materials and begin your build.
      7. Order the appliances.

You are well on your way. For more information read this blog post: Pulling The Trigger On Tiny House Living.

Use the comment section below to tell us about your successes and your failures too. Our readers will appreciate the candid information from those with experience.

Buying A Used Tiny Home

Buying a used tiny house might be just the thing for you. It’s been lived in. Hopefully all of the original build shortcomings have been ironed out and repaired. The homeowner may have made several unique upgrades or changes to make it perfectly useful to tiny living. See my page, “Buying A Used Tiny Home,” for more information.