16 Excellent Tiny House Resources

One of the most popular articles here at Natural Papa has been my post about Our Tiny House Experiment. From talking to other people who are looking to either live in a low impact way, or to simply save money, I have found that the tiny house concept is one that really resonates with them. And thanks to the power of the internet, resources for how to make the transition to a micro house, how to build your own, or how to live in one, are only a click away.

16 Great Tiny House Websites

Tumbleweed Houses

“My decision to inhabit just 89 square feet arose from some concerns I had about the impact a larger house would have on the environment, and because I do not want to maintain a lot of unused or unusable space. My houses have met all of my domestic needs without demanding much in return. The simple, slower lifestyle my homes have afforded is a luxury for which I am continually grateful.” – Jay Shafer, Tumbleweed Houses, author of The Small House Book

[See my review of the Small House Book, by Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed Houses]

Tiny House Design

“In a nutshell, tiny houses give you back freedom in the form of time, money, and peace of mind. Why? How? Simply because they cost less to own, clean, heat, cool, etc. The less money you spend on your home the less you have to earn or the more you keep in the bank. The less time you spend cleaning and maintaining your house the more time you have to for the things you like to do.” – Tiny House Design

Tiny r(E)volution

“Tiny r(E)volution is a media-mentary on our goal to downsize, minimalize, prioritize, and proselytize, the plight of the Tiny House. Along the way we’ll be sharing our personal stories, our tales of discovery, and lot more information.”

This Tiny House

“This Tiny House is a girl-blog adventure, with a silent partner in crime. The girl is the author, obsessed with small spaces, efficiency, and living lightly on the earth. The boy is an outdoor explorer with a day job.”

Tiny House Blog

“The goal of the Tiny House Blog is to discover the different options available for a person looking to down size into a tiny house or cabin.”

Tiny Free House

“I’ve embarked on a little experiment. I’m building a tiny house that’s cross between Henry David Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond and a Tumbleweed-like Tiny House on wheels, the only difference is that it will cost nothing.” – Tiny Free House

Coming Unmoored

“This is the rather eclectic blog of a late-thirty-something woman in the process of overhauling her life in the wake of a short-lived and spectacularly disastrous marriage to the “Perfect Guy”. If you don’t already know me, perhaps the most important thing for you to know, at this point, is that in the last two years I’ve radically downsized my life from a high-consumption lifestyle in Tucson, Arizona to a small floating home in Portland, OR.” – Coming Unmoored

TinyHouses.net

“Once you start looking, tiny houses are everywhere. A tiny house, a little house, an itty bitty house, a mini house: any way you describe it, little houses and hideaways are dear to our sense of proportion.” – TinyHouses.net

The Field Lab

“Have you ever thought to yourself, “How would I do it if I had it to do all over again?” Usually this thought only pops into your head when you are about to die or your life is in ruin or perhaps during a midlife crisis where family and job stress suddenly takes its toll. This feeling is usually accompanied by mounting debt and an overwhelming feeling of being trapped in the life you have chosen. Tension in the world, an unstable economy, high fuel prices, and mind numbing popular culture may also add to this feeling of utter futility.” – The Field Lab

Tiny Pallet House

“As hurricane Gustav plowed across Cuba headed for the gulf coast of the United States memories of Katrina and the potential displacement of thousands got me thinking. I wanted to do something to help. It occurred to me that someone else might find what I now about building with shipping pallets useful in the coming weeks and months. So I setup this simple micro-blog to make it easy to show others one way to build with pallets.” – Tiny Pallet House

Tiny Houses on designboom

“the size of a home varies around the world; while some families live in one room huts, others have gigantic homes which seem to never end. whatever the case, homes tend to grow with their owner’s prosperity. since 1970, the size of the average new american home has grown by 50 percent. this growth trend is similar in most western countries. however, for every trend there is an counter-trend. in the case of home size, more and more people are choosing to live in small homes” – designboom

Jay’s Tiny House

“For 30 years I’ve wanted to build my own off-grid, energy efficient home and I’ve been drawing various designs for it on envelopes since I was at school. My grand design is a little smaller than most people’s idea of a home and this is a test run to prove to myself I can actually build a house. Start tiny, then move up in size once I have the skills established.” – Jay’s Tiny House

The Tiny House Project

“The Tiny House Project will bring together a group of artists to help us explore how we, in America, live. Nine artists will create a neighborhood of tiny homes in order to ask some very interesting questions about the choices we make. Do our choices bring us joy? How do they shape our connections with the people around us? In what ways will our choices change the lives of future generations? The Tiny House Project is a public art experiment, and everyone is invited to participate.”

Tiny Texas Houses

“My goal is to show people what can be done with a concept I call Salvage Building, thus what you see is 99% Pure Salvage. That means that everything from the doors, floors, windows, lumber, porch posts, glass, door hardware, and even the siding has been saved and re-used to create houses that we hope will last for a century or more. I believe that there are presently enough building materials sitting on the ground to build much of the next generation of housing. All it takes to make it so is pure human energy, spirit, and the desire to build something that will last for several lifetimes.” – Tiny Texas Houses

Vermont Tiny Houses

“Learn how to build a Vermont Tiny House from the ground up. Start by learning about what simple tools, building materials, and building practices are needed to complete a tiny house. Build 300 or less square feet of functional space that can be used as additional private space away from your main home.”

Tales of a Tiny House

“The tiny house on wheels concept really appealed to me so I built one! I’ve spent a little over a year building my very own little home – and am now living with friends and family – being able to share myself and my time instead of just working to get by.” – Tales of a Tiny House

Small House Society

“The Small House Society is a voice for the Small House Movement. The movement is the result of concerns about what we are doing to the environment, and what the environment is doing to us (wild fires, flooding, hurricanes), as well as a shifting economy. Some people just desire to live simply so that others can simply live.”

Tiny House Listings

“Tiny House Listings is the web’s central place to buy, sell and rent small house properties that are under 1,000 square feet in size. The site was started by Steven Harrell. Steven is a tiny house enthusiast and lives in a 36′ houseboat with his wife Rhiannon and chihuahua “Mako” in Wilmington, NC.”

[My review of the Small House Book, by Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed Houses]

Got any other tiny house websites we should be reading? Leave the links in the comments!

Oh yeah –> You could also follow me on Twitter.

{Update: there are more sites on here than the original 16, but I am leaving the title of this piece the same}

Image: nicolas.boullosa at Flickr