Nicole Alderman wrote:Hmmm, I wonder if you could get around the each girl wanting their own room by making bunkbeds that have lights and curtains?
My dad made my kids bunkbeds out of pallet wood, with big storage-shelf-stairs on the side, and shelves at the headboard. I have a boy and a girl, and our house is a 3 bedroom, just under 1,000sqft manufactured home. The third bedroom is our office/family/hobby room, and so we really only have two bedrooms. We're planning on turning part of the garage into a office/hobby/family room when the kids get older and puberty hits...and we save up money. (And, yeah, we should downsize a lot of our stuff...but we're kind of horders. I hate to get rid of anything I have or was given, and my husband isn't too keen on it, either. So, we've got TONS of kids toys, from both our childhoods, and from what was given to us. And lots of book. I can't toss knoweldge! I once gave away a math textbook, thinking I'd never need it, and now I wish I had it. I'm such a horder. Ack!)
Anyway, until we do our renovation, we've got bunkbeds. Our daughter still sleeps in our room, but when she's a bit older, she'll have the bottom bunk, and my son the top bunk. They'll have their shared toys in the room, and special toys on their shelves. I'm figuring if they want more privacy, we could put up a curtain rod with a curtain to enclose their beds, and put in some nice lights above both bunks so they can have private place to hide out.
Here's a picture of our bunk bed, right after it was installed.
William Bronson wrote:Three stories strait up isn't conducive to aging in place.
Your friend isn't always right and your enemy isn't always wrong.
Jamie Chevalier wrote:
If you are living a rural life, and trying to do a lot of things for yourself, you will need space to do things in and space to store the tools you need. Not just carpenter or mechanic tools, but books, craft supplies, cloth& sewing supplies, electronic gear, musical instruments. In most climates, to live the homestead life, you need a workshop of some sort, and a kitchen that can handle serious amounts of food processing. It doesnt take much space to eat and sleep, true. But to wash and butcher and can and freeze and store a sizable amount of food and food-processing equipment does. (A pressure canner and cases of jars takes a large closet. Crocks for fermentation take even more room.) I was lucky that I lived on a beach and could fillet fish or butcher deer outside and wash down with salt water. But will your tiny home have a sink that can handle that?
Jamie Chevalier wrote:I have lived most of my adult life in tiny cabins, boats (commercial fishing, not yachts) and travel trailers, so tiny living spaces are something I know well.
Jamie Chevalier wrote:But the specifics were not my point. I would just say that if you have the luxury of building from scratch, build around the actual patterns of family life, rather than letting a concept, and interesting shape, or a theory shape your daily life forever after.
John Daley Bendigo, Australia The Enemy of progress is the hope of a perfect plan
Benefits of rainfall collection https://permies.com/t/88043/benefits-rainfall-collection
GOOD DEBT/ BAD DEBT https://permies.com/t/179218/mortgages-good-debt-bad-debt
John C Daley wrote:going back to your grannies house.
I think working with that building would be your best option.
Can the place be insulated even if the walls are rebuilt?
Can you rebuild the walls and design it in such a manner the design is altered as you get around the building.
You can always run elecricty though exposed conduits inside or run them around the outside and poke them in as needed.
Then if you add thickness to the outside those cables/ conduits can be built in.
The basics you said you have are the hardest and often costly to get.
Rebuilding that place may really be the quickest.
John Daley Bendigo, Australia The Enemy of progress is the hope of a perfect plan
Benefits of rainfall collection https://permies.com/t/88043/benefits-rainfall-collection
GOOD DEBT/ BAD DEBT https://permies.com/t/179218/mortgages-good-debt-bad-debt
An important distinction: Permaculture is not the same kind of gardening as organic gardening.
Mediterranean climate hugel trenches, fabuluous clay soil high in nutrients, self-watering containers with hugel layers, keyhole composting with low hugel raised beds, thick Back to Eden Wood chips mulch (distinguished from Bark chips), using as many native plants as possible....all drought tolerant.
Cristo Balete wrote:Travis, a couple of questions. How do you plan on heating a multi-story building? Do you plan on retiring in this house, because stairs become a real issue for mobility. A lot of new housing design includes a master bedroom on the first floor so everything is accessible with the least amount of mobility.
James Whitelaw wrote:I love towers! One limiting factor in my area is anything 3 stories or more requires an automatic sprinkler system. I guess the thinking is if a fire starts on the first floor, escape from upper storied could be cut off quickly.
Travis Johnson wrote:
I wonder if a work around would be to have a rope ladder able to be dropped from the deck on the uppermost floor? It is not ideal as flames would be licking upwards, but it is a secondary means of escape. The tower deck does extend past the outside of the bottom portion of the house, except for a small portion over the porch roof. We love porches so that is why we added it.
Travis Johnson wrote:I am not sure how easy or hard the tiny house designed would be to heat though
Jan White wrote:I like the tower plan, but remember how much floor space stairs take up. You end up needing more floors to make up for all the space the stairs took up on the lower ones!
Jan White wrote:
Travis Johnson wrote:I am not sure how easy or hard the tiny house designed would be to heat though
I know a few people who have problems keeping the middle levels of their houses warm with their heat source in the lowest level. Top and bottom floors stay toasty, middle floors are cold. I think your idea of heating individual floors would be the most comfortable.
Jan White wrote:I like the tower plan, but remember how much floor space stairs take up. You end up needing more floors to make up for all the space the stairs took up on the lower ones!
Travis Johnson wrote:
Jan White wrote:I like the tower plan, but remember how much floor space stairs take up. You end up needing more floors to make up for all the space the stairs took up on the lower ones!
We were actually thinking about vertical ladders on the inside, alternating ends they are mounted on between floors so that if a person did fall it would only be 8 feet.
William Bronson wrote:Ok, I'm a gonna say it.
You clearly need to build a full on windmill.
Height,wind,veiws, it has it all!
And then, clogs and traditional Dutch costume for the missus...
Everybody wins!
Kyrt Ryder wrote:Fair point about the local climate. Ice and snow are a rare concern in my neck of the woods, fungal slime being a more frequent hazard here.
Can you tell us more about the naval hatches? I don't feel very enlightened from my Google search.
"The rule of no realm is mine. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, these are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything that passes through this night can still grow fairer or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I too am a steward. Did you not know?" Gandolf
Marco Banks wrote:Very nice used motorhomes are available for less than $10,000. They are spacious if they have a slide out or two, easily moved, and are generally well built. A motor home offers tremendous flexibility.
In my humble opinion, it makes more sense to buy a motorhome that you could live in for years and years, move when you want, and even take it on the road . . . and then spend time and money building a solid and good sized shed from which you will work and store your equipment. A well-built shed would offer additional living space when things in the motorhome get too cramped. I've helped a friend build a shed large enough to park two vehicles for less than $2500 using used/reclaimed materials and free labor. Most of that cost was roofing and some hardware.
A tiny home makes sense for a single living in someone else's backyard. But for a family with evolving needs and open-ended plans, I'd go with a well-built used motorhome.
Heroic work plunger man. Please allow me to introduce you to this tiny ad:
A rocket mass heater is the most sustainable way to heat a conventional home
http://woodheat.net
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