If you haven’t heard about the Woodland Home, and you are a tiny home/sustainable home fan, you’ve been missing out.  This home built in Wales is a very interesting concept indeed.

Built by volunteers for about $5500, this tiny home looks much like something out of The Lord of the Rings films.  The core concept is to build a home using as few processed materials as possible.  To this end, the builders utilized a variety of techniques.  They dug into a hillside and built part of the home in this fashion, the used straw bales for the floors, walls and roof and used lime plaster. 

The choice for lime plaster is a rather interesting one, as lime plaster takes far less energy to manufacture than does cement.  Most people are still unaware the concrete, while very durable, is also very energy intensive to produce.  Most environmentalist consider concrete to be very destructive as a whole for the planet.  The choice to use lime plaster was most certainly a good one in fitting with the Woodland Home theme.

The Woodland Home is packed with other features that would also make environmentalist jump with glee, such as using scrap wood for the floors, skylights in the roof to cut down on electricity bills, as well as solar panels.  The Woodland Home also collects rainwater and has a composite toilet.  In short, this is one very environmentally friendly little house.

The creators of the Woodland Home are very straightforward about how important it is to construct in this fashion whenever possible.  One of the most important reasons that they chose to construct using “organic architecture” was to be as natural as possible, and avoid toxic building materials.  In short, they wanted to build a home that had very little impact on both the environment and their own personal health.

More than likely the Woodland Home is using concepts and features that we are likely to see incorporated into many homes in the future.  Clearly, currently building practices are not sustainable in the long run and homes like the Woodland Home are pointing the way as to what is possible.  In this sense, they are true trailblazers.  You can learn more about this unique tiny house from Simon at www.simondale.net/house.

Some design concepts just speak so well to the times.  This is the case with the modular home concepts dreamed up by the people over at System Design Studio.  The System Design Studio is based in Barcelona Spain, and is really generating some impressive ideas that are worth a keen look.  One the most exciting is their concept for a modular home.

The System Design Studio modular home concept centers around the concept of taking three separate units: bathroom, kitchen and storage, and building a living area around them. Other modules can be attached to this core, thus expanding it.  This is how to add such rooms as a bedroom.  But what makes the design so potentially interesting is how much thought System Design Studio has given to transportation and space maximization of their modular home design concept.  The home’s design to expand from compact module to extended module is truly brilliant.

The compact module compressed the structure down considerably.  It can be transported on a railway, and the compact module can fit onto a train.  When in extended module form the module unfolds considerably, yielding much more living space.  No doubt, this is a great design.  Being able to partially fold up the module for transport is a fantastic concept.  Moreover, if modular homes become the norm in the future, the idea of compressing the space for transport is extremely attractive.  Such functionality could make moving and transporting modules very easy, as modules could be transported via the railways or even as ocean freight.  While their home design is only a concept, it is an exciting one, full of tremendous potential.

Not surprisingly, environmental concerns are a major aspect of System Design Studio’s modular design as well.  Each unit is designed to incorporate solar panels and uses high-efficiency LED lighting.  A system for collecting and using rainwater is also central among the design principles.  The overarching concept is for the home to be very self-sufficient and eco-friendly.

Studio Design also creates a wide variety of sleek lamps created from recycled materials which are currently available.  These designers have an array of interesting eco-friendly design options on their very high-tech looking website.

Check out System Design Studio’s website for more information- this site is definitely worth a look!

I was having a rather rough day yesterday which made what happened all that much more wonderful.  On top of my plumbing woes, things were piling up at work.  And then there was the small matter of getting caught in hail four times yesterday.

Moreover, all this was in the wake of having to unpack the Mini and carry all my stuff down the ramps in the rain on Sunday.

I don’t care if real Portlanders don’t carry umbrellas.  I’m carrying one with me everywhere I go from now on, dang it.  I haven’t been this soggy and pelted by the elements in the last twenty years.

So, needless to say, I was rather cranky as I was returning down the ramps to my house after hail storm #4 of the day.  In the midst of feeling very sorry for myself, however, I noticed something odd floating in the river directly in front of my house.  It was slick, dark, and executing little joyful pirouettes. I would have thought it was just a random log drifting down the river but the pattern it was tracing in the water made no sense if it was just debris.  There was too much a sense of humor about the whole thing.

So I squinted and hurried down the dock.  Just as I got within ten feet of the mysterious black thing in the water, a whiskered head popped to the surface and stared directly at me with liquid eyes.  Both me and the whiskered animal did a comic double-take, and then, with a flick of a tail and a splash, it was gone.

My first reaction was: “THAT’S THE BIGGEST OTTER I’VE EVER SEEN!”

I have to confess that what it actually looked like to me was a seal.  But there was no conceivable way a seal could be paddling around outside my house… could there?

Turns out, it very well could.

I ran into my neighbor Mike a hour later and asked him about what I’d seen…  Mike didn’t even bat an eye under his baseball cap.  “Oh yeah.  There are seals all over the place right now.  They like to follow the salmon up river.”  And with that matter-of-fact explanation he ambled down the dock as though we’d just had a conversation as inconsequential as discussing the fact it was raining again in Portland.

Mike has obviously been here a lot longer than me.

My reaction went something a little more like the following: “HOLY FREAK!  I JUST SAW A SEAL! RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE! A SEAL!!!!”

I’m not sure when the novelty of a seal meandering five feet in front of my house might wear off.  I’m not sure it ever will, and that’s perfectly fine with me.

Upon hearing the story on Twitter, the local fantasy author Kim Antieau said it was just the selkies way of welcoming me to the neighborhood.  I love that.

And sure enough, one quick visit from the selkies wiped away an enormous amount of frustration from the day, and I’m back to remembering why I’m here.  And that I’m right where I’m supposed to be, exploding toilets, bat colonies and all.

I’m afraid to say my first day in my floating home was a little less magical than my arrival.

To begin with, my “Open 24 Hours a Day! 7 Days a Week!” storeroom facility decided to be closed for Easter without sending any sort of notice to their tenants.  So, when I blithely showed up, keyed in my security code at the gate, and went inside, I ended up being greeted by a very flustered property manager who came barreling out of her RV, followed quickly by her husband/S.O. armed with a shotgun.

None of this was really disastrous other than the fact that all the bedding I planned to use for the night was behind lock and key and they weren’t about to let me in long enough to retrieve it.  I think what irked me the most is how nasty the manager was.  I just about got accused of breaking and entering.  She kept insisting that there was no way my security code should have been able to open the gate and that they told everyone when they signed up for a facility that they were closed on major holidays.  (Of which, Easter apparently qualifies in her world.)

I made my apologies and left.  I’ve got a bad feeling, though, that there’s going to be an ongoing series of issues between me and this women as I ended up getting the Death Look the whole time I was there yesterday to retrieve a few things.

It annoyed me that I was forced to go buy a cheapo comforter to get me through the night until I could retrieve my bedding.  Odds are I’ll end up donating it to one of the local shelters.

The real excitement on Sunday, however, involved my tiny house’s plumbing.  I was able to reach Kenny about midday and he showed me how to turn out the main water main to my house.  Kenny hung around for about fifteen minutes helping me make sure all the appropriate valves were opened and that everything appeared to be in working order.  I wished him a Happy Easter and he went off to spend the day with his parents and sister.

An hour later all hell began to break loose. My hot water heater made a noise that could only be described as a death rattle and then stubbornly refused to produce anything that could even be generously described as lukewarm water.  The hot water spigot produced water the same temperature as the river.

Next, the shower turned on by itself and no matter how I adjusted the handle, I couldn’t get it to less than a light, ongoing trickle.

This was followed by the kitchen sink sprouting a leak from the main pipe.  Having no pots or pans yet in the house, I resorted to putting my rice cooker under the drip to capture the water.  I then made a hasty trip to Wal-Mart to grab a few containers to catch water in until I could reach a plumber Monday morning who would charge less-than-extortionate rates because it was a holiday.

The coup de gras, however, was that, just as I was coming back through the front door from Wal-Mart, I heard a weird, cracking explosion from the bathroom, which made no sense whatsover.  I opened the bathroom door cautiously to discover that the lid of my toilet tank had shot off with enough force to hit the far wall and break into pieces. I kid you not.

Now, I’ve seen my handful of weird toilet malfunctions before.  I had also been warned by the contractor who had rebuilt my float that re-balancing the level of the house could result in some minor drips in the plumbing.  But there was no way an exploding toilet could be described as “minor” in anyone’s book as far as I was concerned.

The subsequent conversation with Kenny went roughly like this:

Me: “Uh, Kenny, there seems to be a problem with my toilet.”

Kenny: “What?  Is it not flushing?”

Me: “No.  It exploded.”

Kenny: “Exploded?  What do you mean by ‘exploded’?  Did you get backflow from the honeypot or something?”

Me, trying to keep my tone somewhere below the pitch of a mouse who’s just been sodomized: “No.  I mean, the lid just shot off, slammed into the far wall, and broke in half.  That kind of exploded.”

This pronouncement was greeted by a moment’s silence worthy of the news I’d just delivered.

Kenny: “I’ll be there first thing tomorrow morning with my plumber.”

Kenny was slightly more pragmatic on the subject of what I should use for a toilet until then, though.  He suggested I could probably still use it and just flush with a bucket until the cavalry arrived…  But I might want to be a little careful just to be safe.  Alternately, there was always the gym locker room down the street.  I’d mentioned I was planning to get a membership, hadn’t I?

I ended up making the minimal possible number of hasty trips to the bathroom during the night, keeping a watchful eye on the tank the entire time I was in the room.

Monday morning, Carey of Rhino Plumbing and his brother appeared as my salvation.  Apparently what happened is the squeegee-ma-bob–hey, I’m not a plumber and they just pointed at the thing–had shot up several inches with enough force to rip itself free of the tubing in the tank and send the lid flying.

Why exactly this happened, no one knows.  Not even the plumbers.  It could have been air or some sort of debris in the line.  But that’s pure speculation.  Upon further determined probing by me, both Kenny and Carey surrendered a few Man Points by admitting they’d never seen anything like it.  It was the damnedest thang.

The initial plan had been to simply replace the innards of the toilet and see if that fixed the issue.  However, then it was discovered that there was a crack running the length of the bowl on the far side.  Whether the crack happened as part of the explosion or sometime during the winter they don’t know.

Final verdict: my hot water heater could be saved with a new heating element.  Shower was magically shut off.  Leak under the kitchen was resolved.  The toilet, however, has been declared D.O.A.  Looks like I may be getting the spiffy new, dual-flush toilet I had been planning a little earlier than planned.  (And praying I don’t see similar canon-like activity from that.)

So that was my Sunday and Monday this week.

Now, can anyone recommend a good sacrificial offering to the local water gods to ensure there’s no more of this mischief?

My apologies for personal updates being a little thin over the last few weeks.  My mom being out to visit in New Mexico and getting ready to relocate full-time to Portland took up most of my spare time.  However, I am happy to report that I am now moved in (relatively speaking) to my lovely little floating home!

The journey began by packing most of the limited possessions I’ve lived with for the last year into my Mini Cooper.  It’s interesting to realize that with the exceptions of a few books, my cello, my Bose headphones, and a couple of good bottles of red wine, I really didn’t find myself missing anything I had in storage in Portland.  I think that probably indicates I should do another round of downsizing my possessions before moving everything into my house.

I drove a route through Utah and Idaho to reach Portland and the drive was gorgeous.  A good portion of it featured snow-covered mountains and rivers running alongside the highway.  I was so jazzed about the surroundings all around me that I drove a little over 800 miles the second day before realizing it was probably time to stop for the night.

Mojave, UT was just a groovy small town.  But let me just say I’ve never seen so many BAT’s (Big-Assed Trucks) in my life!  I swear I drove through town looking at nothing but mudflaps.  Definitely need to go back there sometime with Charlie and check things out.  Mojave strikes me as the bastard child of Sedona, AZ and Madrid, NM.

The final stretch of the drive was along the Columbia River.  I’d always wondered what things looked like east of where my house is.  The answer is some phenomenally gorgeous landscape.  It was late enough Saturday night and pretty enough along the river that I decided to stay in a hotel about an hour from my place and finish up in the morning.

I woke up just before sunrise Sunday morning, and made the final drive to my new home as the sun was rising over the river.  I reached the front door of my house to a fanfare of Canadian geese who had followed me down the dock.  It seemed oddly appropriate that I arrived at my new home on Easter morning, a date symbolic of rebirth in more than one religion

It was a good homecoming.

What defines cool?  Oh isn’t that always a hard one.  Its the sort of term that is difficult to pin down, and the answer often varies from person to person, and culture to culture. However, one thing is pretty clear- most people would consider the Loftcube to be pretty darn cool.

The Loftcube concept comes to us from Berlin.  The idea is to take a start using all the free space available on the top of large buildings for the modular home idea that is the Loftcube.  The Loftcube comes in at 420 square feet and has about 8 feet of ceiling space.  But what makes Loftcube so cool are its looks.  Since the Loftcube sits on four legs, it is elevated a few inches off the ground. Also it has a customizable interior.

The Loftcube, with its sleek rounded, curved walls and  tall, nearly floor to ceiling windows, is a design which is very appealing to the eye.  This more resembles a work of art from a museum (or a movie set prop from a late 1960′s science fiction concept) than it does a modular home.  And that’s what makes it cool.

The design team has done a fine job showing the world how they built their concept.  They have several videos online that walk visitors through the process in detail.  This nice touch helps make the entire process more accessible.

One of the first things visitors to the website will notice is how fantastic the interiors of the Loftcube can be.  In many tiny homes the interior space is often an afterthought, but not with the very modern and stylish Loftcube.  In this regard the Loftcube really excels.

In fact, one would be very hard pressed to find a more impressive utilization of 420 square feet in a tiny home.  The sheer coolness of this tiny home’s interior will likely make most feel as though they are actually in a larger home.  Now, that is great design.  Designer Werner Aisslinger and the Loftcube team have created something with the Loftcube that will certainly change people’s minds regarding tiny homes and modular design.

Each Friday Coming Unmoored runs a weekly roundup of tiny homes featured on the web and recent news stories that may be of interest to small home enthusiasts.  (Please note: if you would like to submit a link to the weekly roundup, please email it to: Stephanie.Reiley@gmail.com)

Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!

Tiny Houses Featured in the Past Week:

• Lux-Pod
• Box House
• Mico-Compact Homes (M-ch)
• Mini-Mobile Cottage
• Micro-Hotel in NYC
• SchwimmHausBoot
• Fencl Update #3
• Alaskan Log Cabin
• Angel Wing Cottage
• Ohisan Prefab
• Perrinepod
• Miyahara House
• $5K Home
• Solar Panel Tiny Home

Recent News Stories and Essays on Tiny Homes and the Small Home Movement:

• A New Home for Fans of Tiny Houses (TimesUnion)
• Houston Gets Greener with Itsy-Bitsy, Energy Efficient Homes (Treehugger)
• Your Own Privte Thoreauvian Cabin (Mother Earth News)
• Tiny Timber Homes (NC Voice)
• What Makes a Home? (Crazed & Confused)
  

The world of small homes is exciting, in part, because there is so much variety.  Homeowners are given so many potential choices.  With tiny homes it really is possible for people to find a home that fits their specific needs very well.  Take for example, the concepts put forth by the people at Easy Domes, built on The Faroe Islands  in Denmark.

Easy Domes have a shape that many would find unique.  The homes are based on the Icosahedron polyhedra which sounds a lot like an obscure dinosaur, but is really just a type of geometric shape. Think hexagon. What really makes these tiny homes so interesting is that all the sections are pre-made and can be assembled quickly and easily.  Assembly is done with good old-fashioned nuts and bolts. Yet, the final product certainly doesn’t look old fashioned.  Even the transport is done via a container and there is no need for a crane.

Easy Domes have done a very nice job explaining the materials used and the process on their website Easydomes.com.  They have three options on their site ranging from “The Tuft,” which is a designed to be a spare time cottage, to the Duo-Domes, which are designed to be homes large enough for a small family.  It is possible to link several of the easy homes together to form even larger structures.  In fact, there is no theoretical limit to how many could be attached together!

The design and ease of construction are what make these domes so interesting.  This design seems to be very flexible as no special skills are needed for assembly, nor are any special tools.  Apparently, the Easy Domes can be built on just about any surface.  (The website doesn’t list water or lava, but we can probably cut them some slack on that one.)

Because of their design, Easy Domes states that their creations can handle extreme storm winds, earthquakes and even be covered with earth.  The shape of domes, in general, is known to be extremely strong and does stand up much better to intense weather. For example, domes can stand up to such things as hurricane winds far better than our traditional peak style homes we are all so familiar with.

The easy dome concept has a tremendous amount going for it.  They are highly energy efficient, have a very novel and interesting look, can be assembled by “average people” and require no special tools to do so.  The “Tuft” is a tiny prefabricated option that is really worth a look for those seeking a tiny home.  (If you are really curious, you can even rent one near the village of Kvivik in the Faroe Islands right now!)

Well, the time has finally come to head up to Portland.  Tomorrow, me and obscene amount of computer equipment head out in the Mini Cooper.  I plan to spread the 1,400 mile drive across three days so it shouldn’t be too bad. Especially since my iPhone is loaded up with audiobooks I haven’t had time to get to.

The current plan is to be up in Portland until the end of April working on the kitchen, repairing/installing drywall, and painting.  I’ll return to Albuquerque the beginning of May to visit with Charlie and bring Rumi back up with me.

Unfortunately, my cat finds painting walls fascinating and he likes to help.  So he gets to stay safely tucked in New Mexico until the painting is done and I also have sonic fences installed over both doors to the outside.

I’ve both excited to finally be able to live in my tiny place full time and a little bit nervous.

There’s been a lot of renovations done to my place already.  However, until now I simply threw money at the problem and had other people do the work.  Now that balance is shifting more toward do-it-yourself.   And with Charlie’s work schedule this summer I’m not sure how much I’m going to be able to enlist his help.

Expect a lot of entries this summer on things like stripping wallpaper, laying wood floors, and trying to figure out how to install a new shower.  I’m just crossing my fingers and praying that I have my mother and brother’s aptitude for power tools.

Upon occasion we come across a concept that truly incorporates a bit of genius.  Angel Wing Cottage the rather clever idea of Deana Main.  Based in Monroe, North Carolina, Angel Wing Cottages are developing a senior citizen alternative living community centered on energy effective tiny homes.  If you are over fifty-five, this should definitely be something to consider.

The Angel Wing Cottages have three cottages to choose from.  Cottage One is 544 square feet and has a pleasant design.  What really makes these cottages from Angel Wing Cottages so interesting is their “hidden little secret.”  Angel Wing Cottages are built to be tough.  How tough?  They have been designed to handle winds of up to 140 miles per hour.  This tough design meshes into the overall design philosophy well.  Angel Wing Cottages are designed to be long lasting and require low-maintenance.  One can see how this idea would be attractive to seniors.

Other aspects of the Angel Wing Cottage concept will no doubt also appeal to seniors, such as the fact that the cottages are built on site, are Energy Star certified and are meant to be affordable.  Numerous other aspects of the concept make the Angel Wing Cottage concept even more interesting.  Part of the plan is to have fresh vegetables grown in the community, and shared community hybrid rental vehicles as well.

It is definitely refreshing to see a concept that improves the health of residents built into the concept from the ground up.  Fresh vegetables have been proven to be more nutritious than vegetables than have been grown hundreds or even thousands of miles away and picked days earlier.  Hybrid vehicles should also provide for cleaner community air.  This holistic approach to living and the environment should be applauded.

One of the key elements of the Angel Wing Cottage concept is that this is a community of seniors.  It would be easy to just focus on the tiny home aspect of the project, but part of what makes it so very interesting is that the Angel Wing Cottage concept is a community of tiny homes for seniors.  That core concept is just brilliant.

Additional information about the project can be found at Angel Wing Cottage.