Designing a Tiny House (Part 2)

Today, I want to talk about the design of the floor plans for my Tiny House. The main goal is to keep the square footage at the lowest level possible and it would still fit my need of space over the years to come.

First I had to think about what is absolutely essential for me and from what kind of luxuries I could abstain from in my living space. Essentials for me are a place to sleep, a place to eat, a place to relax and a place to work.

The next step is to find a way to combine some of the areas into one so that I wouldn’t need one room for each purpose. Combining the living room with the working space was the first step. On the main level will be the living room and on the second floor the work space, which could be converted into an area for guests/family to sleep when they come for a visit or a library if I don’t need the work space anymore. All this can be done without any kind of remodeling of the house. The only thing to do is to change the furniture.

I also added a small work station in the bedroom for times I have visitors for a sleep-over or I changed the work place upstairs into something else.

The small dining room in front of the kitchen will be used to store plants and put up a drying rack in the winter time, to grow own herbs year round and to catch passive solar heat when the sun is standing low in the winter, which will save me some dollars on my heating bill.

As I mentioned in Part 1, the main reason for the entrance/mudroom is to function as a cold trap. Also it would be used to store winter jackets and shoes to keep the rest of the house clean and dry. Therefore I added a closet and a small sitting space with some drawers.

In combining the deck and the porch as one space, it’s a perfect way to keep the maintenance of the outdoor space on a low level over the years and provides me with the necessary space for a sitting area, a barbeque and some plants. It also gives me a fast and easy access to my greenhouse/workshop year round. The partial covering of the porch/deck gives me some shady place to sit outside and keeps the entrance dry when it rains or snows.

The greenhouse/workshop provides me with a space to start my own vegetable plants earlier in the year. Right now I can plant the tomatoes as early as May, when the last cold nights are history. I get lots of tomatoes, but they rarely get ripe because the growing time here, next to the Atlantic, is very short.
For necessary repair work or doing some woodwork there is a workshop integrated in the greenhouse with enough space for a table saw and a workbench. I chose 4-inch thick exterior walls fort his small building because it didn’t need to be very warm in the winter. It hast to be only a few degrees above the freezing point and in day time the sun will heat up the place through the huge windows on the south side. At this time of the year it would be mostly used as a storage place for the gardening tools and the deck furniture.

At last, the most interesting part is the number crunching.

Main floor:

Second floor:

Living space: 660 sq ft

Main floor:

Living Room: 191 sq ft (ca. 13’3’’ x 12’4’’)
Bedroom: 94 sq ft (ca. 8’11’’ x 9’6’’)
Bathroom: 35 sq ft (ca. 5’5’’ x 6’6’’)
Kitchen: 79 sq ft (ca. 7’6’’ x10’6’’)
Eating Area: 41 sq ft (ca. 7’6’’ x 5’6’’)
Entrance: 26 sq ft (ca. 3’9’’ x 5’6’’)

Second Floor: (all measures are taken at floor level)

Office: 194 sq ft (ca. 9’9’’ x 21’5’’)

Other space:

Main floor:

Pantry: 17 sq ft (ca. 3’9’’ x 4’6’’)
Greenhouse: 107 sq ft (ca. 13’7’’ x 7’11’’)
Deck: 148 sq ft (ca. 13’5’’ x 11’)

Second Floor: (all measures are taken at floor level)

Storage: 105 sq ft (ca. 8’9’’ x 13’)
Utility: 24 sq ft ( ca. 4’3’’ x 5’7’’)

In Part 3 I will talk about heating, air exchange and appliances.

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