http://www.tumbleweedhouses.comWith wheels, traditional proportioning and archetypal form, these little structures are designed to be portable and can, essentially, be sited anywhere you can park a travel trailer.* They range from about 50 to 130 sq ft. Purchase yours ready-made or buy the plans to build it yourself. These homes are stationary designs built as a main house or guest house. Most of the plans have an optional extra bedroom in back. The house sizes range from 261 sq ft up to 874 sq ft. We do not build the Cottages. They are designed to be built on site with a local contractor of your choosing.Tumbleweed Tiny Houses CompanySteve Weissmannsteve@tumbleweedhouses.com
15 West MacArthur St95476SonomaCaliforniaUnited States
Having the tiny house in our driveway means there've been a lot of visitors. Everyone in the neighbourhood wants a tour. Normally I'd love this, but right now we're on a serious deadline, and I'm feeling resentful of the time it eats up. This is hardly the way to convince people this is a great thing to do. I'll try to smell the roses when we get it moved to its next home.
Well, torrential rains – the most rainfall in a short period our area has ever had prevented us from driving down to Sarnia. The plus side is it gave us two more days to get work done. Now we've got an exterior door actually hanging in place and the cupboard doors are on too. Bob built all of these. The exterior door was built from exterior plywood with 2 inch foam sandwiched in between. A window opening has been cut and we'll need to install a window later on. For now, it's got plastic stapled in place.
Since my husband returned from his meditation center, we've kicked some serious butt. Bob, Jeff and I have built cabinets, caulked and insulated the ceiling, put the battens on, and, and, and. I'm sure there's a bunch of other things but my mind is mush. We start at 8 am and usually finish by 6 or 7 pm. Dinner has not been much to speak of as you can imagine.
Insulating is interesting. Maybe there are quicker ways of doing it, but it seemed to take me forever. First I cut and glued 2 inch extruding foam between each roof truss. Each one had to be individually measured and cut, and then there were little jigs and jags around roof protruding things – usually wood, sometimes misfired nails. Styrofoam boards at the top need to be cut on a 45% angle, otherwise it's just straight cuts. The 2 inch boards were cut with a skill saw. Then I did it all again with a 1/2 board. This took 2 days. It was a mistake to apply low expanding foam in between the first and second layer. The 1/2 inch boards were a pleasure to work with. It's just a matter of using a T ruler and cutting with box cutters. A good snap pulls it apart.
Bob built the front door, but we'll have to get glass put in.
We're moving Friday, so whatever isn't finished by tomorrow, is not getting done until a later date.
My Dad is concerned that the place we'll be parking the trailer is a bit soft. If you remember we had to clear a huge pile of compost to create a space. It's now spread out over my mother's gardens, but then when we got too lazy to haul, we just started spreading it in the clearing. There's probably a good 4-6 inches of compost over the whole space, so yeah, it's soft. I suggested my Dad start parking his vehicle there to firm it up. By the time we get there a few tons of SUV will have done the work necessary. It's either that or me jumping up and down on the spot, and since I only weigh 110 pounds that'd be a lot of jumping.
I got to help build kitchen cabinets. That was a great day. I held and screwed and applied melamine to edges. This involved ironing, filing and sanding. Three skills I am proficient at – not that I ever iron clothes, but theoretically I know how to, so I could apply those skills.
10 days after it arrived at my house, the roof sheathing is done. The weather has not co-operated at all. Today was supposed to be clear so that's why we left it until now. Of course, the rain clouds are moving in. Argh. I'm hoping it's all done and the seams caulked before it starts to pour. We no longer get light rains these days. It's all torrential monsoon like weather.
Be the first to take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to host a fully assembled Tumbleweed display model at your location. We're looking to partner with a business that can showcase our very popular Fencl House for 90 days. During that time we'll drive a lot of traffic to your location by advertising your business on our website, which is a $2000 value all by itself.
We'll fully support the showcase by giving you all the sales support merchandise you need. We'll make our best seller Small House Book available to you at our low wholesale rate that you can sell for the cover price, and you'll also sell construction plans to the do-it-yourselfers and earn a commission on each one. Best of all, if you sell the display model you'll earn a commission of up to $4000!
To get the most out of this opportunity, we ask that your business be open at least six days a week and that you have someone available to lock it and unlock it and to keep the unit clean, warm and presentable to customers. To ensure the safety of the unit we require a $500 security deposit, but that can easily be made up by the sale of our books and plans within just the first few days. Theoretically, the Tumbleweed can be showcased anywhere but a location such as a truck and RV dealership would be ideal. However, we are wide open to any creative suggestions, so if you have a hardware store or a lumberyard or maybe a coffee shop with a little extra space in the parking lot and you think you might want to host our display model - we'd love to hear from you!
Our FREE study plans give you the opportunity to discuss your dreams with an architect or your local building department. The Study Plans give you enough information to talk price and sizes. We've also added material cost estimates for all our homes.