Host a Tumbleweed Vacation Rental

We are looking for a place to host the Fencl as a vacation rental.

This might be for the summer only, or could turn into a long term opportunity. You must have a place in the continental U.S. that would be a desirable vacation spot. In addition, electricity must be readily available. The house needs its own 20 amp circuit. Also, a sewer hookup must be present, and a water source within a few feet. Basically, the house needs RV hookups. Because it is a vacation rental, we don’t want to deal with cleaning of any tanks. We are looking for a place with a sewer hookup. [Read more]

Logo Contest Finalists

Congratulations to the winners of the logo contest. Originally, we were going to pick our 3 favorite designs and test them on our website. This turned out to be a problem since we like so many of the designs. So, we picked 4 designs. It was certainly a lot of fun, and 2 of the top 4 designs were created by amateurs who learned about the contest from our blog. The other two winners are professional designers. When we selected the winning designs, we didn’t know anything about the designers, and it was really exciting to discover that one of them has dreamed about owning a Tumbleweed Home. We also gave prizes to a few of the runners up … many of whom were also amateur designers.

Vote for your favorite logo

Below are the 4 logos selected with our current logo at the bottom.

Logo #1

Logo #2

Logo #3

Logo #4

Current Logo

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[Read more]

Jay Talks Tiny

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 Jay Shafer discussed some of the economic and environmental aspects of our housing laws.

Bodega House Plans on Sale

The Bodega has a fireplace, a full bath and kitchen (261 sq ft), and also has the option for an add on bedroom (356 sq ft). Designed with cost savings in mind, this green design is proportioned just right. Charming and bright, the simple use of space and building materials keeps construction costs low without sacrificing design. This small house plan comes with an option for a full loft over the great room, kitchen and bathroom, or a 1/2 loft with a cathedral ceiling over the great room.

Estimated Material Costs: $22,500

Building the Fencl

Over the spring of 2009 we built our largest home on wheels, the Fencl. This small house is 130 square feet and features a kitchen, bathroom, sleeping loft, fireplace and much more.

How long did it take to build?

Jay Shafer, the designer, and a crew of 4 others built this house over 10 weeks.
We spent 825 hours to purchase materials and build this green design house.

How much did it cost to build?

When all was said and done we spent $19,148.
Jay shopped around and shaved almost $2,000 from the cost when he found a trailer 100 miles away at a much lower cost.

Build one myself?

Depending on your skill level and determination it is possible to build a mobile home for a fraction of the cost of buying on already built. We do recommend hiring licensed contractors for the plumbing and electric work. When we build a house we hire specialist for those tasks. Typically, the electrician and plumber are the highest paid people per hour, so we keep the amount of their work limited to just those two areas. We spent less than $2000 to have that work completed on the Fencl.

When we build a small house we usually hire a finish carpenter as the job foreman. We keep the number of workers at any given time to 2 or 3. Aside from the finish carpenter and electrician and plumber, the other crew doesn’t need as much experience.

Buy this house from Tumbleweed?

This green home can be purchased for $53,997 plus shipping and applicable tax.

Is the price negotiable?
We price our homes and home plans with a very low markup. We do not leave room in our pricing for a discount. Our expenses are subsidized by selling ad space on our website and by the sale of our books. We are proud of the fact that we pay our crew a fair US wage with insurance.

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