FYI’s hit show “Tiny House Nation” is currently seeking families who are building or planning to build a tiny house (~200-500 sq ft), either on a trailer or on foundation. They are especially interested in featuring stories of first time builds and lifestyle transitions across the U.S. All applicants should have a starting budget of at least $45,000.
For more on the show “Tiny House Nation” click here.
They are to small, Tiny Houses. No one wants the bend over getting to the bed. Try to imagine in the future, Ceramic Small Homes with the toilet, shower and sink built in. Yes, Daniel
Is this accurate? It says Jan-May of 2016, do you mean 2017?
I want one but I can’t afford one. The local dealer in my area keeps raising the price and won’t build to my requirements. I need financing, I’m a single person and I would need financing. My local people will not help. I’m thinking about getting a camper instead
I live in Georgia, my husband is retired military with 60% disability , we own a piece of land, BUT, VA will not give you a loan to build your own home, you must buy someone else’s home! Our dream would be a tiny home cabin on our land. So I feel let down. Also I see no place to contact tiny house nation, no email, no phone, etc. Their fn page is just to like, their website just to watch episodes
I am also retired military. Just to let you know you can get a VA loan to build a house. I would recommend that you contact them. The amount you qualify for is different on a new build.
I need idea for my small home
I think our vet should have a tiny house community be awesome and for those who are homeless we should bless them with a tiny house to if I had the money and funds I would start one but I don’t maybe someone else can I hope bs awesome to c that
You have some recommendations for Tiny House builders on your website, but they are all so much more expensive than the houses you show on your program. How do I find a builder with more reasonable costs? Thanks. I live in Fort Bragg, CA on the Pacific – damp, windy – so special needs. I’m trying to build something to retire in.
To daniel;
And to Nila also
I agree with you about the head room thing. Not something we would want to do every night at bed time.
That’s why when I designed and built our tiny house of 210sg ft on a gooseneck trailer, there is no headroom less than 6′.
Even in the bedroom area.
Jim
Bartelme Builders, Inc
Wisconsin
Can someone help me find an insurance company that will write a 20ft trailerable gooseneck tiny house that I’m building.
Dose a 198 sq foot house on a foundation at a total price of 15k including the price of the property count ??
Hello…! My name is Adrienne- Michelle. Tiny House Nation is my FAVORITE show…! So inspiring…! I own a buildable lot in Florida, in a private, residential community…, on the west coast, south of Ft. Myers, and plan to have a 400-500 sq ft. tiny home built on the lot, by this time next year . This will be my first time having a home built…! Currently, I’m working on obtaining the finances, saving money in my “tiny house account”, sorting personal belongings, selling items, donating, consigning, etc., to prepare to downsize into a tiny home. You guys are a “God-send”. Owning less is SO LIBERATING, at first a challenge to release material attachments, and definitely necessary for me to achieve, especially this time in my life…, preparing for retirement. Please let me know what preliminary steps need to be taken to prepare, application to obtain building permits, etc. You’re both SO talented and creative…! I love you guys and I love the show..!!!!
My family and I are planning on moving to Florida and are looking to buy property some where in fl to build tiny house but as I look around, I can’t find towns that will allow you to own your property with tiny house, off grid.
Hi Cherie,
As someone who has lived all my 20+ years of married life in one tiny home or another (tiny is considered anything under 600 sq ft), I would highly recommend it, especially for a couple!
One option for tiny homes in Florida is that there are tons of mobile home parks, many of them very nice. I lived in Florida in college. If you put a tiny home in a park and you don’t need to hook up to electricity because you have solar, for example, you could just skip hooking up to solar. If you have a rainwater catching system, you might not have to hook up to water.
I don’t know about off-the-grid on a lot in Florida, you should check regulations carefully. We built our first house in a county that didn’t require permits for buildings that cost less than $3000 to build (most counties waived permits for under 10×12″), so we built a clay house for $800, most of which was roof (in the mid 1990s)
Hi Adrienne-Michelle, As someone who has lived in tiny homes for 20+ years, I’m excited for you. I think you will enjoy it a lot – there’s something about either building your own place or being able to make a place totally your own by altering anything you like, that is so liberating.
Good luck!
My name is Felecia and I have been watching this show for a long time and I would love to go tiny. I have been convincing my husband for a year but we could never afford a tiny house to be built it makes me sad.
Felecia, you might be able to build your tiny home for much cheaper than you’d think from watching the show. One way to save a lot of money on materials is to buy them from places like Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, which is basically a thrift store for building materials that are either old, used or left over from some other, larger project. Even if you’e not particularly handy, you could hire contractors to build the shell, perhaps contributing your own labor to keep costs down and learn skills, then finish off the interior as you have time/money. My husband and I knew nothing about building houses when we built our first house.
Hi, I’m very interested in building a tiny house. I’ve been watching this show and others for years now and have decided that tiny house living would be perfect for me and this new transition in my life. I’ve been saving money to be able to bankroll my dream tiny home. I’ve been going back and forth with the idea of a THOW or a tiny house on a pontoon base. I live in Miami Florida and would love to build a tiny house on a pontoon base. Have you guys considered building a floating house before? Let me know if this is something you would be excited about tackling!!! I’m completely stoked about the idea and would LOOOOOOVVVVEEEE for you guys to build it! Thanks for everything that you do and your creativity and I sincerely hope to work with you soon.
My husband and I have been living in a 348 sq ft house for the past 15 years, but it’s an older home, on a foundation, with actual rooms & walls, so we can have privacy or quiet when we need it. Before that, we lived for 5 years in a 280 sq ft cob house we built ourselves in the country. While we built the cob house, we lived for 8 months in a platform tent we built ourselves and turned into a shed when we moved into the cob house. The platform tent had a loft bed, of a size very similar to the ones featured on the tiny house shows. My 6’+ husband didn’t have nearly as hard a time as one would think in a bed with about 4′ of headroom (and our romantic life didn’t suffer either).
Things that make tiny living work for us – #1. Rooms/walls. The open floor plan so popular on the home and garden TV shows is definitely not for us. We also have headphones that can be hooked up to the TV or computer so if one person wants to watch something after the other goes to bed, the person who is sleeping isn’t disturbed by the noise.
#2. Some well-chosen luxuries – we have a one-shelf dishwasher (can hold 2 people’s dishes, uses 2 gallons of water, run it once a day), a heated towel bar in the bathroom (a warm towel to put on before even stepping out of the shower is a delight)
#3. enjoying making alterations that make the house work better for us. We switched out a regular door between the kitchen and bedroom for a pocket door. On the kitchen side, we have floor-to-ceiling pantry shelves. In the cavity of the wall between the kitchen and living room, my husband built a broom closet. Yes, it’s only 3 1/2″ deep, but you can hang a broom, mop, dusters and so on, and below there are a couple of shelves for spray bottles and duster cloths. We put 2 wire shelves over the kitchen sink, which act as both a dish drain and storage. We put a small bathroom sink (the white rectangle one they use on many “Tiny House Nation” episodes in the bedroom, so we could have a clawfoot bathtub instead of just a shower. It works great because while one showers, the other can be brushing teeth, or doing shaving/makeup. We built a platform bed, under which is a 4′ long file drawer on wheels for the kinds of things you need to keep, like tax paperwork, but don’t need to access very often, under the foot end of the bed is a shelf that holds 2 guitars.
I posted e commit before I wanted to tell you I would like to use the frame of the 5th wheel camper as a base. I have a 1 ton diesel truck with close to 200,000 miles. I love your home’s.
Have you built in Alaska yet? Looking to buy a couple of acres in the Kenai area and put a 500 sq ft solar powered cabin with a large wrap around covered deck on it. Want this cabin as energy efficient as it can be. Must have a well and septic also. We thought about a dog door as we have two very large German shepherds but do not want uninvited critters coming in.
A minimum $45,000.00 budget is a betrayal of the whole tiny house ethos.
The whole point of going tiny is to economize.
I’m utilizing repurposed materials and raw materials harvested directly from the land on which I am building.
I have a pitch for your show, but my budget is between $5K and $10K
My daughter, a single mom, has left a large house in Hawaii. She is fascinated by the tiny house and has a good idea of what she wants and what will fit. She wants 300sq feet with 2 lofts
There are times when we will watch your program talking about what we like and what we would change.
She does fashion, costume, and jewelry design so a working area will be needed. And a play area for a 4 year old.
Financing is her biggest problem. She has been approved for $82,000 but has. She was informed that even on a trailer they are not considered an RV. Any idea where financing can be found or a better choice of loan?
The minimum budget seems to be increasing. I may as well stay where I am.
We would love to see something for older people no loft and large dogs! We were thinking of Kenai area but now think the gold country in California area. Log cabin look!! Pine trees!
you can build your own tiny home for way cheaper than they charge to build it. my husband and i are starting to build our own and we have 6 kids too this outta be fun
We love watching your show to get ideas for our tiny house. What we have to work with is a cutesy 150 sf shed on a slab foundation behind the big house we just bought. Obviously, we’ll need a small addition to plumb the structure.
We plan to move into the tiny house and rent out the big one in front to pay the mortgage, as we are moving toward retirement and the reduced income that goes with it.
However, $45,000 is way too steep for us! Even with our 2 incomes, we barely qualified for the $65k purchase price on the property. The full-size houses in our neighborhood run from $40k up to $70k (if the lot’s oversized) so spending an additional $45k would be completely impractical.
But keep working your magic. It gives us inspiration.
I also am a little disappointed that there are no older/ disabled tiny house owners on your show since I happen to be both and feel like I would be a perfect candidate.
I am 51 and have had MS for 16 years.
There would be certain challenges, but isn’t life about meeting challenges head on?
Natalie- I, too, am disabled (pretty significantly so) and we just submitted an application for a rather unconventional build. I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much given the many challenges we all would encounter but it’s hard not to cradle a little (or should I say “tiny”?) bit of hope given how much we adore the show. Cross your fingers that they bite and we get selected. If not, I suppose I’ll just have to suffice with sitting down and watching the show with you. ;) -cnh
How can I get a Q&A Zach Giffin?
My name is Marlisa I was wondering if you guys can build me a tiny house in my moms back yard. I have a family of my own. Its my 7 year old my wife and I. We are living in my moms living room on air mattresses in the city of Victorville. I am deathly afraid of moving out because my mom is very sick. I’ve almost lost her 3 times now. I must stay close so where better place but her back yard. I am her caretaker and I Do not nearly make enough money to get my own place near her.I need help. I have a couple hundered put away because I had to pay all my moms bills for my mom. I am desperate right now please help me I dont know whatelse to do. Thank you for your time. Can you please pass this on.
I wish they would build me a tiny house. I am so tired of the city. I want it about 600 square feet. Similar to the Episode 50. However, I would like an elevator to go to the upstairs bedroom. It was a two guy couple, I loved their house. I want it in Maryland, someplace in the country. I wish the show would contact me. I just want peace, quiet
Can you put a tiny house on top of a basement to increase square footage instead of a concrete slab
Would they do a mobile home conversion?
I am fascinated with the idea of a tiny house. My husband and I currently travel in a 28″ 5th wheel (about 250 sf), a common design for tiny homes. We went cross country in a 20 foot Class C motorhome (about 160 sf) with three children every summer with no problems from 1989-2010. But, as we aged, we just didn’t/couldn’t climb the ladder every time we wanted to go to bed (or the bathroom.) We also got tired to zero privacy and a wet bathroom (they need a good solution for keeping the toilet paper dry while showering.)
A question, why don’t tiny homes incorporate slides the way RVs use them? It would be very helpful to have a wardrobe/laundry slide in the sleeping area. Also, it would make the dining/seating area much more usable to have that area slide out 3 1/2 feet as it does in RVs. They could be made to look nice and add to the appearance of the home’s exterior.
Hi Guys…
Was watching your show at a Friends house a year ago and so intrigued I started watching and taping every episode. I am a 74 year old vibrant and lots of energy kind of guy. Have my own small Concierge Service here in Palm Springs. I have always had a hard time letting go, but since Watching Tiny House Nation, I gave it a try , had a yard sale, watching things leave was so liberating. It felt good and the money I made I opened a Tiny House account at my bank. Still lots more to let go, but I now try to thing tiny. Currently living in a 1300 sq foot triple wide mobile home. I plan on selling it and having a 350-400 sq ft. Tiny Home on wheels build. And I would love you guys to build it when I am ready. Your attention to detail and keeping the clients desires in mind, you guys are the best. Going to my first Tiny Home Show in October over in Arlington Texas to meet and learn and get prepared for my future venture to Tiny Living. At my age is time to kick back and enjoy the simpler things in life.
I just bought a 12′ camper trailer 3 weeks ago and need advice on how to waterproof the roof! I’m single and just left the special education field due to personal and health reasons. Now I’m getting stressed about leaking roof and the wood warping in my camper. I’m a first time camper trailer newbie and while I love the freedom to move about. I’m not crazy about all the little things that are needed and I have no clue what to do. I am deaf so that makes it even more challenging. I would love to receive some help to update camper so it’s comfortable and dry. I’m also terrified of handling propane which my stove and oven use so haven’t attempted to cook yet.
I’m in New Mexico since relocating back from Minnesota. I pray you can help me. Although I don’t have the funds to do this. Please help.
Thank you for your time
Buying a lot of land in Gatlinburg, TN to build a tiny home. Problem? I’ve searched FORVER for the one I wanted, saw the episode air on Tiny Homes Nation on December 23 rd from Minneapolis MN but canNOT find it in the archives!🤦🏻♀️ The episode was of a homosexual couple that chose house number two that even had a compost toilet. It’s house number one that I am interested in and it was the one they did NOT choose. It was anchored. I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS HOUSE??? It was very modern and it had EVERYTHING I’m looking for, even the perfect Murphy bed. Can ANYONE help me?????