Simple How to Build a Tiny Home using our Tiny House Plans!
After many requests for our how-to-build tiny house plans, here they finally are! We've been living in our Tiny House for over a year now – and we love it! We've named her Lucy, and she's beautiful 🙂
If you think our tiny house is beautiful too and you would like one just like her – these framing plans will show you how it's done with our easy-to-follow How to Build a Tiny House plans.
What Are You Getting When You Buy Our How to Build Tiny House Plans?
If you purchase these tiny house framing plans we'll show you both 2D and 3D pictures for the framing of the entire tiny trailer house. That includes the subfloor, bottom floor, top floor, loft, and roof. Also included is the Google Sketch-up file for these plans so that you can play around and make any modifications you might want to make. The plans are provided in both metric and imperial units.
Here's a selection of pages included in Lucy's plans to give you an example of how we've done the drawings…
Lucy's Basic Measurements
These tiny trailer house plans are based on the trailer we used for lucy. The trailer measures 7.2m by 2.4m (23'7.5″ by 7'10.5″) giving a floor area of 17.3m2 (186 sqft) and are rated to carry 3.5 tonnes. The total height of the timber framing is 3743mm (12'3″). It was designed for the additional height of the trailer and roof cladding to be below 4.25m (13'11”) the legal limit in New Zealand. As far as we are aware, this would make it legal in most other countries.
These framing plans were designed by us after researching how to build using timber framing. They have worked beautifully for us. However, they were not drawn by an architect and they haven't been checked by an engineer.
Framing plans come as a 44-page pdf file which requires adobe acrobat or similar to view. Also available for download is a copy of the 3d model as an skp file. You will need the free google sketch-up to use this file. After purchasing you will be taken to a page with the framing plans and the sketch-up model which you can download immediately.
Customize The Internal Space To Suit Your Life
These framing plans give you the structure for this tiny house… What you do once the framing is done is up to you. How would you customize the space in your tiny house? This is what we have done, and you could do the same…
Seat 8 People in The Spacious Lounge
We've comfortably had 8 adults seated in our tiny house. The corner couch is built to seat 6, the armchair seats one more and the bottom step of the storage stairs doubles as an extra seat for the 8th person. Friends always comment on how cozy and comfortable the space is – visitors often say they don't want to leave!
Work From Home (Like Shayne Does) Thanks to a Dedicated Office Space
Shayne runs an online recovery program for women who have bulimia. Most of the work is computer-based and with our little baby Hazel to look after it makes sense to work from home. We've set up dedicated office space so that Shaye can easily juggle being a mom and helping the women in her program.
Cook up a storm in the functional (but beautiful!) Kitchen
One thing that always amazes us about our tiny house is how easy it is to use our kitchen. Prior to living in here, we rented a studio that was 4 times the size of Lucy. Despite being bigger, the kitchen was awful to use! It felt seriously tiny. Lucy is a far smaller building but her kitchen is well designed and feels large. We often cook meals together and it's just awesome 🙂
And check out our convenient ‘Mason Jar Sized' Storage Designed Into The Internal Stud Wall. This is actually part of the framing and so you'll see it included in Lucy's internal framing plans.
Stretch Out in The Shower – It's Full Size!
We may live in a tiny house but we did not want a tiny shower! Lucy's bathroom is large enough for a full-sized shower so that we can stretch out and wash away the mud from the hours we spend in the garden 🙂
… And there's plenty of space for whatever style toilet you choose – flushing or composting. We also built in some storage for bathroom essentials and a washing basket.
Snuggle Up In The Spacious Sleeping Loft
We love sleeping up in the loft. It's spacious enough to comfortably sit up (Tom is 6 foot and there is space to spare) but at the same time, it's super cozy. Our beautiful little girl Hazel sleeps in her Moses basket beside us. And if you're wondering if there's space to do ‘other' things in the loft… Of course – how do you think Hazel was made? Okay TMI, sorry!!
Keep Your Tiny House Tidy Thanks To Ample Storage Space
Shaye was convinced she would accidentally kill herself if we accessed the loft via a ladder… so for her, it was a total No-No. We decided to use storage stairs instead and think it's one of the most awesome features of our house.
We also decided to utilize the lounge area by adding a corner couch containing six large drawers beneath. Our ottoman also opens up for yet more storage!
We also have an additional ‘Mini-Loft' Perfect for those ‘extra' things that you don't use as often. (Like the pre-pregnancy clothes that Shaye says she will fit one day again 😉 The mini storage loft is part of the framing, so you'll see it included in Lucy's loft framing plans.
Large Windows and a French Door Keep The House Light and Airy
When people walk into our tiny house, one of the first things they say (after “I could live here!”) is, “It's so light and airy!”. This is thanks to the beautiful french door and large windows – which is quite uncommon in other tiny houses we've seen. We've added a little porch outside our French door which makes for a nice indoor/outdoor flow.
High Ceilings Make The Tiny House Feel Grand!
The funny thing about our tiny house is that the ceilings are actually higher than in any of our friend's houses! The standard ceiling height is 2.4 meters (7.8 feet), and the ceiling height over Lucy's lounge/office area is over 3 meters (9.8 feet)! This makes our tiny house feel MUCH bigger than it is!
Live A Happy Life 🙂
“There are two ways to be rich: One is by acquiring much, and the other is by desiring little.” – That's what tiny house living is all about… Being happy and satisfied with the simple blessings in life. Getting rid of all the ‘fluff' in your life allows you to focus on your simple blessings and enjoy them every day.
By requiring less, you require less money. This enables you to spend fewer hours working and more time doing what you love most. Or, as in our case – it enables us to work in jobs we love (Shaye is a bulimia recovery mentor, and Tom is currently learning to be a natural builder) – we don't earn as much as we would if we got work in our trained fields – but that's okay… We have more than enough, thanks to how we live – part of which is Tiny House Living.
Our little family might live in a tiny house – but we live a happy life 🙂
