Wednesday, February 16, 2022

How to start Tiny House Planning

 

Detail at Överjärva Byggnadsvård ABWindows at Överjärva Byggnadsvård AB

Nacka Byggnadsvårdme in the building outfit I'll gift myself when I get started

home made cinnamon buns

Where to start when you want to build a house?

I couldn't tell you. But I swear it helps to have a steady supply of home made cinnamon buns. And to have a cute tiny house building outfit planned out.

Jokes aside, I started by dreaming about it (back in 2014), reading about it, saving money, visiting builders, visiting people who live in their own tiny house, staying the night in one, getting inspiration from houses I like, and then gradually taking steps towards more practical matters:

Drawing & collecting second hand building materials. I wish I could have started with the latter sooner but I had to move back to Sweden first before that was in any way practical.

As reinventing the wheel isn't an effective use of my energy I decided I'd copy many of the measurements of a civil engineer who also built her own tiny house and was so kind to document it all on her blog.

 What will be different in my Tiny is the roof, and the fact that I'll have a loft, so I'll have to figure those bits out on my own (quite possibly by googling more blogs). 

At present my drawings are still incomplete but now that I have found the second hand windows for the bathroom and the living room (and know the measurements of the doors) I will finalise those soon.

For someone like me, deadlines are crucial, so telling everybody that I'd start building on the 1st of March has been very helpful. So has talking about it, to be honest, because it's a great way to hold yourself accountable & stick to your dreams. 

(Here's to hoping your friends can handle all the tiny house talk! 🤞)

My favourite house in my neighbourhoodA tiny house on Gotland

My local hardware storeCat in the snow. On one of our many walks.

An other advantage of talking about your tiny house plans to anyone who will listen is that many people know people who might be able to give you some advice. I would have missed out on so many gold nuggets had I kept my plans to myself.

What is harder is to stop changing your mind on things.

At one point I'll just have to decide on a plan and stick with it.


If you're curious, you can follow my journey on Instagram and Facebook