Cyrus Sutton and his girlfriend Anna Ehrgott dropped by the Shelter office last week. Cyrus is a surfer, director, photographer, and all-around amazing person. His girlfriend Anna Ehrgott is just as an amazing person as Cyrus: a great surfer, she started her own surfboard bag company, Sagebrush Bags (made with recycled coffee bean sacks), and is an amazing photographer.
I met Cyrus the other year when we were working on Tiny Homes on the Move; he had just built a van for a trip down the West Coast in search for surf (featured in the film Compassing, below). He just sold the van recently to the owner of one of the local surf shops and happened to be in town for a week. Cyrus recently got the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van and has plans to do some conversions soon. Read More …
My husband and I were touring along the Lost Coast road in northern California the other day when we spotted this tiny home on the move. I thought you might like to see it too. Shame we didn’t get to see the inside.
Jay Nelson’s work has been featured in Tiny Homes and Tiny Homes on the Move. Foster Huntington’s Toyota Tacoma camper was featured in Tiny Homes on the Move.
From Foster:
The car is a Suzuki SJ410. It’s the predecessor to the Samurai and has a 1-liter 4-cylinder enqgine.
The camper is made out of marine plywood and thin copper sheeting. The camper has a sleeping space that’s just over 6 feet long over the cab.
Jay Nelson designed and built the camper in two weeks with some help from some friends.
We’ve been approached by a film maker who is interested in telling the stories of people/a person who specializes in converting vehicles into tiny homes that move. Ideally, we’d like to find someone who does this for other people and makes a living/makes a business of it.
Vans, house buses, house trucks, trailers, or sailboats or houseboats. Please contact me if you know of anyone in this category: lloyd@shelterpub.com
Matt is in our Tiny Homes on the Move book with his solar-powered wagon (pages 80–81). Here are a few pictures of his demountable camper van. Built on a 4×4 turbo diesel Mitsubishi truck. Read More …
SunRay Kelley continues to invent, design, and build a plethora of buildings and vehicles. I asked SunRay and Bonnie to send us the latest, and here are videos of his campers and electric reclining bike. I don’t know of any vehicle that combines diesel, solar, and electric power like the RV shown at the right.
Bobby Heffelfinger created this rolling art studio in West Marin county, California, on a 2013 Ford F-350 truck with mostly recycled materials (left over from various building projects). He started with the truck chassis and built a flatbed with 2 × 2 steel square stock.
It’s immaculately built. It’s framed with 2 × 2 fir studs. Siding is 1 × 4 tongue-and-groove cedar. Curved rafters were cut out of fir 2 × 12’s. Roof sheathing is 1 × 6 redwood tongue-and-groove.
It’s 8 feet wide by 14 feet long. Inside, it’s 7 feet to the top of the arch. The roof is 18-gauge copper with standing seams. Windows were built out of redwood from an old water tank. Read More …
Bernie Harberts was featured in Tiny Homes (pp. 188-189), documenting a 2,500 mile journey from Canada to Mexico, with a mule pulling a 21-square-foot gypsy wagon. Recently we got a letter from Bernie, as reproduced below. A month or so later he sent us two jars of applesauce cooked on his wood stove in a box stuffed with straw.
“Imagine living in a place with your possessions, all within a 232-square-foot house. For one thing, you’ll probably need a lot fewer possessions. But Denise Ryals, who builds tiny homes with her husband, Tommy, said a buyer can pack their possessions — and the house itself — and drive it anywhere…”
“All models of the Portable Cedar Cabins are custom-built. We will work with your budget to build the cabin of your dreams. All models have a beautiful pine interior with a rich cedar siding. The models are from 144 to 400 square feet. Up to 400 square feet, the cabins are considered a park model or an RV. All Portable Cedar Cabins are inspected and certified like an RV and you will be given a vin number. If you want a custom-made unit beyond 400 square feet, it is no longer considered an RV. Please refer to the Workhouse Model if you want a larger, custom-built cedar cabin. Dave can also build cedar cabins on skids…”
The thriving tiny home movement is a double-edged sword for companies selling their vision of small living, as it’s tougher than ever to stand out from the crowd. Oregon City–based small home firm Heirloom aims to get noticed with a luxurious off-grid tiny house on wheels that boasts an excellent finish and more amenities that you might expect, considering its size. In addition, an interesting automated house control system that’s controlled via an iOS or Android smartphone will soon be available at extra cost too.
Peter and Donna Thomas were featured in our book Tiny Homes on the Move with their gypsy wagon. They recently sent us this photo and caption of their vintage streetcar:
Tiny home campsite made with our 1926 converted Melbourne W-2 streetcar as living room.
I have been seeing this van around for a few weeks and trying to catch up with the driver. I love these vans and wish California/U.S. Customs would relax some of their crazy import laws and allow some of these in. I finally found them in Bolinas today! This is Drew De Panacis and his friend Justin Artuso. They are on a surfing/rock climbing road trip from Vancouver, Canada and went as far south as Big Sur for surf and out to the sierras for rock climbing. They are slowly making their way back up to the great north and hitting as much good surf as they can along the way. The van is a 4×4 diesel and it has a veggie conversion kit on it and holds 35 gallons of oil. To get something like this in America, you’d really only have one option — a Sportsmobile — which start out in the $30-$40k range for a used one. These Delicas go from $5-$10K in Canada which makes them a lot more affordable to younger folks and people who don’t make a ton of money.
In 1973 we published Shelter, which turned out to be station central for people interested in creating their own homes. Now, in the 21st century, we continue this dialog here online on shelter, carpentry, homesteading, gardening, and the home arts with this blog. We hope you will join us and contribute.
