Your cart is currently empty!
Tag: Composting toilet
-
Permaculture Self Reliance Backyard Farming
Featured on http://thepermaculturezone.com – Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne of Los Angeles, California are backyard farmers and radical home economics advocates. They give a tour of their property and offer the benefits of their more than 10 years of experience working the land in beautiful Southern California. http://thepermaculturezone.com -
Tiny House with Incredible Interior Design Built in 40 Days!
Pascal and Catherine built their first tiny house in just 40 days and are currently living in it as their second home. They’re a couple from Kamouraska, Canada, that started a tiny house building company called “Ma Maison Logique,” which in English means “my logical house.” Pascal designed the tiny house to withstand extreme Canadian winters by using triple pane windows and installing a tiny wood stove. They installed an air exchange vent in the bathroom to keep fresh air flowing in and used natural, non-toxic paint and oil finishes to ensure good air quality indoors.Catherine is an interior designer, and you’ll see that she added simple touches throughout the tiny house to make it seem more spacious, while at the same time keeping it cozy and comfortable. This is the prettiest tiny house we’ve visited so far, and even though it’s a standard tiny house size, it feels a lot bigger and seems like it would be a great design for a long-term housing situation.
Learn more about their tiny houses and follow them on Instagram:
http://www.mamaisonlogique.com
@mamaisonlogiqueThanks for watching!
Mat & Danielle
————————————————————-
STAY IN TOUCH!
————————————————————Blog: www.exploringalternatives.ca
Facebook: /exploringalternativesblog
Instagram: @exploringalternativesMusic & Song Credits:
All music in this video was composed, performed, and recorded by Mat Dubé of Exploring Alternatives. -
Living on a 4 Season Houseboat – Beautiful Floating Tiny House!
In this video, we meet Bonnie from Wakefield, Québec, Canada who is living on a gorgeous tiny house boat that is full of character and charm. The River Den (or La Tannière) has custom-made asymmetrical windows, a classic ship’s wheel, antique fireplace, and hand-built furniture — all of which give the boat a warm and cozy feel that makes you feel at home as soon as you step on board. The boat is docked on the shore of the Gatineau River and Bonnie lives in it as often as she can when she’s not renting it out on Airbnb (https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/9678942?guests=1&s=vNzQNzuG).The tiny houseboat was designed by Bonnie and her boatbuilding friend, Denis Tremblay, who is known locally as the Wakefield Pirate. Denis and a few of his friends built the boat by hand, including the aluminum frame and the custom windows, the cabinets, and the grill floor in the loft.
The boat is built on 5 pontoons that are designed to provide flotation while still taking on some water to keep the boat weighed down in the water for stability. The pontoons are also designed to freeze in the ice and are made by a local company called Les Quais Navigables (http://www.quaisnavigables.com).
It’s a 4-season house boat that is fully insulated and has an antique wood burning fireplace to provide heat in winter. For power, they installed a deep cycle marine battery that provides 12-Volt power for the lights, bilge pump, and navigation lights. They have a Separett composting toilet from Sweden (https://www.separett-usa.com), and a sink that pumps water from the river for washing dishes. For refrigeration, Bonnie uses a cooler with ice, but she might invest in some solar panels so that she can power a proper fridge eventually.
The main floor has a kitchen, toilet, dining room and living room, and upstairs there is cozy a sleeping loft with a grill floor that allows heat to rise through the floor, and sun & dust to travel down to the main level. One of the windows in the loft opens up onto a gorgeous rooftop patio with a cedar deck and has space for some solar panels if/when Bonnie decides she needs them.
The boat has a gas motor and can be taken out on the river which is quite impressive considering it’s size! To make sure the boat was still road worthy, they built a wedge roof over the loft that can be taken apart if Bonnie wants to transport it to a different location. The boat is currently docked in the quaint little town of Wakefield, Québec where there are cute cafes, restaurants and shops right across the street.
If anyone is interested in renting this house boat, check it out on the Airbnb website here:
https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/9678942?guests=1&s=vNzQNzuGThanks for watching!
Mat & Danielle
————————————————————-
STAY IN TOUCH!
————————————————————Blog: www.exploringalternatives.ca
Facebook: /exploringalternativesblog
Instagram: @exploringalternativesMusic & Song Credits:
All music in this video was composed, performed, and recorded by Mat Dubé of Exploring Alternatives. -
Teen tiny house builder Austin Hay finishes dorm on wheels
We first visited Austin Hay after he had just finished his sophomore year of and had built just the shell of his tiny home on wheels (based on plans donated by Jay Shafer, now of Four Lights Tiny House Company). Now, Austin is in his senior year of high school and he has finally completed his home, including a full kitchen, DIY sofa-bed, nearly full-sized shower and composting toilet (doorknobs and solar to come).We stopped in at his open house where his house was packed with a dozen friends (at any one time). His mother weighs in on the future of tiny houses (his high school and other local schools have asked for Austin’s guidance in building their own versions), his girlfriend answered our questions about living in something tiny one day and his grandfather playing Santa Claus to help Austin finish his tiny dorm on wheels.
More info on original story: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/teen-tiny-house-builder-austin-hay-finishes-dorm-on-wheels/
* Austin’s open house was filmed by Johnny Sanphillippo (from our video “Mortgage-free tiny home on a housekeeper’s salary”) and John and Emily Dirksen (my parents who happen to live nearby).
-
Building off the grid 3 ways
What would your home look like if you unplugged for good? Tour these one-of-a-kind versions of living that dream as seen in three DIY Network specials of Building Off the Grid: Mountain Man Cave, Tiny House on a Lake and Coastal Maine.
Rugged outdoorsman Joe Donovan decided to build himself a permanent base camp on 10 acres of mountain wilderness. That camp takes the form of a 24-by-28-foot straw-bale cabin, a very old—and, in modern America, very rare—type of dwelling.The insulating straw bales beneath thick layers of stucco at this southern Montana cabin are held together by chicken wire hand-sewn with rope. The load-bearing frame itself is made of massive logs.Composting toilets aren’t for everyone, but this one more than compensates for its rustic ways with a spectacular view of the Montana wilderness. (Bonus: No need to abandon said view to fetch water for the cistern, or to scamper to an outhouse in the middle of the night.)The versatile space behind a Montana cabin’s bathroom features a television and turntable powered by solar panels, as well as a painterly reminder of why its owner chose to build in the wilderness.Thick straw walls are designed to help this space stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter—but given how quickly the weather in the northern Rockies can change, concentrated heat from a wood-burning stove is a must.Scenery is the star of Joe Donovan’s off-the-grid plan, as he designed his home around the Missouri River view he envisioned having from his front deck. Bonus: It’ll face the warmth of the sun in the wintertime.At the northern end of Montana, yurt-dwellers Sean and Mollie Busby take their independent-living plan to the next level by building their dream home overlooking Whitefish Lake. This 12-by-20-foot, two-story home comprises about 480 square feet of interior space.This diminutive dwelling at the edge of Glacier National Park affords its owners plenty of room. The spacious deck nearly doubles its footprint.The live-edge siding on this tiny house can last for up to 30 years. It shares space with reclaimed wood, which rings in at a fifth of what local stores charge for new lumber.The wood from this portion of a tiny home on the shore of Whitefish Lake comes from a timber swap (where the owners exchanged fresh-cut pieces from their property for drier logs that were already seasoned for building).While this northern Montana cabin’s owners plan to live off the grid, their nameplate reflects their interest in maintaining close connections to their community.This outdoorsy family of six built their 16-by-20-foot off-the-grid retreat on Maine’s remote Pemaquid Peninsula in less two weeks (with a bit of help from their friends).This 6-foot-tall black bear welcomes guests to a self-sustaining cabin in Bristol, Maine. In keeping with the homeowners’ lickety-split building plan, their friend carved the sculpture in less than eight hours.A gutter-and-downspout system collects rainfall in a catchment for drinking, cooking and bathing—a very good thing, since the nearest alternative source of water is a half-mile away.While the kitchen in this remote cabin has no light switches or running water, a granite slab countertop and vintage canister set deliver ample (and appropriately rustic) style.On – 22 Feb, 2017 By Lauren Oster
