Tiny house interior mock-up

One of the reasons I built my SS shed was to get a feel for the amount of space inside when used as a tiny house. Today I made a mock-up of the inside using various pieces of furniture and scrap wood. All in all, I was surprised with the amount of room inside. I think this would be liveable for one person. (My SS is 8' x 14', and I reduced the wall height by 1' from the plans.)

To the right of the entry door is room for 2 chairs and a small table. A drop down table attached to the wall would make better use of the space.

At the rear on the same side, I put a 6' x 2.5' table to represent the kitchen area, complete with sink and range. There appears to be enough counter space to make meals. The plywood wall on the right side represents the bathroom wall.

To the left of the entry door, there is room for a couch. This is just a cushion from a piece of patio furniture. The plywood it is resting on is 8' long. If this were an actual tiny house, I would move the door to the long wall, about were the table and chairs are in the previous picture. I would put a big window where the door currently is, and put a pull out couch for sleeping against that 8' wall. That way if the couch was pulled out for someone sleeping, the door on the side would not be blocked for egress.

Between the couch and the bathroom wall I placed a cooler for visualization. I would use this space for a closet or storage area. It could also be part of the bathroom area, as a shower. For a tiny house, I would build a top loading, super insulated cooler into the kitchen cabinets. The top of the cooler would form part of the counter top.

I tacked up a couple of pieces of scrap plywood to represent the bathroom wall. The bathroom area is about 3' x 3'. If a shower is needed, the room could be designed as a wet bath.

 

 Another view of the 'kitchen' from the bathroom area.

 

I also made a video of what the inside of my SS looks like.

 

In the future I plan to rig up some 12V LED lights, connected to my deep cycle marine battery. I will update this blog when that happens. I also want to purchase a solar panel and hook it up to charge my marine battery, as an experiment and learning experience. 

I may also purchase a little Dickinson Newport wood stove to experiment with heating my shed.

Outlet box, caulking and loft

I've been busy with life and haven't had the chance to post for awhile. The following occurred over the past few weeks. Now that the weather is getting colder, I didn't want to have to keep the door open to get the power cord into the shed. I found this neat weatherproof box at HD and installed it on the front of the shed. I am using a power strip on the inside with multiple outlets and store the male plug inside the box. I still need to close up that hole to reduce drafts.

My wife has started decorating! She has already added a star to the front door and had me install a flag pole holder over the door. She has a flag for every season. Eventually I'll have to do a collage of all the flags hanging from the shed.

 

 I continue to look for light when I am inside the shed, to find areas that need to be caulked. There are a number of small gaps where the roof panels meet the top plates on the sides and on the ends. These are areas where the 2x4 ends of the roof panels rest against the 2x6 top plates. I have been caulking from the outside surface to stop potential leaks and drafts.

Up until now, my loft consisted of two pieces of 8' long plywood, one 4' wide and the other 2' wide. This is a picture of what it looked like from sitting in a a chair next to the door. Since this structure will be used as a shed and not as a tiny house, this loft is too deep for easily storing and retrieving items.

So I cut the 8 foot lengths, so they would fit sideways in the shed. The 4' wide piece is now up against the rear wall as shown in the next picture, and the 2' wide piece will be in the middle of the shed, so I can have access to it from either side. (Please disregard the weed whacker hanging on the wall.)

The following picture was taken sitting in a chair under the rear loft and looking up at the roof. It gives an idea of the high ceilings that are possible with the SS design for a tiny house. (Disregard as well that horizontal 2x4. That will be one of the supports for my middle loft. I didn't feel like removing it just for this picture.)