A tiny home tour: Jay Shafer's 89-square-foot home on wheels

Jay Shafer of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company gives us a tour of his 89-square-foot home on wheels parked in Sebastapol, California. He sells plans for the Epu model for $859. Ready made: $45,997 Build it yourself: $19,950

[azimuth]

Interesting.  My personal goal was to live in a house where I could vacuum the whole house and not have to move the vacuum cord.

[strangevision]

I'm really interested in these homes. Would love to make one myself

[sailorstarkitty]

I say your video on a small place is great. The whole outside and inside is great. I would love a 2 bedroom home like this.

[kirstendirksen]

@JonnyPxN He does use insulation in his tiny houses. I believe it's a foam insulation.

[xennialsxberner]

Also, with today's technology it'd be way easier to live in a tiny house, compared to the 80s and 90s when you'd need shitloads of room for VHS, photo albums, cassette tapes and all that. Now you can just store it all on your smartphone, laptop, or USB flash drives, lol.

[ImNotaRussianBot]

That's the thing though, we love the concept. Notice how he downsized his square footage GRADUALLY, plus the childhood spent cleaning a house that his parents could barely afford to heat. You can drone on about green this and earth that, but at the end of the day if you want to build wealth and are willing to compromise living standards, go for it. I wouldn't go this small, but Tumbleweed's got other, bigger plans you can go with. I'd do it.

[ozzmonaut]

The cost just wouldn't match the space in my town. My neighbors house is 2 stories, about 1900 square feet and just sold for $18K. He spent almost that just in materials for this micro. Granted the details and quality may be higher, but if independence and lack of debt are the issue, my house is one story 1060 sq ft with a decent basement and was $12K.

[AutomobiliVeloce]

I agree. As an alternative, you could also take that $8, 000 and buy a pretty nice and well built home in some areas....and the property comes with that $8, 000 home. You'll most likely have a garage as well. You cannot build a home cheaper today for the price that homes are selling for in some areas.

[houseofmarshall]

he has to live in an extremely small house with really bad plumbing and an unnecessarily bad shower experience, yet he somehow feels having a gym membership is totally normal. makes sense he has a large bottle of vodka next to the toaster oven. get some proper plumbing in your house and go run outside and play for free to get your exercise. 

[Raina]

It's beautiful. I would love to know what you eat every day? Where do you store food? How often do you shop. Do you actually cook, or do you just snack and eat your real meals out?

[CriMSWoW]

"This is my house. It's a box.

It's not a large box. But it's a box."

[lefsepowered]

How hot does this home become in the summer? I always thought that attics were stuffy.

[guy]

Only problem is bugs in the summer. Granted it's probably easier to seal off a small house.

[Jhaysea]

"I keep the fridge here, and toaster oven on top of it....OH yeah and some Smirnoff Vodka on those crazy nights... now if you come this way."

[jhat]

I am interested in building a small home for myself after I am through with college, but I have a question that I haven't seen answered online. Where do you get the land to build on? I don't know what legal issues would be involved with building a small home like this. Could you help point me in the right directioin?
Thanks

[abrokenandacontriteheart]

So do you live on a pc. of property that you own? I would want to have a well or rainwater holder and solar.

[Firewizard]

I think he feels that large houses are wastes of space and energy, and I tend to agree. I feel that, when I was growing up, we put so much energy and time into just maintaining the house. Why? Why have so much with all the nooks and crannies you barely use? And I don't think he means that people are unhappy in larger houses. Those are so used to it they probably don't even think about what is needed to maintain the house. As for the new addition... his tiny house is a bit small for three people.

[bigkolibri]

so, what is the point of this house? re-creaete the cruise ship cabin? especially that tiny awkward toilet/ shower?

[awilson]

I feel like a pig now with a 6000 sqft main house and a 1700 sqft pool house! All I do is mow and mop

[milldabeast]

yea i could live in this if it was hot sunny outside every fuckn day but once winter hit in a real country are u gona stay in that little shack all winter? i would go nuts.some people may be able to live like this but not me. i would help if he had an area built out side to chill.