Needs & Wants

There are two questions to ask yourself when you're thinking about building a tiny house:

What do I need?  (What are my personal requirements for comfortable living?)

What do I want?  (Some things are nice-to-haves; some things are deal-breakers; some things are trade-offs.)

Maybe you've moved far too many times over the years, and you've built up a clear picture in your heart of My Ideal Living Space.  Perhaps you grind your teeth remembering a certain feature or layout or omission from The Apartment From Hell.  Do you have a Wish List or a Check List?   You may have amused yourself by looking through tiny house listings or showcases, carefully noting the things that made you go, "Ah-haaaahhh!"

Everyone's different.  Everyone needs and wants different things.  Don't let anyone talk you out of what you want or need by invoking "think of the resale value!" or pronouncing "that's too wide/narrow/tall/short!"

My tiny house is being built with several features that make other people roll their eyes.  I looked at many many tiny houses, especially the wonderful designs at Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.  I came to the overwhelming conclusion that their kitchens were all FAR too big, and their showers were all FAR too small.  Yes, you read that right.  So my kitchen, including space to walk through it to the facilities, is 80" x 40".  And that feels huge!  My facilities, on the other hand, are two separate rooms:  a shower with enough room to stretch my elbows straight out without touching the walls; and a "loo", housing both the composting toilet for me and the litterbox for my furry roommates.

Aside from these amenities, I needed to be able to stand up in those downstairs rooms, AND in my upstairs sleeping loft above them.  (My knees are not as young as the rest of me.)  But the other thing to remember is that a trailer still has to be within the legal height for rolling down the road, if you ever actually want to move it!  Luckily I'm five-foot-nothing these days, so this set of factors could be made to work together! My brothers, however, are keeping score as to which one of them does the "Gandalf walks into the rafters of Bag End" thing more often.

The other important consideration about bad knees is "how to get upstairs" -- ladders are the usual for tiny houses, but let's face it, for some of us, they just plain hurt.  A staircase seemed a better option.  But a standard rise of 8" was also painful!  A rise of 6" is a lot more comfy.  Now, if I'm going up call-it-six-feet, in increments of six inches, that means a standard staircase of a dozen steps .... unless I wanted to take up an entire wall of the greatroom with the staircase (I did in fact consider it!) then there had to be another way ...

The answer was a Jefferson Tansu.  (I used to have their albums, didn't they break up?)

Jefferson Tansu:  styled after an ancient Japanese design that combines a cabinet with a staircase; then staggered (a "Jefferson" staircase) allowing a much shorter "run" for the overall "rise".  
Yes, it has grab bars situated for ease of use.  And yes, my knees love it.

 Built for me with elegance and style (and high grade plywood) by the highly-valued-and-long-suffering Max Sprinkle, this is the gem and centrepiece of my tiny home.  I bet you could commission him to make one for you, too.  I'll likely be able to supply his contact information shortly to those interested.
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