Dachsie
20th September 2014, 08:09 AM
This guy is located in Luling Texas and that is where you can rent one of his tiny houses for a short period of time to see what living in a tiny houses feels like.
He has a large fund of knowledge about building, Texas building codes, and building materials.
I did not know if you build a tiny house that is under 1000 square feet of living area, you are not subject to building codes. I could stand living in a living area that is almost 1000 feet. I remember a very nice apartment in Houston years ago was like 950 square feet and it had one full size bedroom and one tiny extra room that was a den that really could be a small second bedroom.
Also if you build to certain dimensions, you may even get your tiny house classified as a storage building and then no property tax would apply.
video is one hour long but I think worth every second of it.
Luling would be a good place to buy a small piece of land and build a tiny house. It is about 40 miles, rough estimate south of Austin and the weather is mild all year long - no hurricanes, no tornadoes, no floods, no freezes. Don't know how soil for good crops is there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWGa7qyGO8M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWGa7qyGO8M
Tiny Texas Houses' "Willy Wonka" on making magic reusing wood
Kirsten Dirksen
Kirsten Dirksen
197,818
19,341
Published on Sep 16, 2014
Brad “Darby” Kittel came to Texas living on a converted school bus. He had planned to write the Great American Novel, but he ended up buying up boarded-up homes and fixing them up using materials he salvaged from other old houses, barns and buildings.
After a couple decades refining his salvage mining techniques, he began using his collection to build “new” tiny portable homes from salvage. The prefab homes, measuring 64 square feet and up, are built from 99% salvaged materials. The other 1% is for things like electrical parts, plumbing, nails, screws, and some insulation materials.
Since he builds with natural materials (mostly wood) or materials that have already off-gassed, he calls his homes “organic” (he makes clear he doesn’t use plastics, formaldehyde, sheetrock, VOC paints, latex paint, carpet or toxic glues and minimal vinyl or PVC).
Kittel has started a tiny home community on his land in Luling, Texas to embracing what he calls Pure Salvage Living. Right now he offers the homes as rentals so people can experience a “truly organic house”. Some of the homes are being lived in longer term by employees and interns and the compound has a community kitchen and bath house. Kittel also hopes his village, or villages, will become completely independent from zoning and regulations by voting to become independent towns.
He’s also dug “four million years” beneath his home in search of fresh water and living space. He’s supported this huge underground world with salvaged railroad ties. At the bottom of main cave lies a pool of water where Kittel hopes to practice fish farming and access drinking water if necessary.
There are also caves down here that could be used as living spaces. Kittel has already occupied one (directly beneath his home) using an old RV (it was craned in before his home was built). He can access it through a trap door beneath his home and currently he uses it for solitude, but he sees its potential for underground living.
Tiny Texas Houses: http://tinytexashouses.com/
Original video: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/...
Category
Howto & Style
License
Standard YouTube License
He has a large fund of knowledge about building, Texas building codes, and building materials.
I did not know if you build a tiny house that is under 1000 square feet of living area, you are not subject to building codes. I could stand living in a living area that is almost 1000 feet. I remember a very nice apartment in Houston years ago was like 950 square feet and it had one full size bedroom and one tiny extra room that was a den that really could be a small second bedroom.
Also if you build to certain dimensions, you may even get your tiny house classified as a storage building and then no property tax would apply.
video is one hour long but I think worth every second of it.
Luling would be a good place to buy a small piece of land and build a tiny house. It is about 40 miles, rough estimate south of Austin and the weather is mild all year long - no hurricanes, no tornadoes, no floods, no freezes. Don't know how soil for good crops is there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWGa7qyGO8M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWGa7qyGO8M
Tiny Texas Houses' "Willy Wonka" on making magic reusing wood
Kirsten Dirksen
Kirsten Dirksen
197,818
19,341
Published on Sep 16, 2014
Brad “Darby” Kittel came to Texas living on a converted school bus. He had planned to write the Great American Novel, but he ended up buying up boarded-up homes and fixing them up using materials he salvaged from other old houses, barns and buildings.
After a couple decades refining his salvage mining techniques, he began using his collection to build “new” tiny portable homes from salvage. The prefab homes, measuring 64 square feet and up, are built from 99% salvaged materials. The other 1% is for things like electrical parts, plumbing, nails, screws, and some insulation materials.
Since he builds with natural materials (mostly wood) or materials that have already off-gassed, he calls his homes “organic” (he makes clear he doesn’t use plastics, formaldehyde, sheetrock, VOC paints, latex paint, carpet or toxic glues and minimal vinyl or PVC).
Kittel has started a tiny home community on his land in Luling, Texas to embracing what he calls Pure Salvage Living. Right now he offers the homes as rentals so people can experience a “truly organic house”. Some of the homes are being lived in longer term by employees and interns and the compound has a community kitchen and bath house. Kittel also hopes his village, or villages, will become completely independent from zoning and regulations by voting to become independent towns.
He’s also dug “four million years” beneath his home in search of fresh water and living space. He’s supported this huge underground world with salvaged railroad ties. At the bottom of main cave lies a pool of water where Kittel hopes to practice fish farming and access drinking water if necessary.
There are also caves down here that could be used as living spaces. Kittel has already occupied one (directly beneath his home) using an old RV (it was craned in before his home was built). He can access it through a trap door beneath his home and currently he uses it for solitude, but he sees its potential for underground living.
Tiny Texas Houses: http://tinytexashouses.com/
Original video: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/...
Category
Howto & Style
License
Standard YouTube License