This Tiny House Homestead Was Built Using Trees Scorched by Wildfires
Clara and Edwin’s tiny house homestead allows them to enjoy sustainable, off-grid living surrounded by nature on a 20-acre California property in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Their timber frame tiny home has glass doors on either side, allowing for a magnificent view of the trees, as well as a cool cross-breeze during the scorching California summers.
Their bedroom loft has a custom-made bed and plenty of headroom, with a large screen used to watch movies from their phone using the signal booster on the wall. There is a large open space with room to do yoga and pull out the 6-foot under-bed storage drawers that hold their clothes.
This self-built tiny home is a labor of love. Clara and Edwin learned to mill timber while helping friends to rebuild after a fire. They milled the wood and carved the timber frame tiny home themselves; when they look at the timber beams from their bed, they are reminded of all the hard work they put in to make their tiny homestead dream a reality.
Much of the construction used trees that were already destroyed by the fire, making their home construction a sustainable endeavor that required little felling of trees.
Clara and Edwin discuss their building process and showcase a tour of their tiny house homestead, in this video:
In addition to a virtual tour, Clara and Edwin love giving real tours of their home as well, by hosting friends and having people over. That’s why it was important to them that the kitchen door can open and become an awning over an outdoor deck.
The deck adds to the home’s 264 square feet, with extra chairs where friends can lounge around and eat. They also have an extra bed loft next to the kitchen, with a full California king-size bed.
When they’re not hosting friends, Clara and Edwin enjoy working from the table and chairs in their kitchen, overlooking the outdoor deck, and pulling the shades down when the sun creates glare on their laptops.
The off-grid tiny home is partially solar powered with two 300-watt panels, with plans for putting in more panels in the future. It also uses an electric generator to back up the system. The generator can be turned on and off with a remote control by their bed.
The home uses propane heating, which allows for instant hot water in the double shower. This also powers the full stove and oven that pull out from under the granite counter.
Clara and Edwin don’t have a well, so they truck in water once a month. They do have a small laundry machine in the bathroom but prefer to do their laundry in town.
Their compost toilet separates liquids and solids, with liquids draining into a septic field and solids emptied whenever the bag gets full. The utilities are housed in a utility trailer and the tiny home on wheels plugs into it for power. Like the home itself, the utility trailer also has wheels and can move if necessary.
Off-grid tiny house homestead
Although there are challenges to living in an off-grid tiny home, Clara and Edwin love their tiny house homestead, which allows them to experience the great outdoors and live a sustainable lifestyle.
For more tiny home and off-grid living ideas, take a look at this tiny house pontoon boat built by a professional woodworker or this off-grid home for a family of seven.
To see more videos, check out the Tiny House Expedition YouTube page.
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Wow,Great living.I also would love to let go and get off the Grid very soon. Especially if things change for the worst in this Shaky Nation.I'd definitely get a more Bear Proof waste station,however,and make it smell Proof so not to draw them in🤗