Building Small, part 1: Assessing your tiny home needs

This is part one of a three-part series. Continue with Part 2: Getting a tiny house build approved and Part 3: Seeing your small cottage project through. For the short version, see Building Small: What tiny home and cottage projects really need.

Building a small home is a big project, and I want to walk you through what it looks like. I’ll assume you’ve already decided a small home is the answer for your situation.

Maybe you just moved here from out of state to be closer to your children.

Maybe you just lost a loved one and aren’t sure you’re ready to move in with your daughter and son-in-law.

Or maybe you just like having less stuff and want to live on less.

Whatever you’re after, we’re here to help make it happen. That could be with Wolf Industries or with another tiny home builder in another part of the country.

As you can probably tell, we care a lot here at Wolf Industries about helping our clients make good choices. (By “Wolf,” I mean all the folks here.) Our first step is to offer options. We lay out several good options that fit your needs, and we present them fairly. That’s what makes us feel good about the work. A client once told me this:

“Because you (Wolf) weren’t attached to your pocketbook and the most expensive options, but rather wanted the best options for me based on my budget and desires, that’s what drew me to you.”

That’s how we try to approach every project, with the client’s needs first.

But enough about us. Let’s get on to how to start a small project. It might be a tiny home, a tiny home on wheels, or an ADU (accessory dwelling unit). It could also be a guest house, a granny flat, mother-in-law quarters, or a hardship case.

All of these projects can be fun and exciting, and this series is meant to help you get there.

Each of these projects starts with a need, a challenge, or a pain point. I know this firsthand. My wife and I just had our sixth child, and our average-sized home now feels a little tight. We’ve got kids in closets and general chaos everywhere. Our need is a little different, but the idea is the same.

Step 1: Evaluate goals and needs for your modular tiny home

Before you can weigh your housing choices, you have to know where you are in your cycle of need. It’s a bit like timing the stock market. A large house might pull at us at first. But if we look closer, we can see that our needs will change down the road as the kids move out.

• What are your future plans for a small cottage or tiny home?
• Who will use it after your need has passed?
• How long do you want it to last?
• Is it a 5, 10, 20, or 50-year plan?

The common belief is that tiny homes are built “like a house.” The truth is that not all tiny homes are. Most aren’t.

Starting with the end in mind applies to tiny homes and small homes as much as anything else. Rules can change when public opinion changes and officials follow their voters. A founding value here at Wolf is to build a product that is legal now and will stay legal for years to come. We don’t want to build in the gray areas, like tiny homes on wheels.

If I can stress one thing, it’s this: make sure you follow the codes and laws that apply to your project. That can feel overwhelming if you don’t have a lot of research, knowledge, and experience in this world. (See Tiny prefab homes: Understanding the classifications for an overview.)

That leads me to the second step.

Step 2: Surround yourself with people who know how to build modular tiny homes

Good people are the ones who push for what’s best for the client.

Here’s an example. A client goes to a contractor who builds custom homes. If he knows his market and clients well, he won’t take on a small project like this. He knows his overhead and office fees alone would eat up the client’s extra money. He should know that without being told.

Here’s another example. You meet a contractor at the local home improvement store who says, “Oh yeah, a small project like that shouldn’t cost more than 35 to 55 thousand!”

Here’s what that contractor didn’t think about:

• the early design work
• that the engineering is the same on a small job as on a big job
• the permitting process
• the fact that he’s not licensed for specialty trades
• that tradespeople are in high demand and hard to book for small jobs
• that a small job takes the same office effort as a large job

If you pick this contractor, the project is set up to fail from the start. He didn’t see what the process really involves. The project will run over budget and past due, and you won’t know until it’s too late.

Another way to find a contractor is to go with a tiny home builder who’s building tiny homes right now. That sounds great until you look closer and see that tiny homes on wheels are just another kind of RV.

Say you order the house, and it actually shows up on time and on budget. It gets delivered and life is good, for a while. Three weeks after delivery, you get a letter from the county or city. Someone has made a complaint, and they want you to fix it. The fix is “please remove the tiny home on wheels,” and they cite a local ordinance or code section. That’s an expensive mistake.

It’s very important to pick a contractor who knows the codes and rules.

Once you’ve picked a contractor, you start the design. Knowing how things go together and how they can be built matters a lot here. That’s true unless you have big bucks and don’t care about the cost: I want “this look.”

If you’re like me, you don’t have that luxury. Ask your contractor for simple ways to build that still add some flair. Take your time, because you only get one shot at designing your small home. This stage usually shouldn’t cost you any money, since any good contractor is happy to share what they know. To be frank, it boosts our ego.

With your design in hand, you’re ready to start spending money to make this real. But wait. There are still things to sort out, and you’re not sure what surprises might come up.

“How do I connect the utilities to my home?”

“How do I know what amount of power I will need?”

“Who do I talk to about the size of the storm drain system?”

And the list goes on. You don’t feel sure of the builder, no matter how much experience they have.

In this series, I’ll share the wins, the flops, and everything I’ve learned. My goal is a better experience for anyone who wants to create a small space they can use now and far into the future.

Continue with Part 2: Getting a tiny house build approved