Four hundred and ninety-five dollars

Four hundred and ninety-five dollars. That’s all it takes to buy a perfect set of Tiny House plans. We made the payment online and a week later the plans arrived. Three sets of them, all neatly rolled up along with a guide to building the Minim house.

The plans are made up of eight sheets which include floor plans, a reflected ceiling and power plan with window schedule, sections, two sheets of exterior elevations, wall panel drawings, roof panel drawings and details, and structural plans and general notes. This is a typical if somewhat small set of architectural drawings. The accompanying Minim house construction guide is not such a typical set of specifications.

At fifty-two pages long the construction guide is meaty. The first three pages describe the set of drawings (in case something is missing) and include an end user license agreement. After that, the guide dives straight into the nitty gritty, detailing the materials needed to build Minim, including all framing, insulation, finish wood, roofing and siding materials. Windows, doors, kitchen cabinets and even appliances are precisely specified making it easy to order them. Sofa and bed dimensions specify the mattress thickness so that the pull-out bed will function properly. Details are provided for all the custom woodwork. All of this is fairly typical for architectural specifications that would generally accompany drawings.

It’s the final twenty-six pages that diverge from the norm. Here Brian Levy, Minim’s designer, has systematically and painstakingly documented building Minim, photograph by photograph, bringing the project to life, and making sure that someone handy can really build this Tiny House on their own.

Brian is excited to have “won” our tiny contest and will be watching our progress. We are equally excited to have the benefit of his documentation, all for just four hundred and ninety-five dollars.