Tumbleweed Tiny House Company

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company is a company in Sonoma, California that designs and builds small houses between 65 and 887 square feet (6 and 80 m2), Many are timber-framed homes permanently attached to trailers for mobility. The houses on wheels are available to be purchased ready made and shipped to consumers, and are individually manufactured and customized for their buyers. The company also offers construction plans for their mobile houses and larger designs, as well as workshops geared toward teaching people how to build their own cottage or tiny house on wheels.

Tumbleweed is part of the small house movement. In 2002, Tumbleweed's owner, Jay Shafer, co-founded the Small House Society[1] in Iowa City, Iowa. In 2003, he was commissioned by Gregory Paul Johnson,[2] Small House Society co-founder,[3] to build The Mobile Hermitage,[2] which became one of Tumbleweed's first commercially sold homes.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a few were sold to Gulf Coast residents who preferred them to government-supplied temporary housing.[4]

In 2008 the company reported selling only one house per year, though this had increased five-fold in 2009.[5] As of 2011, the company reported building "only a few houses" annually. The majority of the houses built to its designs are constructed by customers using Tumbleweed's plans.[6] In 2012 Jay Shafer left the company to his business partner and founded Four Lights Tiny House Company.[7]

See also

References

  1. Small House Society – About Archived December 8, 2016, at the Wayback Machine., Resources for Life.
  2. 1 2 The Mobile Hermitage Archived September 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine., Resources for Life.
  3. Kurutz, Steven (September 10, 2008). "The Next Little Thing?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-09-10.
  4. Cheryl Corley (May 15, 2006), Tiny Houses Find a Friend on the Gulf Coast, National Public Radio
  5. Kurutz, Steven (September 10, 2008). "The Next Little Thing?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-10-10. His business is still modest, but in the past year Mr. Shafer has sold five houses and 50 sets of plans, up from a yearly average of one house. The houses range in size from about 70 to nearly 800 square feet, cost $20,000 to $90,000 to build, and resemble birdhouses: boxy shape, wood siding and high, pitched roof.
  6. Jenna V. Loceff (June 20, 2011), "'Tiny house' builder Tumbleweed locates in Sebastopol", North Bay Business Journal
  7. Jay Shafer’s New Venture – Four Lights Tiny House Company Archived June 1, 2016, at the Wayback Machine., The Tiny Life

Bibliography

  • Style, Small House (September 9, 2008). "Jay Shafer and the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company make small… BIG". Small House Style. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
  • LeMoult, Craig (March 31, 2006). "Anti-McMansions have every comfort of home". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2006-04-01.
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