Welcome to the Shack!
NOTE: I'm working on all the updates and photos from the 2021 remodel project. There's a lot of stuff to write about.
2022 has started! Read about the plans and updates here.
My intention with this site is to take the reader step by step, behind the scenes of this project - turning what was once a porch into a tiny home. This is a project that I've been planning for 20 years and now that I'm retired, I'm tackling.
We don't really intend to live at the Shack full time at this point. The Shack is off the grid and we bring our own water - digging a well with the permits and everything is pretty expensive and for a week at a time there's no reason for a well.
If you plan on building an off grid power system, there is a book you need to read called “Lessons in Electric Circuits, Volume 1 – DC” which will teach you about off grid power systems. You need this for low voltage wiring and learning how to do it safely.
Most of our updated pages are the 2021 project page. Note that the date is part of the name of the page so it changes each time I update.
We're making great progress on the remodel of the Shack! The new inverter is in middle of it's testing cycle, the lumber and supplies have been ordered and the handyman to replace the back wall has been hired. So we're pretty damned excited about 2021!
4/4/21 update: The inverter has tested like it's actually going to work as I hope it will. You never know with new equipment. See more here.
A brief history lesson: In 2006, for whatever reason, I decided that I was going to power our cabin using a combination of solar, battery banks and generators. Totally off grid.
The first two years, I did my best to make solar work. At the time, the panels were expensive and as a side benefit, the shack gets 4 hours of direct sunlight each day. The only option would be to cut down a bunch of old growth Oak trees which defeats the whole purpose of being off grid.
So, it was a battery bank, a generator and then solar instead of solar first. Now, 15 years later, LED lights, solar powered lighting and generators have come such a long, long way. I can provide LED lighting to the whole place for days at a time without charging the batteries.
As far as generators go, I started with a tiny 2 cycle 1000 watt generator that died pretty quickly. Then I overbought and got a 2.5 kw generator that had several features: It weighed 100 pounds and was noisy and a tank of gas lasted all of 4 hours. I put thousands of hours on it and it never failed. Ever. Now, in 2021, I use a Ryobi inverter generator that puts out 1.8kw at peak and idles when not under load. Fuel (1.5 gallons) lasts over 16 hours at the load we need. The deep cycle battery bank is now made up of 6 volt true deep cycle batteries and the inverter is still the same one I’ve used for 15 years!
The other nice thing about the Shack is that we have our own close air support, provided free of charge by the Michigan National Guard. One of the nice perks of owning a Shack.
The History of the Shack
In 2003, I made a decision that has become a way of life. Off grid. There is a porch in northern Michigan that has become a cabin, a refuge from the rat race, a haven for mentally decompressing.
Starting in 2004, I made a little show called “This Old Shack” about my work in creating an off grid cabin. I did that until 2011 when I realized that I had succeeded. Since then, each summer, “The Shack” has seen use. At this point, it’s just as easy as any home.
With the advent of inverter (and very quiet) generators, better solar panel prices and a nice deep cycle battery bank, the entire affair is a well oiled machine, chugging along like it was designed. We’re talking thousands of hours of work and time learning how to build off grid.
Now, here in 2021, I’m retired and am embarking on a brand new project and show called “This Old Tiny Shack” where I will take a tiny cabin (less than 300 square feet) and turn into a tour de force tiny home.
I’ll be using off grid, sustainable (where I can) infrastructure. I’ll be showing how to do a lot of things like plumbing, wiring, and design. I’ve spent more than 6 years planning this and now that retirement has come around, there’s plenty of time to do this.
Wikipedia says this about tiny homes:
The tiny-house movement (also known as the "small-house movement") is an architectural and social movement that advocates living simply in small homes. There are different definitions of "tiny". The 2018 International Residential Code, Appendix Q Tiny Houses, defines a tiny house as a dwelling unit with a maximum of 400 sq ft of floor area, excluding lofts. There are a variety of reasons for living in a tiny house. Many people who enter this lifestyle rethink what they value in life and decide to put more effort into strengthening their communities, healing the environment, spending time with their families, or saving money. Tiny homes can also provide affordable, transitional housing for those who have experienced a la ck of shelter.
For the past 5 years, I’ve been looking at coverage of tiny homes on the internet, reading the descriptions, gazing at the photos and I’ve reached a conclusion, one that’s more than likely not going to win me any points or appreciation.
The tiny homes that I see – the ones that are in the public view (the “Hey look what I built”) are anything but simple or environmentally healing. Are wood, paint, chemicals, mass produced parts used in your tiny home? I’d bet the answer is yes unless you make your tiny home out of cardboard (oops, takes trees), old pallets (wood again), plastic (oil), or is portable on wheels (fossil fuels). A faucet, carpeting, kitchen, bed, stairs, windows are the same as in a 5,000 square foot McMansion. The only environmentally friendly thing I see is that a tiny home uses less of what every other house has. So if that criteria is a standard, I can work with that.
Like it or not, a tiny home no matter how it’s advertised, is like any other home but smaller.
The Shack
You're going to love this. Imagine a double wide mobile home. They are delivered in two sections that are bolted together. Now imagine only one half of that double wide mobile home. Now you know what the shack looks like. The shack started out as a porch attached to an old travel trailer. The trailer fell apart and a wall was built where the trailer was. The place is 8 feet wide and 32 feet long. Around 250 square feet. If that’s not a tiny home, nothing is. In that porch turned tiny home, I’ve put two walls, one to create a bedroom and another to make a storage area. Those two rooms take 160 square feet leaving 90 square feet for kitchen and living space.
That is tiny!
