When you build a tiny house that can keep you warm and cozy through a long Canadian winter, you want to include a few cabin fever antidotes. The first would be a heat-cranking wood stove. You can't huddle around a space heater with quite the same level of panache as you can huddle around a crackling fire. Second, you want the biggest windows you can find so the walls of your home don't begin to close in around you in the middle of February.
Then, in the interests of sanity, you need a killer-cool dining table so that you can have tons of friends over to swap stories, gossip, recipes and songs -- all in no particular order. After all, it's not frost that nips at your mental health; it's the isolation and the terrible, rising fear that songbirds and budding trees might be just myths after all.
Advertisement
So let's take a tour of a tiny house that has, in fact, all of these features: a do-it-yourself build designed by a company in Quebec called Habitations MicroEvolution. It has the appropriately sized stove, the luxury-sized windows and the extravagant dining table. See what you think.
This view shows immediately the value of really, really large windows. You don't feel closed in at all, no matter what season it is outdoors. The wood stove is certainly small, but it can fill a tiny house with plenty of heat and do so with a minimal amount of fuel consumption. Of course, the decor already hints at the hail and hearty attitude of the residents. This isn't a home that would be quite as much at home in the city.
This sitting area is built for having company over. It's simple but cozy. Notice, of course, there's no stove pipe hooked up in this photo. In a tiny house, you want to invent space, and removing a stove pipe when you can helps a lot.
The reverse view shows the length of this tiny house with the kitchen and bathroom in the background. You can also see the sleeping loft above the kitchen -- and kudos for whoever found that breakfast table. It fits the space perfectly.
What a cozy kitchen. The curtain behind the Christmas tree hides the washer/dryer and the bathroom. Notice, there's no built-in stove, but there's a large counter-top stove on the shelf to the left.
This looks impossible. Seven average-sized adults sitting around the table, obviously in good spirits. This tiny house can accommodate a crowd this size and probably a few more. (There's an empty stool, for instance, and you have to account for the photographer too.)
This is the scary part: a Canadian winter, ey? But this tiny house is fully prepared to meet the challenge.
Advertisement
OK, the scary part's over.
And here is the ultimate and final answer to the long Canadian winters: Pack up and head south.