Tiny homes are popular with younger people and whole families alike. They can be turned into a small hangout space for the kids or a portable home for traveling the country. We’ve looked at the Ecocapsule smart home and the Alpha Tiny House. Both were unique in their own ways, though only the Ecocapsule is made off-grid from the get-go. The Minim Home tiny house brings a little bit of Ecocapsule’s off-grid living with the modern elements from the Alpha Tiny House.

The Minim Home spent the last few years racking up awards and publicity, making it one of the most popular tiny homes in the world. Since its inception in 2013, the Minim Homes company shipped over 60 sets of house plans to customers all around the world. A few finished homes were also delivered to buyers.

Size and Shape

Like the Alpha Tiny House, the Minim house is rectangular. Unlike the Alpha home, this tiny house has a much more open floor plan. You can order the house as a trailer or foundation-built structure. It has 265 square feet of usable interior space.

Ease of Transportation

You can tow the tiny house if you ordered it on a trailer. The Minim home meets federal highway towing standards for height to not exceed 13’-6”. The 12’ width does require a special “Wide Load” permit. If you pull over below a secondary/local roads’ underpass which is lower than 13’-6”, towing is prohibited. The company recommends hiring a professional hauler to move the house. The hauler will arrange necessary insurance, wide-load permitting, and overpass screening.

When ordering the home on a trailer, the company uses a robust, custom-built 20,000 GVWR triple-axle trailer. The trailer comes with low profile features so your house remains as close to the ground as possible. Unlike the Ecocapsule, you can’t just pick up the house and drop it off somewhere. You’re likely limited in how many 4WD roads you can cross before your trailer gets stuck in a deep pothole. Since the trailer is literally the foundation of the Minim home, the company recommends using a professionally-built 14,000 GVWR trailer.

Quality

The company is pretty open to modifications in windows, toilet type/brand, bathroom size, and a few other things. But they will not budge on changing the length, width, or overall size of the house. The company says it would require a complete re-engineering.

The siding of the house, like Alpha’s, is made of wood. Minim’s uses untreated, ship-lapped cypress. The wood will turn gray over time as it ages. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Pope-Leighey House in Virginia, and it inspired Minim in the construction and materials of the tiny house.

The kitchen is against the whole back wall instead of being on the side wall, like the Ecocapsule and Alpha homes. Since the Minim home is a little wider too, the kitchen feels large and still unobtrusive.

The couch, which is large enough to double as a guest bed, conceals a water filter tank and extra storage. And the home is full of windows to bring in natural light. The Minim home has more window space than the Alpha home, but you can remove windows from your Minim floor plans if you wish.

Cost

As we mentioned before, the company doesn’t mind a little bit of modification or upgrading to the home. But there’s not much you’ll really want to upgrade anyway, as the company included a lot of high-quality appliances in the standard home.

The company itself does not provide financing, but you can definitely secure some from a third-party source, like a local or national bank.

The company is based in Pennsylvania, and the base price for the home is $71,000, not including shipping. To ship to another location in the U.S., contact them for a quote so you can get the most accurate numbers. Overall, you’re looking at paying $3,000 to ship to Boston, $2,500 to Chicago, almost $6,000 for Denver, and almost $10,000 to ship to Portland.

The home takes about eight weeks to be built, and then it will take another few weeks to ship and receive your new home.

Carbon Footprint

For an additional $980, you can get an off-grid water package, which was thoroughly designed and tested. This add-on includes a water pump, three-stage ceramic water filter, and plumbing. You’ll have to figure out how to grab the rainwater from your roof’s gutters and any extra storage methods, but the company gives you a head start with this add-on.

For off-grid solar, the add-on costs $8,200. It includes a 960kW roof-mounted solar array, solar charge controller, battery bank, and more. You can increase the amount of battery power with additional batteries.

For an off-grid refrigerator and freezer, the cost will be $2,350. It comes with a 7 cubic foot marine-grade refrigerator, which is highly efficient.

Other Notes

This house is beautiful, just like Alpha’s tiny house. With the addition of off-grid packages, you can take your home anywhere in the world. But transporting a home with roof-top solar arrays could cause issues on highways, off-road driving trails, and more. If you’re in the market for tiny homes, Minim definitely has the potential to sway your opinion. There’s a good reason why it’s one of the most popular tiny houses, and it will only become more ubiquitous from here on out.

Sources: Minim Homes, Tiny Houses