Like people, tiny houses come in all shapes.
Just check out our cornucopia of precious, pint-sized abodes. In it you can find A-line cottages that are perfect for rustic nature lovers and narrow tiny houses that squeeze perfectly into the crevices between buildings, for those who'd prefer to live in an urban setting. There are even the mobile tiny houses, perfect for the adventurous soul who loves to live life on the go.
Take Lindsey and Steven, a couple that decided to sell their apartment in Florida and move back to their hometown of Portland, OR by means of their future home. They bought a 1984 Blue Bird Bus and lovingly restored it into a lovely home on wheels.
Peter and Juwels of Long Beach, CA decided to do the same thing with a 1975 Winnebago, and the fruit of their labor is pretty sweet.
Check out their project below, and please SHARE if you're as impressed with their innovation as we are!
The young couple bought the 1975 Winnebago right after they got married on 7/7/07. They affectionately named her “Miss Winnie.”
When they bought Winnie, they thought all she needed was a little sprucing like new flooring and curtains. Maybe even a tune up. But once they began inspecting their new home, they realized there was a lot more work to be done.
“Behind wood paneling, there was dry rot,” Peter wrote on The Winnebago Diaries, the blog they created to document their passion project.
“The wall beside our kitchen table wasn't even attached to the floor, and you could see the lines in the road zipping by below. Leaky tanks, broken water pipes, the entire bathroom floor was moldy and crumbling away.”
So, fresh from their honeymoon and with just $700 to their names, they moved into Winnie, parked in front of a friend's home, and restored her by hand.
“For a little while, there was no bathroom floor at all, just a huge hole leading to the street. We used to get freaked out that somebody was going to crawl under the Winnie in the middle of the night and pop up at the foot of our bed like some zombie from 'Thriller,' ” said Peter.
But the couple persevered, adopting the mantra “Well, we're in it now. It's all pulled apart...if not now, when?"
They picked up new skills like carpentry “And Juwels took it upon herself to learn how to weld copper pipes,” said Peter.
The couple really got into the spirit of things and had a lot of fun along the way.
“Not sure who started this, but we scribbled so many little messages behind walls,” said Peter.
“And on beams and all sorts of random places.”
“Affirmations of the adventure ahead, love, and goofy babble.”
When they were done, they'd transformed Miss Winnie into the pretty lady she was always meant to be.
“The Winnie is a prime example of ‘it's what's on the inside that counts,’ ” Peter boasted proudly.
They personalized every nook and cranny of their lovely home. For instance, take a look at this decorative piece.
This is what it looked like before:
The bathroom vanity shown in this picture was pulled out of a dumpster and refurbished.
“It was stuffed in headfirst and destined for the landfill,” said Peter. “Juwels was inside the house on the computer, when I came in and said, ‘I got you a present!’ She loved it. I knew she would.”
“Every screw and tack hole, seam and awkward texture [was] floated over with plaster and then sanded smooth. There were hundreds of them.”
“Juwels had a little bit more building experience growing up with a jack-of-all-trades, builder inventor father,” said Peter.
“Her childhood go cart- and tree house-building projects would come in handy in our adult lives.”
But Peter quickly caught up.
“The learning curve was quite rapid once we got our building bearings,” said Peter.
Though he also admits that “We built, tore down, and then rebuilt,” a lot of things.
All in all, the couple created a cozy little “crow’s nest” (what they nicknamed the inside of their home) for themselves.
What do you think of the job they did? Let us know in the comments!
Please SHARE this if you love Winnebago restorations!
