Inspired by a tiny house 
book that we saw in a store several years ago, we (Laura nd Jeremy) made our dream a reality by building a tiny, mobile home to live in. While the dreaming and planning happened over many years, in June of 2014 we got the first pieces of our home and construction began. The build started at a friend’s property in southwestern New Hampshire, continued near Middlebury, Vermont, and was finalized in July of 2015 again in New Hampshire. Then in August of 2015 we made a big move with our small home, from the east coast all the way over to Eugene, Oregon. The tiny house, big truck, and ourselves all made the cross country trip successfully. We then lived full time in our house in Eugene, Oregon and enjoyed the small life for 2.5 years!
More about us… We both grew up in different parts of southern New Hampshire, and migrated to Vermont for college. We met as students at Sterling College in Craftsbury, VT. We fell in love one green spring, and we’ve been by each others’ sides ever since. Having been indoctrinated in environmentalism as Sterling students, we are interested in living simply and within our means. Also from Sterling we had quite a bit of student debt (that we’ve thankfully paid off)! And we like having an affordable home so that we can have the freedom to go on lots of other adventures in life.
After our 2.5 years living in our lovely tiny home, we moved into a bigger space so that we could start the adoption process and grow our family. We sold the tiny house, and in the spring of 2019 we welcomed Jace into our family! In 2020 we decided together to change our last names so that we could all share a last name, and we’ve been the Ray family ever since. 2020 was also the year that we bought our first “big” home, a nearly 1,000 square foot house in Eugene with a nice back yard to play and garden in. Then in 2022, our school bus conversion began! Follow our blog and join the adventure…
Go Tiny 
Awesome project Go tiny in a big way
It’s really great what you two have accomplished!
Congrats on the new (tiny) home.
I’m a little late to your site, but what was your experience with working with SIPs?
What tips would you have for others looking to build out of SIPs?
Thanks, and again, great job!
Thanks so much, it’s a labor of love!
We used two books as a jumping off point when we first started putting our design down into Sketchup…
Builders Guide to Structural Insulated Panels(SIPs) for all Climates put out by SIPA
Building with Structural Insulated Panels(SIPs) By Michael Morley
Then work with a manufacture to ensure your design will work for your application before you get too far into it.
Understand their are different types of filler(foam) material and different sheathing, they all bring advantages and disadvantages so do some homework beforehand.
Their were some challenging times with the panels, they did not always fit perfectly. While the panels may be cut by computer numerical control the tolerances are not always tight. You will have to get creative but that happens with stick building as well.
If you have more question let us know! Let us know about your project!
J&L
Hey, it’s us again. I have started reading Building with Structural Insulated Panels(SIPs) By Michael Morley, and have learned alot. We have also taken your advice and started laying everything out in Google SketchUp, but we were wondering…
What was your experience with installing a roof made of SIPs panels? Would you make that same decision, if you had to do it over again? Or would you go with a stick-built frame for the roof?
Thanks for taking the time to respond to our questions!
The Tiny Things in Life
Hi there! We’d do the SIP roof again, it was pretty simple since they were large and straightforward panels. The biggest challenge was getting them up, took four guys grunting them up one at a time. Additionally deciding the order and ensuring a tight fit was a challenge. The dormer was tricky to assemble and more trouble than it’s worth, it’s nice space and pretty so next time Jeremy says no dormer while Laura would say yes dormer. So far we’ve had no leaks from the roof! Next time we’d also do a greater than 2 degree pitch on the “flat” side. It’s R-40 (R-27 on the dormer walls/roof) and provides structure for the walls I would not consider building the roof with sticks.
Good to hear your reading the SIPA book, it’s a great resource! When it comes time work with your SIP manufacture to ensure your goals and design will work. We did not get an engineering signoff from Murus but I feel they knew what were up to and would advise us if we needed to work with an engineer. I will post the drawings for our project ASAP so you can see how things went together on our project.
Hey Laura and Jeramy,
Thanks for hosting an open house this evening. We very much enjoyed the chance to finally step into a tiny house! I have been admired pictures for a few years but never had the opportunity to step inside and “feel” the size; so a big thank you! Martha, Ted and Peter.
Hi, I’m starting my build with sips and I was wondering how you attached your sip panel floor to the trailer? The trailer is 6″ and the SIP is 6″, how did you anchor bolt it? They definitely didn’t have any foot long drill bits at my local home depot. Any help would be greatly appreciated.