The Careful Planning of a Tiny House...or...The Size of My Shoe

Dear Farmer promised to build the Wife a tiny house in lieu of tent camping this year out at the garden.  The Wife has always loved tiny houses, we first started in one(see article: The Movement We Never Abandoned 2/23/2016 ) and the thought of being able to go back into one is a dream come to reality.
But exactly how to build a tiny house for a family of...ahem...thirteen?
Start by checking out the regulations for building a tiny house on wheels.  For a family of thirteen to live in the tiny house for an entire summer and fall...that size is SO not happening. He would need to build three tiny houses...but as we do not have three trailers, three vehicles to pull trailers, or three drivers. We quickly eliminate the wheels and trailer.
Now we are looking at building tiny house on skids.  This way house can be moved from location to location on site which makes the house an option for more uses.  If no one is residing in it, the house can become a storage shed, a studio, or even a chicken coop.
The tiny house will have two doors, two windows(actual double hung windows) and sleeping spots enough for thirteen.

But what happens to all the stuff you need?
Let's talk needs:
Food
Water
Clothing
Shelter

Those are all our basic human needs. Past that it's all luxuries.

The Wife has every intention of giving each child the luxury of electricity, internet, plumbing, fans, heat, and a small space for individual trinkets/toys.
Clothing will be kept in a mobile trailer that we will need to power-wash to get the stink of animals out of(the goats had lived there for a time) and Dear Farmer has plans to make it into a "family closet".
So far as washing those clothes go...a Laundromat isn't so bad, and if the Wife gets desperate to have her arms get a good workout, there's the clothing plunger and wringer secured on a tub.  Old Fashioned has a time and a place.
Now Dear Farmer is in the process of drawing up the plan for the tiny house for the Wife.  He estimates the size to be 10 x 20.
I guess for the summer the Wife will be the "...little old lady who lived in a shoe, she had so many children she didn't know what to do...".  Perhaps, like the Gilbreth Family (Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank and Ernistine Gilbreth) we will have to name the tiny house "THE SHOE".

The Movement We Never Abandoned

When Dear Farmer and the Wife married, their first home was a less than five-hundred square foot remodeled chicken coop.  It was a house with no doors.  A great and wonderful thing for Dear Farmer and the Wife while they were newly weds.  Issues had to be dealt with face to face.  Neither would run away, neither would back down, neither would give up their bed.  Problems were fixed by the next morning.
After child number three was born they listened to the advice of the ages...get a bigger house.  So they did. They actually doubled the square footage and purchased a house nearly 1000 sq.ft.
After children 8 & 9 were born they had to move for the farm...the house was triple the size of the house they came from.  The Wife nearly had a mental breakdown!  So much house!!!  Dear Farmer and the Wife have been overwhelmed by the amount of house, the amount of stuff, the amount of space.  They have an entire room just for a table and chairs!  Well, actually...it's two tables and chairs the room holds...and a buffet, and corner hutch, and coffee bar....and there's still room!
Dear Farmer and the Wife reminisce about those good old days...in the chicken coop.  Sure it was a squeeze, but it was the happiest squeezing ever.  The Wife made Dear Farmer promise to build her a chicken coop to move onto Honorable Son No.1's "someday" farm.  Dear Farmer promised he would.
There is a movement of people who are tired of stuff, tired of waste, tired of debt.  They are moving into "Tiny Houses".  We didn't know twenty years ago that our lifestyle would be "trendy".  Though we live in a house that is far too big (by 1950's standards) for our family (there are only nine children left at home presently), our hearts are in the tiny house.
Recently Dear Farmer decided we weren't going to be replacing the tent that we've had for twelve years. The tent served us well for many family campouts..."It's just not worth replacing.", he said.
We've talked of buying an RV?...a pop-up?...maybe just a trailer with bunks built in?  Then Dear Farmer had a "lightbulb" moment!  The Wife's tiny house!!!!  He's building the Wife a tiny house...a bunk-house, if you will.  It will be mobile, able to be trailer-ed from location to location, but with electricity and real mattresses!  And real walls! And real windows!  And real doors!  Dear Farmer's winterizing it, and seriously talking of A/C(which the Wife has yet to be convinced of).
How exciting!  To be able to share a love of small spaces and rustic living with our children!  The Wife doesn't have to wait until she's a Grandma...she gets to do it now!
Looking forward to sharing the tiny adventures with you!