Best Friends Build Tiny House Village

Placeholder image for Foundation for Intentional Community website.
Christopher Kindig
  • May 26, 2015
  • Life Transitions
  • Relationships
  • Sustainability
Modern tiny house with metal siding and large windows in a natural setting.

Best Friends Build Tiny House Village

Living in the same town was not enough for four couples who have been best friends for 20 years. They decided to double down on their relationship and buy a little bit of land “in the middle of nowhere” on the Llano River in the Hill Country of Texas.

Fed up with the daily grind of suburban living and hungering for more family, friendship, and simple living, they started meeting and talking about what they could do about it. What came out of this was what they called their “Llano Exit Strategy” – to build a small community of Tiny Houses; a “Bestie Row” where they could relax and rejoice together in style.
They employed an architect, Matt Garcia, to help plan their visionary little village. Each couple lives in a 400 square foot home, which cost about $40,000 in total to build. They also built a 1,500 square foot community center or common house to share, which includes a large kitchen and plenty of space to party. Outdoors they sip coffee overlooking the river in the mornings, and watch their children and grand children play with the abundance of nature around them.

They designed with sustainability in mind. This includes opting for large windows to allow plenty of natural light into the homes, and water catchment systems to gather and store every drop of water that lands on the roof. Galvanized metal siding was chosen to reflect light and dramatically reduce the scorching Texas heat.

The interior of the homes are mostly unfinished, with industrial finishes, to keep expenses down and to keep a farmhouse chic or contemporary rural feel. Creative space management was employed wherever possible to make the spaces both fashionable and functional.

Inspiring you to design a paradise with some of your besties?

To read more see: http://www.theplaidzebra.com/8-best-friends-built-a-tiny-house-town-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-to-retire-in-style/#ixzz3bEcIkZtA

*Updated* – Also, for more coverage about this group and their story, see: https://homes.yahoo.com/blogs/spaces/best-friends-tiny-house-camp-223422436.html

Comments

Featured Blogs

Keep the conversation going with these pieces

Christopher Roth
Thu May 2018
  • New to community
  • Sustainability
For reasons both practical and ideological, intentional community has long been a hotbed of eco-building activity. In Communities’ “Eco-Building” issue (Summer 2018, #179), authors share their eco-building journeys, ranging from nearly-free stick-framed shelters to high-end green developments. They …
David Leach
Fri Dec 2012
  • New to community
  • Sustainability
Kibbutzes, ecovillages, cohousing communities, and pocket neighborhoods offer us opportunities to make a new start.
Christopher Roth
Mon Aug 2017
  • Living in community
  • Relationships
Our Fall issue, sponsored in part by the Communal Studies Association, focuses on Learning from the Past. Current communitarians reflect on lessons from their own and their communities’ histories, and on inspiration from historical communities that inform their own efforts. Students of communalism s…
Molly
Mon Apr 2008
  • New to community
In honor of Earth Day, the Washington Post ran an article on Arcosanti with a sidebar on ecovillages as a green vacation destination. Arcosanti was started in the 1970s by Italian architect Paolo Soleri, a spitfire who seeks an alternative to a car-dominant, hyper-consumerist society. With his so-ca…
Codicts Team
Wed Jul 2013
  • Life Transitions
Green Solutions & Green Good News! Organic Mechanic on Facebok https://www.facebook.com/OrganicMechanicDotCom
Christopher Kindig
Sat May 2015
  • Economics & Law
Income Sharing Urban Communities Point A is a group which has “an audacious proposal to form urban, income sharing, egalitarian, democratic, ambitious, engaged communes in the cities of the American East Coast.” So far these cities include Washington DC, Baltimore, New York City, and Richmond. T…
Nancy Chappell
Wed Aug 2016
  • Living in community
  • Relationships
Adults with disabilities and residential caregiver volunteers share the challenges and joys of community life at Innisfree.
Christopher Kindig
Tue May 2015
  • Life Transitions
A Resilient Society Resilience is the ability to absorb shocks and continue to function. In this short video series the Post Carbon Institute explores the questions around how our world has gotten to where it is, and what a world can look like functioning within it’s limits. The Law of Diminishing…
Saul Of-Hearts
Mon May 2016
  • Economics & Law
As interest in community living grows, it’s important that we make it easy and accessible for people to get involved with their local co-ops and coliving spaces. For many people, community dinners, art and music nights, and overnight stays are the ideal way to explore whether coliving is right for t…
Sara Donna
Sat Oct 2014
  • Living in community
  • Relationships
A small communal family discusses how they got good at cooperating, and other essentials of collective life.

Insights & Stories from the Communities Movement

Subscribe to our newsletter for fresh stories and community updates delivered to your inbox.

Join the Communiversity Community

Get unlimited access to courses, exclusive member events, and a supportive network of community builders

Unlimited Learning

Access all courses, books, and premium content

Community Network

Member-only workshops and community builders

Exclusive Events

Member-only workshops and gatherings

Update to a Public Profile

  • Log in
  • Go to your profile page
  • Toggle on the "Add my profile to the directory"
  • Save your profile

Information

Communities

A residential project: people live here as their primary home.

Organizations

An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).

Plus Community Membership

  • Find people with Profile Match
  • Access to your community listing statistics
  • Create Discussion Groups
  • Access to our affiliate program
  • Member badge on your community profile
I am an official member of this community
Disclaimer
I affirm that my information is accurate and I am authorized to manage this listing
Foundation for Intentional Community FIC Member badge logo.

Free Plan

Free Membership
Free

Intentional Advertising

  • Subtotal

    {{ currencyFormat( pricing_summary.total_amount ) }}

Icon representing community connections and collaboration for intentional communities.

Plus Membership

We’re introducing new Plus features — including community reviews, Profile Match, and unlimited Needs & Offers posts — while keeping most of FIC free for everyone. Membership costs less than two coffees a month. 

  • Find communities with Profile Match
  • View detailed reviews about communities
  • Create free listings in Needs & Offers
  • Plus Member resources in CommUniversity
  • View communities detailed reviews
  • Plus Member badge on your profile