This Custom Tiny House Brings Spaciousness and Comfort to Farm Living

Indigo River Tiny Homes (IRTH) is a builder of tiny houses with a solid reputation and experience that goes beyond building tinies. They boast of being able to "build you the best custom THOW in Texas," and they're probably not exaggerating: so far, many of their units have eared positive reviews from trade publications and online.

IRTH does everything from smaller, compact tiny homes to oversize park models that live even larger than a city apartment. They offer a range of models to choose from and personalization options, so with a little effort on the part of the buyer and assistance from the builders themselves, no two homes need be alike.

This unit, which doesn't have a name as of this writing, is based on the popular Pioneer model from IRTH. The Pioneer is designed as family-centric tiny that sits on a triple-axle trailer and offers a lot of home-like features and a heightened degree of comfort, including a ground-floor bedroom with standing height.

This unit also does this but adds a few more inches here and there. It's a dry cabin, so it's essentially a weekend retreat that isn't hooked up to water but could still serve as a proper home should either of these circumstances change.

It's been designed and built for a single occupant, to place on a blueberry farm in upstate New York, so it's made to withstand colder temperatures and has styling touches that bring to mind the main activity on the farm.

Whereas most tiny homes are designed to move, whether frequently or less so, the owner of this unit has no plans to relocate – ever. This allowed IRTH more freedom with its dimensions, making it bigger than the standard Pioneer model and thus creating even more space inside.

The unit is 38 feet (11.5 meters) long, 10 feet (3 meters) wide, and 14 feet (4.2 meters) high to accommodate the deck over trailer design. It's slightly bigger than the standard Pioneer, and it's also better lit thanks to a wide choice of glazing, including a double sliding door and a large skylight in the living room. As the builders explain, since this home will sit on private property, the owner wanted it to feel like it's living outside in nature because there's no one to peek in.

The video tour available at the bottom of the page shows the home with furniture in place, but that's only to allow us, the viewers, a better appreciation of how cozy it will be once it's set up. In reality, it will be delivered only with the kitchen, the toilet, and the Grizzly wood-burning stove in place, and the owner will furnish it herself.

The layout includes a ground-floor bedroom with space for a queen-size bed and enough room to walk around on all three sides, a small living room area that will probably fit a two-person couch and a TV, the kitchen with an attached dining area, and the bathroom. This last area features an incinerating toilet to completely cut off reliance on the grid and no shower: this is a dry cabin, so it doesn't have running water.

Since the owner has no immediate plans to hook it up to water, the home also has no plumbing and no sink in the kitchen, either. Otherwise, this space is perfectly normal – and charming, to boot. There's a two-burner induction cooktop, a residential-size fridge and freezer, and plenty of storage options.

Because it will serve mainly as a weekend retreat on private land, the home offers the basics in terms of features and storage. Still, it has two units of the Lunos energy recovery ventilation system, all-around insulation, and the wood stove to offer shelter from the elements.

It's also styled very elegantly, with white shiplap walls, white beams for the ceiling, dark parquet on the floor, and blue accents in the kitchen. The expansive glazing allows in plenty of natural light and makes the interiors live much larger – considerably so than what you'll get in most tinies of this size.

As beautiful as this tiny might be – and it is! – it can also serve as yet another example of how prohibitively priced these homes on wheels are. Tiny homes have been riding the wave of popularity for the past two decades, but over the past five years or so, they've also gone mainstream. Increased competition and heightened demand haven't brought prices down, though.

If anything, the financial crisis and the boom in demand drove prices up to the point where many tinies are now priced like premium products. This unit is among them, too, though IRTH doesn't mention an exact figure for the build. A standard Pioneer with standard features and finishes starts at around $149,000, so this being a custom unit, it was at least that, even without plumbing.