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The Denali XL feels like one big-ass tiny home compared to others

Bigger is better in the American South: big trucks, big personalities, and most of all, big ambitions. So, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that a new outfit out of Guntersville, Alabama has come up with a tiny home that is gargantuan compared to others on the market.

The newest product from Timbercraft Tiny Homes is a pretty amazing 42-foot tiny house that can be moved in a 10-foot-wide gooseneck trailer and has just less than 400 square feet of floor space inside. The Denali XL is the biggest offering from Timbercraft Tiny Homes, whose offerings range from a relatively tiny 20-foot Ynez model to a manageable 24-foot Boxcar model to a slightly smaller version of the Denali that comes in anywhere from 35 to 41 feet.

But the Denali XL is a mansion by tiny homes standards, containing the aforementioned 399-square-feet of living space, with an additional 65-square-feet above the bathroom. The tiny home features tall ceilings, powered skylights, and two air conditioners to make sure owners always have plenty of fresh air. It also uses an advanced form of insulation based on closed cell spray foam technology that not only makes the home easier to heat and cool but also strengthens the walls.

Often, tiny homes can be a giant pain to move into place. Timbercraft’s smaller homes can fit on a bumper pull trailer and they all come with standard RV style hookups, so you can drop one into a trailer park easily. The bigger ones like the Denali XL are more of a challenge. These homes can weigh as much as 20,000 pounds and require a gooseneck trailer to get into place. However, any of Timbercraft’s tiny homes are under the width and height restrictions of the Department of Transportation, and you don’t need any special licenses or permits to move them. You will need a one ton or larger pickup, though.

Denali XL Tour by Timbercraft Tiny Homes

You can check out Timbercraft Tiny Homes’ website for more information about pricing, but the Denali XL will run you about $125,000 for a basic unit. The company can build them pretty fast — Timbercraft says they can have your (big) tiny house finished within eight to 10 weeks from the time they start, although they recommend new clients contact them six to nine months before landing on the build schedule.

Their sweet spot is building shell homes that can be finished out by the owner that includes wiring, plumbing and insulation but doesn’t manage wall coverings, floors, or fixtures. But the company has the capacity to add non-standard features to any of their offerings including attractive amenities like a composting toilet, grey water system, or wiring for solar panels for clients that want to go off-grid. They can also do TV or cable hookups and appliances like washer/dryers, an electric cooktop, a gas range, and a propane heater for those who aren’t ready to give up the amenities of civilization.

Clayton Moore
Clayton Moore’s interest in technology is deeply rooted in the work of writers like Warren Ellis, Cory Doctorow and Neal…
5 smart products for tiny spaces
Tiny Home

Whether you're building out your tiny home, hitting the road and starting the van life, or you just live in a modest apartment, you need to make the most out of the limited space you've got. Let's find some of the smart essentials that can do double- or triple-duty around your home, cutting down on the need for extraneous gadgets.
1. Skip the stove with an all-in-one cooker
Instant Pot has gained massive popularity in the world of pressure cookers for good reason. It's able to cook a wide range of dishes thanks to robust configuration options. In addition to using the appliance as a standard pressure cooker, you can steam, sautée, make yogurt, use it as a sous vide, or for canning. The latest model includes Wi-Fi and a smartphone app, so you can peruse recipes and remotely monitor as needed. With some clever meal planning, the Instant Pot can replace your need for a stove.
2. Save some space in the bathroom
You can save water and space by putting a sink on top of your toilet tank. These kinds of sinks let your sink water fill your toilet with gravity, and get used for flushing. Grey water usage like this can help reduce water waste, which can be an issue in homes with limited freshwater supply. Who needs their toilet water to be potable anyway?
3. Add a cutting board to your kitchen sink
The kitchen sink takes up a fairly large footprint, so why not cover it up with a cutting board when it's not in use? This can provide valuable extra real estate when doing meal prep. With the right cutout, you can move food scraps into the sink or hold a strainer. We found this one that could do the trick, but you'd want to measure your sink beforehand to make sure the cutting board would span across your sink.
4. Sub out the TV for a projector
The slimmer a TV is, the more expensive it gets. Not only that, it permanently occupies space on your wall, which could be better put to use with more shelves. Make your big screen portable with a projector. This lets you enjoy your shows with however much room you have available. It can be especially helpful for watching movies on the ceiling, which would normally be unused space. A projector can just as easily be used with your phone, tablet, or PC. The AAXA P7 Pico Mini Projector is our favorite portable projector and should be flexible enough to place wherever you need to store it.
5. Combine your washer and dryer
You'll still need to do laundry, so roll with a combo washer and dryer to save on space. Finding one that is also compact and energy-efficient is important. If you can get a model with smartphone connectivity, you're really covering all the bases. This GE model has a capacity of 2.4 cubic feet, and at 23 by 25 inches, it has a very small footprint. It's ventless, which makes for painless installation, and has a range of temperature and spin speed settings to handle even your most delicate items.

Whatever shape it takes, having a tiny home can save you money and lower the amount of power you need to stay heated or cooled. Hopefully, this handful of solutions help make that limited space a little more comfortable.

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It’s easy to see why we anthropomorphize Siri and her A.I. brethren. She has a name and, apparently, a gender. But faulting a device -- not those who program it -- is a symptom of a much larger problem, according to Dr. Yolande Strengers, an associate professor, Department of Human Centred Computing at Monash University, and Dr. Jenny Kennedy, a postdoctoral research fellow at RMIT University, Melbourne. Their new book, Smart Wife: Why Siri, Alexa, and Other Smart Home Devices Need a Feminist Reboot, explores the harmful stereotypes that lie behind Alexa’s upbeat answers and Siri’s snark.

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