The house may be small, but the job may not be.

Shop around locally and expand out from there until you find the right one.

A 200 sf home is typically self designed and constructed. It faces the big hurdle of small job penalty pricing. There is a cutoff minimum for anyone doing small jobs, from architects to builders to any subcontractors. Heck, my HVAC guy has a $125 trip charge minimum, no matter what he does when he comes on site.

Designing a 200 s.f. functional tiny house would be much harder than a 2000 s.f. regular home, If your architect would do it for $6000, I'd consider it a bargain.

I wholeheartedly agree with Mark Bischak- these aren't small jobs. They take a ton of planning. Once done well, they are SO cool. But it takes a bit.

Not sure if any of this will be of help, but theSmall House Society has a variety of experienced designers/builders of these places. Maybe check it out to get the juices flowing. Of course, your water plans may take local help, but do-able.

I, for one, would really love for this to turn into "OK- we're doing it!". Would love to follow

Thanks for the suggestions / caution everyone. I've never used those freelancing websites before, but it looks like there are a lot of freelance architects on them that are willing to take small jobs for $20 to $50 per hour. My current plan is to spend the next few weeks pouring over Houzz and floor plans to come up with a sketch of what I want, then hire a freelance architect to polish it and run it through CAD. I'll let you know how it goes!

Summit.....can you explain in 'detail' why it would cost that much?? Can you explain this? Looking forward for your answer. If you actually do. Anybody can draw floor plans for a house as small as 200sf in a few hours! Are you charging $2000/hr??? That's common sense. I don't know how anyone can live in a house that small. I'm all for saving money buts that's insane for a house that small.

Robin - since anyone can allegedly draw a floor plan in a couple of hours, why don't you do exactly that? Bear in mind, your "floor plan" has to be a habitable house, that complies with code, suits the land it's sitting on, and has to be accurate enough to get all the required permits. Go ahead. I'm all on tenterhooks waiting to see what you come up with.

Thanks for the replies. After doing some more research, I think we are going to build it “off grid” for a number of reasons. If it’s below a certain size and doesnt use 220v, most counties allow those to be built without permits, which means a much simpler process.

this will primarily be a weekend retreat with my wife to get away for bits at a time. Im thinking w a solar generator, rain collection system and a tankless hot water heater (Using propane) we could have a pretty decent set up

Where are you located? I would be interested in discussing the project with you, depending on the location.

Here's a YouTube channel dedicated to diy powerwalls you could use with solar panels to help power your project. They recently mentioned lithium titanium cells are coming. They would be my choice for storage.

jmm......seriously????? You can't draw a house plan for 'just' 200sf??????????? That's not much more than a shed with a bath.......The 'subs know' the codes or they won't be in business!

Other robin, why do you think it is so easy? OP wants a house, not a shed with a bath.

Fitting a coat closet, master bedroom and bathroom (with a good layout) into a 14'x20' space with strict requirements on the door and window placement took my designer, architect and I months with dozens of attempts. We had to use tricks like wall mount faucets to make it work. If we had more space, it would have been way easier.

I can't imagine trying to design a functional house with a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, HVAC, electrical, etc that is only 200 square feet. I assume that there are lots of space saving tricks that clever architects could come up with. It sounds way way harder than designing a mansion (not that any house design is easy as this forum has shown).

Part of the problem is you are going to have to pay for the specialized expertise necessary to put this house together just right. I'd think a lot of architectural fees would come from time involved in a project, not just the size of it. For your sake I hope I'm wrong, and you find an affordable way of getting a good architect for your off-grid home.

I hope you post about your build process here, I'd be fascinated to follow.

• I'd take the word of my subs over the word of some design monkey every single time. Houzz is most definitely not a reflection of the norm in my area.

robinim.....you're in the wrong business......

I am not a pro... just a home owner. Your comment makes no sense.