Ad Astra Is an Awesome Custom Tiny House With a Built-In Terrarium and Fold-Down Deck

This is where custom tiny home builders like Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses step in. The skilled team at the Colorado-based company works with each and every client one-on-one to design a living space that is perfectly suited to their lifestyle. Ad Astra is one of the numerous custom designs they have crafted and a great example that compact living spaces can be extremely versatile and incorporate unexpected features you might not have thought possible in tiny houses.

Ad Astra, which is Latin for "To the Stars," was built in 2018 for a lovely couple living in Kansas and measures 24 feet long (7.3 meters). Though the owners originally planned to park it in Kansas, they eventually ended up moving to Portland, Oregon, so this is where this tiny home currently resides. And this is basically the greatest perk of living in a tiny house on wheels - you can take it with you wherever life's roads may lead you.

This tiny house sits on a double-axle trailer and boasts a beautiful wooden exterior with cedar lap siding and recycled corrugated metal wainscot. It is capped by a metal shed roof that maximizes the space inside and gives the house a more modern look.

A large three-leaf fold-down deck wraps around the structure from the entrance door to the kitchen window. This folding deck is one of the best features of the home's exterior. It can be folded up against the house's walls when you are on the move and then folded down to offer a nice outdoor space when stationary.

Another noteworthy feature on the outside is the large storage compartment at the rear of the home, which is great for outdoor gear.

The sapphire blue full-light front door leads inside the custom-designed interior that integrates several awesome features we have rarely seen in tiny homes, including a terrarium built into the storage staircase, a serving window in the kitchen, and a special litter box area under the steps, along with a vent leading outside for the couple's pet cat.

The interior is a customized version of the company's previous Pequod design, which the owners liked a lot. Minimalist and modern, the compact living space features white-painted shiplap walls and black pine trim throughout, complemented by hand-scraped bamboo floorings.

The layout is suitable for an individual, a couple, or even a small family and comprises the usual ground-floor living room, kitchen, and bathroom, plus two lofts.

Ad Astra's living room hosts a custom 6-foot sofa with integrated storage under the seats and behind the backrest. Next to it is the dining area, with a nesting table and two cubes for seats with storage inside. The table has fold-up extensions to make it larger when the couple has guests over.

The U-shaped kitchen is quite generous, with white cabinets and modern countertops with a fancy concrete finish. It has a large pantry and some secret storage under the sink. Functionality is given by full-size appliances, ranging from a big sink and an oven with propane-powered four-burner stove to a stainless steel fridge/freezer.

Another notable feature is an ingenious serving window that slides up and can be used for dining on the deck area outside.

The ceiling in the kitchen area is quite low since there is a loft space above it, but the bright white walls and the window over the sink help open up the space and bring in sufficient natural light.

The owners of this custom home are animal lovers and have pets, a gecko and a cat, to be more precise, so the team at Rocky Mountain made sure to make the house welcoming for them as well. As such, they integrated a glass terrarium and a litter box area with a passive exterior vent into the storage stairs leading up to one of the lofts.

Two bedroom lofts offer sleeping space for up to four people. The main loft sits above the bathroom and, instead of a bed platform, has a sunken queen-size mattress area and six storage cubbies built into the floor.

The secondary loft fits a queen-size mattress as well, but it can be used as a flexible space based on the owners' needs.

The bathroom inside Ad Astra is small but bright due to its white walls, wainscot, tiles, and fixtures. The builders put a strip of glass tile just above the wainscot to add a tinge of color, and the owners chose an all-in-one vanity and sink with a frameless mirrored medicine cabinet above. A shower/tub combo with white subway tile and a Nature's Head Composting Toilet complete the design.

Though not a new model, Ad Astra is such a great tiny house design with so many interesting features. It goes to show that, with a bit of ingenuity and craftsmanship, the right professional team can really make your dream home come true.