Continuing Research for our Tiny House

Pat and I have been looking at various plans to build our own tiny house as we talked about the other day on Facebook. We continue watching Tiny House Nation and Tiny House Hunting. Most of the plans we have seen don’t exactly fit what we are looking for so we will probably combine a couple plans to come up with a interior plan that better fits us.
However, we are also looking at the possibility of buying a smaller existing home, However that won’t give us the experience to learn from building up. Even if it is a fixer upper. Though a fixer upper we could learn about building new cabinets to make it more handicapped accessible, as we need. Making upper cabinets into display cabinets.

Of course we are still looking for ways to raise the estimated $30,000. Some could be raised through a yard sale, we after all do have to downsize considerably. Another idea, is from our friend Christian, by selling Kettle Corn. Another idea is using crowd funding. The fundraising would probably include all these ideas.
We have already decided on the name for our new home “petite maison de cygne.”

From Idea to Planning

Recently, my wife and I have been talking about a 500 square foot, tiny house. There are many reasons why this is a great idea.  Not only is it a popular thing currently, as featured on Tiny House Nation™ and Tiny House Hunting™. First, the cost of building smaller is less. Second, utility expenses is less, which means less of a carbon foot print on the environment. Third, and most importantly, is my wife’s handicap.  Because she is handicapped everything has to be lower. Which makes it harder to use the vertical space which is so critical in any tiny home. However, by putting display cases up above, I believe this can be gotten around.  This would allow the nick knacks to be displayed in an area that would go unused. The nick knacks don’t need to be messed with everyday (or even every month) any way, so this seems to be a perfect solution. Thus, bringing dishes down to the lower cabinets where they need to be for a handicapped individual.
Further, to help with utility costs even further, we want to have solar panels so that the all electric house will cost us nothing each month.  In addition we would like to use a rainwater collection system to flush the toilet and water the garden with?
The question now is, how to raise the estimated $30,000.  A friend suggested having a fundraiser. So I posted for ideas on Facebook. One friend suggested to look at Pintrest. According, to one link which gave 100 fundraising ideas, some of the ideas included:

Bake sale
Battle of the Bands
Bazaar
Bingo night
Bowling tournament
Carnival
Casino night
Charity auction
Charity concert
Charity dinner / pot luck
Charity race
Christmas party
Coffee morning
Costume contest
Craft fair
Dance / ball
Easter egg hunt
Easter egg roll
Egg and spoon race
Fashion show
Fete
Golf tournament
Halloween party
Karaoke
Learn a New Skill day
Meet-a-Celeb night
Photography exhibition
Pub quiz
Quiz night
Santa’s grotto
Shopping fair
Singing contest
Skating party
Skills raffle
Sporting match
Street party
Talent show
Themed fundraising party
Treasure hunt
Variety show
Wheelbarrow race
Wine tasting

Another link suggested individuals could use crowd funding. However, I am not sure that is the best idea to raise $30,000. So now I take the question to rest of the world. What do you think?
– Prince of Thrift