--- title: 'If you can imagine it, we can build it' url: 'https://mendotinyhomes.com/' markdown: 'https://mendotinyhomes.com/index.md' date: '2026-10-08' description: 'Custom tiny homes from John Johnson’s family shop in Ukiah, Mendocino County. Every house is built to order. ANSI 119.5 certified.' --- # If you can imagine it, we can build it The yard ## A few of the houses. None of these is a plan we repeat. Each one was tailored for the person who asked for it. Tap a house to open the photos. If yours is not on this page yet, that is the usual way we work. ![](https://mendotinyhomes.com/user/pages/01.home/prestige-03-thumb.webp) **The Prestige** Hillside · triple axle Warm gray siding, a little cedar shake by the door, and three axles under it. There is a long wall of windows, a spiral staircase, and a kitchen you can actually cook in. A nice one to walk through if you want a house that still feels like it belongs in Mendocino. ![](https://mendotinyhomes.com/user/pages/01.home/tajma-01-thumb.webp) **Tajma** Sage cottage · cedar porch Sage paint, cedar on the gable, and a little porch with a white rail. The kitchen is oak, the loft has a cable rail and a ladder, and there are skylights over the sleeping space. It feels like a cottage that happens to sit on a trailer. ![](https://mendotinyhomes.com/user/pages/01.home/andrew-01-thumb.webp) **Andrew's Tiny** White lap · under the oaks White siding and black window trim, parked in the shade of the oaks. A sliding door along the side, loft windows upstairs, and a mini-split on the end wall. Straightforward, and finished so it looks looked-after. ![](https://mendotinyhomes.com/user/pages/01.home/mindy-01-thumb.webp) **Mindy's Tiny** On a pad · cedar stoop Set down on a pad, with a cedar stair and a low block wall. Same white-and-black look as Andrew’s, built for a different yard. People tend to stop on the porch before they even go in. ![](https://mendotinyhomes.com/user/pages/01.home/referbish-01-thumb.webp) **Referbish** Teal door · little deck A teal front door with a fanlight, black trim around it, and a short deck. The door was the favorite detail on this one. We like it when a house gets to have a personality of its own. ![](https://mendotinyhomes.com/user/pages/01.home/boneyard-23-thumb.webp) **Boneyard Builds** Recycled materials · rebuilds Boneyard are houses built from recycled material, or rebuilds of unfinished tinyhomes. [ About ](#about) About us ## John Johnson builds them. Mendo Tiny Homes is a family company in Ukiah. John started the shop after putting a few tiny homes on his own property and seeing how well a small house can work when it is built with care. Every house is built in his yard. When it is finished, he delivers it, or you come pick it up. We are here for people who want something comfortable, well made, and easier on the land than a big house they do not really need. A lot of folks come to us for the same reason. They want a smaller life that still feels like home. A kitchen you can cook in. A bathroom that is not an afterthought. A place that stays warm. Our crew pays attention to how the space works day to day, not just how it looks in a photo. There is not a standard Mendo house. John likes to say the sign is there for a reason. Plenty of people do not want a loft. They want a bedroom downstairs. Some want both, or something we have not built yet. That is okay. Anything you want, we will tailor the house around it. **Our mission** We would rather build one house well than hurry through a dozen. Quality is the part we do not trade away. John likes a solid-pine interior, painted, and he does not care for particle board. Full-size appliances, real countertops, and heat in the floor have all been part of houses we have built, because comfortable matters as much as small. We also try to build lighter. Energy-efficient choices, materials that last, and recycled pieces when they are the right piece for the job. Boneyard Builds is the clearest example: houses made mostly from material that still had life in them, or rebuilds of unfinished tiny homes. Living responsibly does not have to mean giving up a cozy room or a kitchen you enjoy. **Our promise** You will talk with us, not a call center. The plan starts with what you want, and we keep changing it until the house feels like yours. A porch, a guest loft, a door that faces the yard you like, or something that is not on any of these pages. We stay with you from that first conversation through the finish work. Whether you want a quiet place of your own, a simpler everyday life, or a house that is a little kinder to the county you live in, we would be glad to help you get there. ![Framing inside a tiny home in the yard: studs, housewrap, a green ladder, and daylight through an unfinished window.](https://mendotinyhomes.com/user/pages/01.home/boneyard-01.webp) Boneyard Builds, in the yard. A lot of this house started as something else. [ Good to know ](#guide) Good to know ## A little about living small. **What is a tiny home?** A moveable tiny home is a real little house on a trailer. Kitchen, bathroom, a place to sleep, and a door that locks. It is not a shed, and it is not a weekend camper. You can tow it to a site, and if the rules allow, you can set it and live in it. We do not hand you a model and let you pick a paint color. Every home is tailored for the client. If you want it, we will figure out how to build it. A loft, or no loft. The door on the side you like. A kitchen that fits how you cook. The odd thing that makes it yours. **ANSI certification** ANSI 119.5John Johnson is ANSI certified. ANSI 119.5 is the building standard a lot of moveable tiny homes follow. It covers the structure, the systems, and fire safety for a small house that still has wheels. Think of the plaque as a report card that stays on the house. John holds the certification, and each home is looked over by a qualified third-party inspector. It leaves with a sticker or plaque. When Mendocino County checks the hookups, that is what they expect to find. The county also accepts NFPA 1192. Our houses are built to ANSI 119.5. Either standard is there so you, and the building department, know the work was checked by someone who does this for a living. **Why people like them** 1. **Easier day to day**Less house to heat, clean, and look after. Still a comfortable place to cook, sleep, and have people over. 2. **Land you already have**Where the zoning allows it, a moveable tiny home can be the main house or the extra one, without starting from a big foundation pour. 3. **Made for how you live**Do not want a loft? We will put the bedroom downstairs. Want the morning light in the kitchen? We will put the window there. 4. **Kinder on materials**We like solid wood, full-size appliances, and recycled pieces when they still have life in them. Smaller can also mean less to waste. 5. **Move it, or stay put**The trailer is how the house gets to you. Inland Mendocino can also treat a certified one as a home, once it is set up the right way. **Good news from the county** September 10, 2024 · Inland zoning ### Chapter 20.170 · Moveable Tiny Homes In September 2024 the Board of Supervisors adopted Ordinance No. 4538. In the county’s inland zoning, a moveable tiny home that meets Chapter 20.170 can be used as a single-family home or as an accessory dwelling. That is a real help if you have been wondering whether a tiny home can actually live on a Mendocino parcel. - Built to ANSI 119.5 or NFPA 1192. - Inspected by a qualified third party, accredited under ASTM E541 or ISO/IEC 17020. - A sticker or plaque on the unit. The county looks for it. - Licensed and registered with the California DMV. - Utility connections inspected when the home is set in place. - A fire-safety check again every five years, filed with Planning and Building Services. This is the inland code. It does not cover the coastal zone or the Town of Mendocino, and it is not a free pass to park anywhere. The parcel, the utilities, and the setbacks still matter. We are glad to talk it through, but the ordinance is the official word, not this page. [Read Chapter 20.170](https://www.mendocinocounty.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/67452/638642328326170000) [ Kind words ](#notes) Kind words ## From people who have had a house built. **Sarah Thompson** > “I kept walking back to the same corner of the kitchen after they left. The trim meets the way I hoped it would, and the little shelf by the door is exactly where I had waved my hand. I came by the shop a few times while it was going up in John’s yard. He and his family were easy to be around. You can tell they like the work. I still notice something small and well made when I am making coffee.” **Michael Rodriguez** > “What I remember is that John actually heard me. I did not want a loft I would stop using, and he did not try to talk me into one. Delivery ran a little late, and I was impatient about it. Then I walked through the house and it was the one we had talked about, not a close version. I was glad I waited.” **Emily Nguyen** > “I had a lot of questions, and he answered them without making me feel like I was holding up the job. We changed the kitchen twice. The second change was my fault, and he treated it like a normal part of building a house. The finished one is warmer and more useful than the picture I started with. I am in it every day and it still feels considered.” **James Carter** > “I had already been through a bad build with someone else. Money gone, calls not returned, and a shell that was never going to be the house I wanted. A friend pointed me to John. He was straightforward from the first conversation, easy to get on the phone, and he did not make a fuss about picking up a job that had gone wrong. He built the house I had been trying to get the whole time. I still cannot quite believe how simple he made it.” **Olivia Hernandez** > “He was pleasant the whole way through, which mattered because I was nervous about spending this kind of money on something I could not walk through yet. He took the time on the porch and the door, the two things I cared about most. Now that I live here I keep catching details I did not know to ask for. It turned out a little nicer than the house in my head.” **Liam Anderson** > “It never felt like I handed him a sketch and waited. He would call with a suggestion, usually a small one, and it was always worth hearing. The stair, the window over the sink, the way the door faces the oaks. Those were conversations, not surprises. I would send a friend to him without hesitating.” [ Hello ](#hello) Say hello ## We would like to hear what you have in mind. Tell us anything you want in the house. A yard, a wish list, a sketch, the one thing you were afraid was too specific. Call or write. The website does not take messages itself. - [(707) 391-5052](tel:+17073915052) - - [Instagram](https://instagram.com/mendotinyhomes) [ Top ](#top) ![]()