All About our Tiny House

Before we left on our cycling tour, we designed and built a tiny house on a trailer that we intend to live in upon our return.  At 180 square feet, our home will allow us more freedom to live simply, to relocate (if necessary), and to use less resources.

The exterior of the home was built and sealed off from the elements before we left on our travels, with the interior design to be completed later.  Our home includes a storage loft, kitchen, bathroom, living room, sleeping loft, and a small porch.

We used as much local and/or reclaimed lumber and non-toxic materials in the building process as possible, while also paying particular attention to energy efficiency.  Our plan is to keep it simple: point of use plumbing, wood stove for heat, composting toilet, mini-fridge in the summer & natural fridge in the winter, marine alcohol stove/oven for cooking, and12 volt/LED lighting.  Long term plans include use of solar power – passive to heat water for showering/cleaning and panels to provide electricity.

We documented the building of our house which you can follow on our Tiny House Posts Page.  You can also find more information on the Tiny House Movement by browsing the links to the left of this page.

What’s the deal?  Why so small?

It’s taken us awhile to get to the place that we are today.  Over the years, we have lived in a variety of homes - from a studio apartment of 130 square feet to a home of over 2,000 square feet.  Before we moved into our Tiny House we lived in a space of 503 square feet (not including a 345 square foot unfinished basement).  Although a substantial downsize from our previous apartment of 1200 square feet, it still felt too large for us.  When we actually paid attention to our usage of space, we realized we only needed a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom - the rest was wasted space which we filled up with unnecessary “stuff”.

We’re going tiny for many reasons, including:

• to help simplify our lives
• to create a more proportionate balance of household size to space
• to lower utility/energy costs
• to use as little resources as possible (both in the structure and through our daily living practices)
• to save more money
• to create more time & energy
• to reduce clutter
• to better represent our values/beliefs
• to give us more flexibility in location of our home

Excellent Video Summarizing Tiny House Movement

PBS Interview with Dee Williams of Portland Alternative Dwellings

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

Another Big Reason – Consider This

In the United States, the size of our homes have expanded over the years, despite the fact that household size has decreased.  The average household size, as of 2009, was  2,422 square feet, for an average of 2.6 people.  That’s over 930 square feet per person!  In a world of economic and environmental decline (not to mention the moral implications inherent in such blatant representations of wealth in a majority-poor world), these statistics are appalling.  After thirty years of continually expanding home sizes, when is enough going to be enough?