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Tiny House, Big Heart: Kim Langston’s Rebuilding Project


This post contains affiliate links.

I’ve been wanting to remind you about this for the last few weeks because it’s a great way to help a fellow tiny house person who could really use it.

And the great part is you can get a “perk” as a thanks for helping. Now there’s a cool way to encourage giving, right? Although we should all be humbled by those who give anonymously just because they want to.

Anyway, many of you have heard of Kim Langston who has been having to rebuild her tiny house because her first one was burned down in a mysterious barn fire last summer.

So what I’d like to do (with your help) is continue to help Kim go back from this:

Kims-House-Fire

To this:

tiny-house-fire-victim

It’s totally optional to contribute. But if you can spare anything and feel like doing it, then do go for it! Otherwise, no problem and no worries! Just enjoy the video below and don’t worry because those of us who are able to pitch in will. 🙂

Watch the Video Below:

Tiny House, Big Heart from marina gagarina on Vimeo.

What You Can Get If You Donate

  • Tiny House, Big Heart button + postcard letter by Kim & Team
  • Go House Go eBook
  • A Tiny House, Big Heart print
  • A CD Compilation
  • One Dozen Artisan Popsicles
  • 2014 Art Calendar
  • Stay in Dee Williams Tiny House
  • 2 Day Stay in Kim’s Tiny House (once it’s complete)
  • Beer, Buffalo Wings and Building with Derek Diedricksen
  • 7 Day Stay in Kim’s Tiny House

To learn more about Kim’s campaign for her tiny house click here where you can also consider contributing. Perks are optional.

kimproduce_zpsafc6512c

Let’s help her get this back! And from now on, let’s use this as a lesson and encourage folks to find and get insurance for their tiny houses to prevent major disasters like this one from ever occurring again.

tinyhousecombo_zpsa0dc4e80

To learn more about Kim’s campaign for her tiny house click here where you can also consider contributing. Perks are optional.

This post contains affiliate links.

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Alex

Alex is a contributor and editor for TinyHouseTalk.com and the always free Tiny House Newsletter. He has a passion for exploring and sharing tiny homes (from yurts and RVs to tiny cabins and cottages) and inspiring simple living stories. We invite you to send in your story and tiny home photos too so we can re-share and inspire others towards a simple life too. Thank you!
{ 13 comments… add one }
  • June 20, 2013, 8:12 pm

    Alex, thanks for posting the indiegogo link to raise funds for Kim’s house. It’s great to see the campaign is in full swing.

    Last November I attended a Tumbleweed workshop with Dee Williams who told us the sad story of Kim losing her home. You could tell that Dee really felt for Kim’s loss and struggled to keep her eyes dry as she told us about it. At the end of the conference we all signed a tiny house book to give Kim along with donations collected from the attendees.

    The Tiny House, Big Heart campaign has awesome perks for contributors. I impulsively splurged on Deek’s “Beer, Buffalo Wings and Building” perk. Other than figuring out when I can make the road trip from Ottawa, ON the only tough part will be deciding which friend to bring: my boyfriend from Ottawa or childhood friend in Amesbury, MA! Maybe I can negotiate a two-fer. 🙂

    • Alex
      June 21, 2013, 12:36 am

      Whoa! Thanks so much for your help Judy. And OMG, you’re going to have so much fun with Deek!

    • Deek
      June 26, 2013, 3:23 pm

      Thanks for helping out Judy! Hope they make their goal so that I can see you for the micro workshop down the road!

  • Jerry
    June 21, 2013, 2:03 am

    I had a talk with my insurance agent a couple of days ago, and showed him pictures and designs for various tiny houses. He said the best way to insure it is as an RV attached to my vehicle’s insurance policy.

    While I feel certain he can get me insurance, I have absolutely no faith in the idea of being able to collect on the insurance. I’ve heard the horror stories of various insurance claims on trailers being invalidated for many reasons, some very nitpicky others sensible, and with the special status of a tiny house on a trailer I’m sure they could find things to nitpick about. Regardless it is never in the insurance company’s interest to pay if they can keep from doing so. Makes me think I should just concern myself with liability insurance, and plan on using the mortgage savings to build a nest egg to self insure my future tiny house.

    • Alex
      June 28, 2013, 3:22 pm

      Interesting thoughts Jerry. I’ve also thought of the idea of self insuring tiny houses. The idea isn’t perfect, and wouldn’t always work, but it certainly could! It might even be what I would do for myself. But most of these homes (that are well designed/built) have a value of around $50,000 because of the materials and the labor. Yes, your time is worth money!! So if you set aside $100/mo to self insure, it would take 41 years to get to $50k. If you set aside $500/mo to “self insure” it would take around 8 years.

      • Jerry
        June 28, 2013, 10:11 pm

        The idea of self insurance is not to be concerned with when you have the full value saved up, but rather to begin the proper habit of putting enough away for “a rainy day.” The tiny houses that are built well enough to be valued at $50k+ probably can be insured through traditional means (though those on trailers will still be tricky). My idea for self insurance is targeted more towards those of us attempting to build our tiny homes as cheaply as possible.

        One other consideration, if you don’t think your insurance company will pay due to technicalities (a very probable outcome), then any money you spend on insurance (beyond liability coverage) is wasted money!

  • Ralph Sly
    June 23, 2013, 2:31 pm

    Has anyone looked into AMA or any of the other RV plans, I use AMA PLUS RV and am totally satisfied with their ethics and road side service, with me they have gone above and beyond expectations. I will be changing my vehicle insurance because of my great experience with them. (I have had the same multiple vehicle insurance for 50 years with one company, 1 incident over that time and they are treating me like a parasite) Possibly some of these outfits may have a plan we just don’t know about or if they knew how many of the Th”ers were out there, they just might come up with something. I cannot sing high enough praises for AMA.

    • Alex
      June 28, 2013, 3:24 pm

      Thanks Ralph. Glad to hear you’re having a great experience with AMA. I hadn’t even really heard of them before either.

      • Ralph Sly
        June 28, 2013, 4:09 pm

        I bought a RV in Bakersfield CA years ago and they gave me a year RV coverage with roadside service company. I didn’t use it but the plan was the same as what I pay very little for with AMA. So I feel as they are in the related industry anyway, maybe something is available that we do not know about. Or with a few inquiries, who knows.

  • June 24, 2013, 4:04 pm

    Hey Alex and everyone!

    Thank you so much for sharing our story and contributing! Because of this post we have seen almost $2000 come in to our campaign that is directly liked to this page. Your generosity means a great deal to us!!! And keep sharing the story everyone! All our telling the story has led to our campaign being featured on the front page of Indiegogo! We are $22000 away from our goal and we have 5 days to get there. Still some amazing perks available! 4 stays left in Dee Williams tiny house. Only 5 signed Nikki McClure letterpress broadsides! Stays in Kim’s house. Go House Go ebooks. And much more! Viva la Teeny Tiny!

    • Alex
      June 24, 2013, 4:35 pm

      Thanks everyone for helping us give them our support. We couldn’t have done it without ya’ll! And I’m so glad we were able to help as a community Jenn 🙂

  • Sue Resnik
    June 25, 2013, 6:07 pm

    Where will the rebuild be? What town, state, country, etc?

    • Alex
      June 28, 2013, 3:23 pm

      Hi Sue, you know, I didn’t think about that but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be in Portland, OR.

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