This backyard tiny house is used as an office. If you work from home what better way to separate your career life with your home life then to build an office a few steps away? Designed by Sarah Deeds of Deeds Design and built by carpenter John McBride. It was even recently featured on Dwell Magazine and photographed by Lenny Gonzalez. The passive solar structure is just 120-square-feet in size and since it’s heavily insulated requires no heating at all. With the sun coming in, a computer running and a human body inside it keeps warm just fine. Fortunately, our friends Kirsten Dirksen and Nicolas Boullosa of Faircompanies went and visited to create an amazing video tour and interview we can all enjoy.
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Photo by Nicolas Boullosa
Most of the wood used to build the structure was either FSC certified or salvaged. Enjoy the rest of the photos and a video tour below:
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Hold onto your hat; the holiday season is about to explode in retail stores everywhere. I know it’s still early, but setting your intentions now, will give you the opportunity to design your celebration rather than react to marketing. According to the Gallup Poll, Americans spend between $400 and $800 on holiday gifts. It’s easy to get caught up in the rush of it all, but with a little forethought, you can decrease your spending, increase your joy, and still fit into your home come January 1, 2013.
Last year was our first Christmas in our tiny house. Since Christmas has always brought an influx of things, we approached the holidays with a lot of intention. Even though I didn’t know how we could possibly get a Christmas tree, decorations and presents into our tiny house without totally tipping the scales, I can report that we had the best celebration ever!
Over the next few weeks I will share some of the ways we simplified our celebration, and created one that is just right for our family. I encourage you to try some or all of them, and let us know how it goes. Please, also share your ideas for a simple holiday in the comment section.
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Guest Post by the Wooly Wagons Team
Here is a concept drawing of the Wooly Wagon currently being built in our shop. Most of our work is custom designed, taking in the desires and needs of our clients. After an in-depth interview with our customer, in which we cover such things as purpose, materials and unique design features, Steve goes to work designing on the computer. This gives our client the opportunity to visualize the look of their finished product. Steve is an excellent communicator, asking questions and making suggestions until the final design fits not only our customer’s purposes but their personality as well. Also an accomplished painter, Steve brings his sense of artistry to all of our projects. Every one of our wagons is a work of art, beautiful as well as functional.
This project will be a rolling residence for famed poet and artist Kit Muldoon who intends to travel through the glorious countryside of the Western Rocky Mountains in Colorado, painting and writing in her portable studio. It can be towed with a vehicle, or as Kit tells us, will be eventually pulled by a horse or mule. Our uniquely designed cupola will provide plenty of natural light, illuminating the woodsy murals she plans to paint on the interior giving her the feeling of being connected to the outdoors, even when she’s inside.
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Photo Credit Wooly Wagons
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You may have already heard the news. Jay Shafer, the founder of The Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, is leaving to start a new business venture. The announcement was made quietly and there isn’t even anything listed on the Tumbleweed Tiny House website at this time.
On October 27th, the Facebook page for Tiny House Design posted the following status update:
“Jay Shafer is leaving the Tumbleweed House Company. That’s the sad news. The good news is that he’s starting up a new endeavor focused more on “social justice via housing rights.” He needs some feedback on a new name… I’ll post a survey next – please vote to help Jay name his new organization.”
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If you’re like me you can admit that many of your motives and fears come from money. I think this should be okay to admit and I encourage you to open up a little bit here especially since we all use currency for just about everything in life.
And even though our money is no longer backed by gold and is basically just paper that the government (or should I say the Federal Reserve) prints out it still saves us lots of time when we want to buy a good or a service because it’s the fastest way to exchange goods and services. It’s basically a tool for trade.
If you’re anything like most people I know, you probably have had a love/hate relationship with money. My challenge and intention with this article is to get you to love and appreciate money if that’s something you’re struggling with. Why? Because it makes sense to. I mean, why have a bad relationship with something that you know you’re going to continue using everyday?
Sometimes I feel that living simply has this connotation that says, “I don’t care about money and guess what.. I hardly even need it anymore.” And you know what.. I LOVE and APPRECIATE that because it empowers us and gives us more choice in life. So if you got that mindset, too, then HIGH FIVE!
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I had the opportunity to speak with Alex from right here at Tiny House Talk the other day. We had a great conversation and he asked a lot of great questions. Some of the things he asked got me thinking about where this all started and just exactly how we got to a point in our lives where building and living in a tiny house seemed like the right decision.
Matt and I have been together a long time – nearly 18 years. We met in college and we were 19 and 20 when we started dating. It’s funny because a lot of people want to know how the two of us can live and work together but we just don’t think about it like that. We like spending time with each other so it just comes naturally. We have always had very complimentary dreams. Those dreams didn’t always include a tiny house; especially since we didn’t even know what a tiny house was back then, but they always included a desire to live in a more extraordinary way.
When I think back on it, I realize that the tiny house idea was really not that far from some of our earlier yearnings for adventure. Maybe it is possible that the concept was always in our DNA but until we discovered the tiny house movement we just didn’t realize it.
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Photo by Laura LaVoie
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By Laura LaVoie
As I am sure you recently read, Alex here at Tiny House Talk spoke with Ryan over at The Tiny Life. The interview was excellent and informative all the way around but there was something specific that struck me.
They both spoke about being dissatisfied with traditional corporate jobs. I thought to myself that I was also dissatisfied with my traditional corporate job and that was one of the things that lead me to make such a drastic change in my own lifestyle.
I began to think of many of the other tiny house builders I know and many are also dissatisfied with traditional corporate jobs, and some have worked hard to change their way of earning a living.
The idea of living tiny is unconventional by its very nature so it stands to reason that most individuals, couples, or families that chose this route also find themselves on the unconventional style. Someone can certainly maintain traditional employment while living in their tiny house; I don’t believe many of us want to.
There is concept that is a parallel to the Tiny House Movement which can help individuals augment their tiny house experience. It is referred to as Location Independence.
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Today lots of people are looking for alternative ways to live without mortgages and it turns out that there are several ways to do it.
Tiny houses on trailers aren’t the only way to go. And with enough labor and the right materials you can create a very lovely home.
The folks at WPICreative took this raggedy old school bus and transformed it into a beautiful home on wheels. It even caught the attention of the writers at Inhabitat.
I guess you can say it’s a custom built motorhome with a rustic charm to it. It has a completely custom wood interior and like all school buses, it’s surrounded by windows.
Unhappy with your view? Drive on.
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Enjoy the rest of the photos below:
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I just got an interesting message on Facebook from a reader who jokingly suggested there should be a tinyhousemingle.com so people like us who are interested in tiny houses can find dates with similar interests. Haha, there’s a question I’ve never been asked before! But really.. why not? At first, I couldn’t think of anything so I thought this would be a great topic to write about and gather ideas on. After you read my initial thoughts below maybe you can help me come up with more ideas in the comments?
I figured I’d give you as many tips that I could think of to help meet other people who will most likely be interested in living small as well. So here they are:
- Yoga classes and events
- Kayaking events, groups, and clubs
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