The Tiny House Profile: What Makes a Person Build Small?

Reset A− A+ 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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One of our first ideas was to buy an RV and live in it all over the country. This certainly sounds familiar when you put it in the tiny house context. In fact, I would say that the majority of tiny house builders are interested in a location independent lifestyle. When we went to get Piglet from her original home in Pennsylvania we rented a Winnebago from Cruise America and made a vacation out of it. We stopped at several places along the way including Six Flags and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. We slept in campgrounds. We got our kitten; who was only 13 weeks old and 2 pounds at the time. She’s nearly 12 years old now. We were so excited when she just settled into the RV like it was where she belonged and we thought we might be able to do it permanently. Then we got back home and returned the camper and went back to our conventional lives.

At some point the idea of living in an RV turned into buying a sailboat. I think we were ready to leave Michigan, where we both grew up, and we could romanticize living on the ocean. The plan was put on the back burner when we had an opportunity to move to Atlanta. It was because of that move to Atlanta that we had access to Asheville and fell in love with these mountains. Truth is living in our tiny house is a lot like living in a boat.

Things changed for us once again when we realized we needed to live in the mountains. We finally found exactly that thing, the passion, which made us want to take the leap into the unconventional. Matt studied several alternative building methods including Cordwood Masonry and Earthships before we learned about Tumbleweed Tiny Houses from a friend. The tiny house was perfect. So we built it.

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There are lots of paths to tiny living. I would love to hear from Tiny House Talk readers. If you’re planning to build or are in the process of building your tiny house, what led you to this point? What got you motivated? What drove you to the tiny house lifestyle?

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Laura LaVoie

Contributor and Tiny House Owner at 120SquareFeet.com

Laura M. LaVoie is a professional writer living in the mountains of North Carolina in a 120 Square Foot house with her partner and their hairless cat, Piglet. Laura graduated from Western Michigan University with a degree in Anthropology. She has been published in magazines and anthologies on the subjects of mythology and culture. She spent nearly 15 years in the temporary staffing industry before deciding to become a full time writer. Laura works closely with the Zulu Orphan Alliance volunteering her time and the skills she's learned building her own small house to build a shelter for orphans and other vulnerable children living near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Laura also enjoys simple living, brewing and drinking craft beer, and popular culture.

Latest posts by Laura LaVoie (see all)

• Top 5 Things to do on a Rainy Day in Your Tiny House - October 20, 2013
• Top 5 Reasons I Love My Tiny House in the Fall - September 24, 2013
• 3 Tips You Should Know Before Building From a Tiny House Builder - September 18, 2013