Tiny Dream
I had no idea that the Small House Movement existed, until I stumbled across a video featuring Dee Williams’s tiny house. It was New Year’s Eve of 2008 and hearing Dee’s story inspired us to go small and downscale.
Why so small?
Rather than devoting large sums of life energy and money toward a big home, we are going to purchase a tiny house. We don’t want a 30-year mortgage or all the headaches associated with maintaining a large home. By the time most Americans have purchased a $300,000 home, buy new furniture, remodel the home and pay interest on the mortgage, the home ends up costing a consumer 2-3 times the purchase price.
No thank you, we are going to take a pass on the traditional American dream and create our own. We would rather save for an early retirement, spend time with family/friends, enjoy the outdoors, each other, and our tiny abode.
Less is more — frugality is in!
For more information on tiny homes, please read:
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Allow us to be the first to donate a small sum toward the Tiny Tiny House fund! Consider it a down-payment on the welcome mat
: Tyler
Thanks Tyler! We appreciate all donations. Rest assured you will be the first to use the tiny tiny door mat.
Yay for you! I hope that there will be a tiny corner in the tiny house for guests to lay their tiny heads!
Thanks Buzzing Betty – there will actually be a tiny fold out bed for peeps to lay their “tiny heads.”
Hey – if you are ever in the Seattle area and want to visit my tiny house just drop me a note.
-m
Hey Mark – thanks for the offer! Your house is beautiful. I would love to see it.
Your offer is serendipitous — I will be in Seattle for a conference in September. Maybe, I can drop by? If this sounds okay, maybe we can coordinate something by email?
Hopefully, I will have time to slip away from the conference — from what I hear it is really intense.
Thanks for reading the blog! Enjoy your weekend.
Hey Tammy – I am so thrilled to see this as your goal – Have you read the article on Dee in Yes magazine? I read it several months ago and was so impressed by her ability to shanghai everything for such a small space – I guess it proved to me that Russ and I could do it ourselves!
http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=3044
Yes you can! It’s hard to downsize, but well worth it. I’ve been following your blog and love all the posts. Keep up the good work.
It’s funny that you mention the article on Dee, in Yes Magazine. I’ve read it and one of the photos from the article is posted on our refrigerator. It’s a small reminder to pursue happiness rather than stuff.
Right now we are working on the 100 Thing Challenge. I’ll be posting an update soon, so come back and visit.
I love your website. I thought I was the only one who had a love for tiny houses. I hope to start on building mine soon and look forward to hearing other people’s stories as well. I also love the idea of people who have used those large metal cargo containers (used in trucking, on trains and ships) and converting them to affordable housing too.
Thanks for a great site.
I think these tiny houses should be the new way of living. I am so very sick of the extreme makeover type houses with the excessive space and waste.It is no wonder that so many of them are now in foreclosure.
Shelle – Thank you for reading RowdyKittens. I’m so happy you’ve found the information useful. If you have a chance, check out my blogroll. There are many tiny house fanatics out there; it’s a growing movement and very exciting.
Good luck building your future tiny home! If you are interested in writing a guest post about your journey, please contact me
Hear hear! I have been living and working out of my 425 sq. ft. apartment for five years now, and I’m perfectly happy. More space means more sh*t, as far as I’m concerned. Whenever I see a small house, I get a little wistful, though. It would be nice to own and not rent. There are some great very small houses in Portland.
I have been looking at these houses and designing my own based on one of tumbleweedhouses.com ‘s designs and as a result I wanted to thank you for posting this. I hadn’t really thought about one of my main reasons for wanting a smaller house until I saw this video. Dee mentioned that the suburb missed something and it made me realize what it was for me. Individuality. I have never fit into the average house (too tall!) and by making my own home I always wanted to make it more ergonomic for myself. So thank you for reminding me of an essential reason as to why I want to join the small house movement as well.
I’m all about minimalism especially when traveling. But with living in a home, I struggle back and forth from wanting that bigger house with a big yard to staying in my condo with shared resources. On one hand, I do enjoy my smaller home, because it’s manageable cleaning, and it’s cheaper to heat/cool. On the other hand, I love to entertain. I’d love to see an article about entertaining in tiny spaces! It’s so hard to have a big group of people over. What do you do when you only have 4 plates, and no furniture for anyone to sit on?
@Linda – Generally we don’t host huge dinner parties. And if we do have a lot of people over, we go for a picnic or out to dinner. Thanks for reading the blog!
Ahh, the home trap. I’ve been reading alot about it and thinking about downsizing mine. It’s my 3rd house and they keep getting bigger each time. We’re starting to realize, like you did, that we don’t really need 2,003 sq feet for just the two of us and our 2 year old green cheek conure. Right now it’s a retirement plan, but it’s gaining traction with me and my wife the more we think and read about it on sites like yours and in videos like Dee’s.
@Brain – It sounds like you have a beautiful home. But like you said there is a lot to be said for going small. Have you checked out the Tiny House Blog? I think you’d love it.
{ 11 trackbacks }