I was looking back over my posts the other day and realized that it’s been a long time since I wote anything about tiny houses, though the topic is never far from my mind.
Back around April, we learned that Dee Williams would be participating in a South Sound green building fair, putting her home on display in Olympia. Dee was one of the first tiny house builders after Jay Shafer. She’s been interviewed all over the country about her tiny house, and she’s now a partner in her own tiny house company, Portland Alternative Dwellings. We jumped at the opportunity, gladly making the 3-hour round trip. She was very warm and friendly, and we spent a few minutes chatting about tiny houses. When I mentioned we were interested in building our own, she invited us to come back down another day when we’d be able to spend more time talking and hanging out in the house, which we did a few weeks later.
The house itself, while certainly tiny at 84 square feet, really does feel roomier inside than you would expect when looking at it from the outside. I think the high ceilings, skylights, windows and light-colored interior wooden walls all contribute, but whatever the cause, the effect is that feels cozy, but not cramped. On the day of the open house, I’d guess there were 6-8 people in there at any given time, and when we visited later, the four of us hung out comfortably inside for a few hours as we talked. Dee said she’d once had a whole class of schoolchildren inside it.
Spending some time with Dee and seeing her house in person made me even more interested in building a small house of my own. I’ve been following a couple dozen tiny house and simple living blogs, and reading a lot of books. I finally finished reading Walden late last year, browsed through tiny house books by Lester Walker and Mimi Zeiger, Daniel C. Beard’s Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties, Ianto Evans’ The Hand-Sculpted House, William Powers’ Twelve by Twelve and on Dee’s recommendation, Michael Pollan’s A Place of My Own.
Another author I’ve enjoyed is Lloyd Kahn, and I like his work enough to single him out. In the 70s, he became known as an advocate of geodesic domes, but a few years later, after seeing some of their problems, he turned away from them and set his sights on creative owner/builders, green construction and vernacular architecture. With his publishing company, Shelter Publications, he’s produced some great books on building, three of which I’ve recently purchased: Shelter, his first post-dome book, Home Work, and Builders of the Pacific Coast. He’s currently working on a book about tiny houses and he also has a great blog (linked to his name, above) where he posts pictures from his books and travels, and any other interesting bits he comes across.
Finally, last month, I bought tickets to the tiny house design and construction workshops that Jay Shafer of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company is putting on in Portland. This is my first real action on tiny houses since buying The Small House Book late last year, and I’m really looking forward to the workshop. I’m also keeping an eye on Craigslist for free trailers, but I have to keep reminding myself to get my big house repairs finished before taking on any tiny house construction.
