Here is a product review for my fellow Tiny Housers!
How have I not heard of these till now! People are always asking about the best space saving solutions for living Tiny. Having less stuff is the best way but there are things you need and use daily. A towel would be one of them. While Christopher and myself were living tiny, we had the very large bulky towels that everyone uses in a home and there’s nothing wrong with that. I recently had the opportunity to use the sleek, fast drying, very portable and compact towel that Discovery Trekking has to offer! I’m absolutely amazed on how fast this towel dries, the fact that it takes up nearly no room for storage and is the perfect tiny house solution to bulky towels that take all day to dry. I recently traveled with my new Discovery Trekking Towel and it was the travel solution I have been looking! Takes up no space, and I love having a towel handy, especially with a baby around.
I never kept more than two towels on hand, simply because I never had the room to store them in my bathroom. By replacing my one bulky towel, I can make room my other important items!!!! Now it won’t be awkward when we have friends and family visit, when I can only offer the use of my personal towel. I would highly recommend this style of towel to any tiny house dweller! The simple fact that the towel is completely dry in less than 20 minutes, just hanging up on a hook is amazing! I’m sure if I was to bring it outside in the sun it would take only moments for it to become completely dry.
I have our regular towels displayed with the Discovery Trekking Towel to give you an idea on how sleek this towel actually is. It’s the size of a regular towel and folds to the size of a cell phone, it’s pretty amazing!
The towels also come in a variety of different colors and textures to choose from. I went with the Charcoal color for ours, I’m a darker color lover, and it looks great with the contrast of our white bathroom.
This is by far the best Tiny House Towel I have used so far!
Never have I seen a better bundle deal than this one right here. There are over $1800 worth of goods being offered for only $99!!!!! How can this be???????
Well, when a group of awesome individuals get together, great things happen.
This great deal isn't going on long, so for the next 5 Days, you have the chance to obtain some of the coolest products in the tiny house world, from the individuals that helped make the tiny house movement what it is today!
Simply hit the CLICK FOR $99 BUNDLE or on this link and get over $1800 worth for the ridiculously low price of $99. But please act fast... you don't want to miss out on this one!
Thank you all for being so patient! This year has been a crazy one for us, but I can not believe it has been almost a year since we posted anything. Since becoming new parents, our time is really crunched, Sol takes every free moment we have and is a joy to have in our life! With the soon arrival of our baby girl, I spent pretty much the entire summer getting projects taken care of. I knew my time was going to be baby focused, so getting as much done as possible was my goal. We now have Three 6x12 Two 6x10 and One 2x6 garden beds in the backyard. We planted our veggies and managed to eat some of them, haha. We planted way more than we could consume and ended up giving away a lot of it to friends, which I'm sure they didn't mind. We leveled the back of the property, where the evergreens are, all while I was 8/9 months pregnant. I personally moved a full dump truck of dirt all on my own... was exhausting, but felt good to be outside working. When it comes to physical labor... I'm game!
So this should be Butternut Squash... but clearly it is not.... We think it's a new mix, half Butternut Squash and half Zucchini. Our Zucchini was planted in the next box over.
This is the young version of what we are calling Butternut Zucchini.
SO many Zucchini we didn't know what to do with them. We ended up purchasing a Spiralizer to make these yummy Zucchini into noodles!
Who are we kidding... our friends were happy to help us out with the first harvest... that's right... I said first... there were more to come... lots more!
Early September 2016 we welcomed a new tiny house friend to join our community. We are excited to have Kat with us and her beautiful tiny house that was built by our friends at Shelterwise, located down in Portland OR. Her home is on a 20' trailer and has a more modern feel to it.
Spring is here to the Pacific Northwest!
In Other News... We're Expecting!!!!
Have you heard the news!!!!! Christopher and myself are expecting a new tiny this September!!!
We had always planned on having children, but never really decided when it was going to happen, until last year when we really talked about it. We discussed the idea of timing, but it just never seemed like the right time, until now. We both wanted to do a big travel trip before, and with our recent Peru trip last fall, we could cross that one off our list. We are feeling much more settled in our currently living situation, with being on our own land and not running the risk of getting kicked off the land (which in our old location was just a matter of time). We are surrounded by fellow tiny house lovers and are able to talk about our experience and help others start their own. We are so excited for the coming arrival of this little one. I'm currently just over half way there, and my little ninja is practicing his or her moves on my organs daily. It's been a very easy pregnancy for me, with no morning sickness or real food aversions at all. The only thing I can really say has been a challenge would be the tiredness that I felt in the first trimester. Who knew it was possible to fall asleep while doing the dishes... really... how is that even possible? haha My biggest craving has been Apples!!! Fruit really, but apples mostly! I think I might have at least 5-6 servings of fruit a day! Which my midwife loves to hear... there could be far worse cravings to have. Everything has been going amazingly great, and little one is doing just fine. I can usually get the best movements out of little one, shortly after eating a nice big hardy salad... kids loves salads! For more to the minute updates, I seem to post to my Instagram account more frequently (malissa_tack).
We currently aren't living in our tiny, but that will change at some point. We still have dreams of getting a nice chuck of land and building our own small house on it, while still having our tiny for when friends or family come for a visit. Might even make a great space for when the little one becomes a teen that want's his or her own space, haha. For now though, this is going to have to due. We are in the big house with our fellow tiny house lover and housemate, Sean Burke from http://unboxedhouse.com . Be sure to checkout his story and house design, for he's building a not so standard tiny house.
There has been many changes to the property since we moved here last fall. One of the biggest changes has been the slow transformation of our garden space. When we first moved here, we realized that there was an apple and pear tree already growing, and felt like we could add some more. We picked up four additional fruit trees ( Dwarf Apple, Plum, Persimmon, and one called a Fruit Salad Tree, which is a variety of goodies) Now we play the waiting game while they build strong roots and produce amazing goodies in the years to come. We had to rip out an old hot tub to get the new trees in their place. Boy oh boy were we happy to see that thing go! It still worked, but needed some work... and a lot of future maintenance that we were not excited for. I figured there were better things to put in its place.... I'll take more fruit trees over an old hot tub any day! Plus, the money we made from selling the hot tub we used to make our fruit tree purchases.
We have also been busy building some fairly large garden beds for our veggie garden. Picked up some Douglas Fir 4x4 to create some pretty beefy beds... ones that should last for years and years to come. Also did a fire treatment on them to help seal the wood and make it last even longer. Adds a nice look and blends in with our tiny, and soon Sean's tiny, for he plans on using the same burning technic on his tiny's siding. If you are interested in finding out more about this look, do a simple search for Shou Sugi Ban.
A few of the new Fruit Trees.
The Apple Tree that was already here.
In the meantime, we wanted to take a quick moment to share an indiegogo campaign being put on by a cool couple in Portland.
That's right, The Tiny Tack House has finally stretched her wheel wells, and moved for the first time since her completion in 2011. I'm not going to tell you that I was strong that day, that I didn't have a nervous bone in my body.... no no no... I was a wreck! I've done things in my life that warrant being nervous, and this blew them all out of the water. I know I may look happy in the photo, and I was, don't get me wrong, I was! But that might also have to do with the fact that we had just arrived at our new location, and we were just sitting in the turn lane, waiting to pull in. So we had already made it, and in one piece!
I want to take a moment and share with you the things that I had to do to get ready for this crazy ride. First thing I should note.... we bought a house.... yes... a house. That house has a small piece of property, enough space to place a few tiny houses in the backyard.... this is why we bought a house. Christopher and myself were in the process of looking for property, earlier this year, when we soon realized that we didn't have $100,000 to put down on property, and then spend the thousands it would take to get electrical, plumbing and water to said land. Our friend Bryan mentioned just getting property with a house already on it, that way we would at least have all our systems in place, and it's easier to finance then come up with over $100,000 in cash. And that's exactly what we decided to to! Over the summer, I had been keeping an eye on some properties that I liked, but it seemed by the next day... all the properties I liked were gone! Overnight the market jumped and everything that was being listed was off the market in days. We knew we were going to have to act fast, but we were still trying to figure out what we really wanted to do. Did we want to buy a house with a mortgage? After all, the whole point of the tiny house was to avoid a mortgage all together. Were we sure we didn't just want to buy a small piece of land, but wait years to be able to afford it? The location that the tiny house was built on, was supposed to be just that...where we built it. We had no idea that we would be there for 4 years, nor did our landlord. There was a lot of stress that had been building and we knew we overstayed our welcome. That's what drove us to look for other options, and this fall, we bought a house, then we went to Peru for two weeks.... haha. Then we came home and moved the house that same week. The last 2 months have been the craziest of my life... so many ups and down, does and don'ts, that it's getting hard to see straight.
So, at this point, we have our tiny house still out on the other property, and had just returned from Peru (I'll be posting on that trip as well). We only had one week to get the house ready to move, and I get that it sounds like a lot of time, but you have to remember, we have treated our tiny house like a home, not a movable rv. We have things that if we hooked up and went down the road, so would everything inside the house, except all over the floor along with broken glass and much more. We had to prep our house for moving day, which included securing our fridge, removing all the books from the bookcase, plants and other trinkets road in the car, we put the ladder in the bathroom (that way we knew for sure it wasn't going to break free and crash to the floor), removed all the lamps, took the glass out of the outside light...along with the bulb itself and everything off the small kitchen storage shelf, because that's a lot of mason jars that I would not want to clean up after a ride down the road. The biggest thing we had to do, was disconnect the solar for the tiny house, and this had to be done at night. If we were to disconnect during daylight hours, there's a really big chance that we could have electrocuted ourselves. Even if we pull the plug out of the wall, and the cord isn't hooked up to anything, the panels themselves are still generating electricity if it's daylight. So we had to do that at night, which ended up being at about 10pm in the rain....not a lot of fun. But we did it, and everything is fine, we are still alive! This was done the day before we had to move the house. Moving day we showed up about an hour before the move itself, and that was to drop her back on her wheels. We propped her up on her wheels about 3 years ago, so we were curious to see how the tires would react to the rocks again. Some squeaking and crackling sounds, but nothing too scary. The house definitely settled over the last 4+ years, but made it past this stage as well. Only thing left to do... move the tiny house. Which for some, like Jenna and Guillaume... is a piece of cake, since they have been traveling the last year with their house. So setup and teardown is like changing a pair of socks... no problem. Check out their awesome youtube channel to follow their adventures!
Our friend Brock, from Bob's Corn showed up with his truck to help us move the tiny house. The truck looks bigger than our tiny house, haha. I couldn't have asked a better person to do the job! Brock is a wonderful friend and an awesome tiny house mover. He also helped our friend Candice move her tiny house a few years ago.
We only moved about 12 miles away, so it wasn't a long first journey. This made it easier on me and the house! I think Christopher was doing much better than me, and Brock was excited to be towing The Tiny Tack House on her first outing. I rode in the truck with Brock, and Christopher followed in the car. At one point, Brock looks at me and asks, "want to see how fast she'll go?" My instant response, without a single hesitation was... "NO!" I knew he was kidding, but I was not, haha. We took the back roads, so not to deal with the crazy Seattle traffic. This made for a relaxing ride... as relaxing as it could have been. I may have ducked down to view the top of my house, in the review mirror, every time we went under a tree. Once we made it through okay, I would yell, "Cleared it!" in total excitement. We actually built our house about half a foot shorter than it needed to be, just so we knew there would be no problems moving it down the road. This made for some nice peace of mind, to see her clear all the trees. Although, once we got the house to it's new location, Christopher informed us that, at one point along the way, there was a curve in the road and the power line was dropped over the curve and was hanging only about 10 or 12 feet off the ground. He said he had no idea how we missed hitting it. He had a moment of complete panic in the car, as he followed us. Brock was keeping me distracted in the truck, so I wouldn't focus on the house so much... apparently it worked, because I didn't see the cables at all.
We made it safe and sound! Brock even parked her right where we wanted her. Thank you again, Brock! You are awesome, amazing, wonderful and a great friend! Thank You!!!
Brock and Christopher getting The Tiny Tack House into position.
One of the biggest reasons for moving, and finding a place for ourselves.... wasn't to find a place for ourselves, it was in the hopes of building community! We bought a house (the common house) that has some space in the back... where people can "store" their trailers that have a really pretty load on them. :) Our friend Sean B. is renting a "room" from us and storing his container house here very soon. We do have a spare room in the large house, and you can find that for nightly rentals on airbnb (The Common House) . Also, for limited time (TBD) We are opening up our tiny house to the public as well. You can now book a stay in our tiny house! It's going to be difficult for us, since it's been our home for the last four years, but we want others to get a feel for tiny. So, we are opening our doors up, along with many others, and for a short time, we are listing our home for nightly rentals. You can find the listing on airbnb (The Tiny Tack House). There are also other tiny houses available in the great Seattle area, so don't just try one, try a few and see what you would do, what you wouldn't do, what you like or don't like. Be sure to check out your local areas, because chances are there's a tiny house nearby.... try it out!
Our long term goal is to find land, build a small 3-400 sqft house as our main house, use our tiny house as a backup rental or family and friends’ guest stay, and have enough land to invite other tiny house owners to stay there!
We are moving in the right direction and accepting Tiny as an option for living full-time. With the increased growth rate in most cities, it makes sense to add ADU's, backyard cottages and eco homes to help control the expanse of urban areas into rural zones. Since people are waiting to have children later in life, and the average family size decreasing, it makes sense to bring in more density to places that have the room to spare. Caravan “Tiny House Hotel” (https://tinyhousehotel.com) is a great example of how many households you can put in a small sized area and make it work. They placed 6 tiny houses within a very small footprint, without causing harm to the environment or creating a huge draw on resources because tiny house are so eco friendly and sustainable. If there has been one thing that I have gotten out of this experience, it would be my appreciation for all that we have. To be more conscious of the decisions we make and how much excess we consume. It has opened our eyes to community and communication with one another. A little bit goes a long way! We are trying to build community and live a little smarter.
To give you an idea of what we want to do. We hope to expand this over the next few years.
The space behind the common house will be food garden and fruit trees.
On the lower level will be the spot for the tiny houses, parking and hangout space.
Our ultimate goal is to motivate others to try out tiny and to one day create our own tiny house community and inspire others to do the same. A place where fellow like minded individuals can hang out and change the world. We hope to be able to create a small community of people within city limits and show how efficient this kind of living can be. Look for future updates and be sure to check out Jenna and Guillaume’s YouTube channel on the Portland Tiny House Community. (https://youtu.be/X5Blm3-PqkE) We are all about creating community and opening up the lines of communication across the public to develop a better way of living.
Thanks for stopping by, and maybe I'll see you around!
I don't want to go too much into this project, since they know more about about it than I would, so I thought I would share this one with my fellow tiny house community and hope that we can come together and help each other out! Let's make community of connections and resources available for everyone to achieve a happier and healthier life. Check it out!
For more information, check out The Collaborative Tiny House Project. Also check out their KickStarter for further support.
Hiked to Spray Falls on July 8th 2015. The view was great, the water was cold but great, the flies where everywhere, haha. All in all, a great day!
Sometimes keeping up with writing blogs, composing emails, answering press requests and doing interviews, you stop and think... when did it all get so complicated?
We live in a tiny house. We live in a tiny house. We live in a tiny house. After awhile it becomes a script that is recited over and over and over again, and anyone that currently lives in a tiny house can relate to this feeling. You never think that when you build your tiny house, your life will become nothing but your house. What everyone wants to know is, how the tiny house is doing? When we focus more on the house than what's inside the house, it starts to loose its meaning. It's not about building the best tiny house and being better than everyone else's tiny house or breaking down someone for their personal decisions and what goes into their tiny house. Frankly, I would be just as happy in a tent as I am in my house... because it's what I bring to the space that makes it home. I'm not my tiny house! We are real people, experiencing life in our own way. We are not our tiny house. We aren't doing anything crazy (though many would like to believe we are) other than living our lives in our own way. When we first set out on this journey, it was just that, our journey. Over the years, and maybe it's because we aren't building any more, the journey has shifted its focus to the structure and not so much the story behind the structure. I've seen people get personally offended when someone, they've seen on TV sell their tiny house, soon after it was built. Do you also get offended when your neighbor decides to sell their car? We take it as a personal attack on ourselves, or what we stand for, even though all it comes down to is choices. We get asked a lot on why we decided to go tiny... honestly, just that.... we decided to go tiny. I'm not going to sugarcoat the topic, we made a personal decision just like everyone does, whether it's choosing which flavor of coffee you are going to enjoy that morning, or the pair of shoes that would look best with your current outfit. We all make choices, so let's stop beating up each other over things we all do. I get it, Tiny might not be your thing and that's perfectly acceptable, so move your judgments aside and let those that choose to go tiny, enjoy it.
Life got a bit more complicated (in a different way) once we built our tiny house. It also might have to do with when we built our house. We don't have as much living experience as say, Dee Williams or Jay Shafer, but have lived in a tiny house for almost four years and get asked a lot of questions because of it. I love answering questions, but it does become overwhelming when you see your inbox explode overnight... every night. And because of this, I'll soon be creating a better FAQ page to help with the overflow of emails that Christopher and myself get. We are happy to help out and make your journey a positive one!
Some of the reasons I haven't been blogging as much lately... well... life! I work as a Freelance 3D Artist, which keeps me busy about 10-14 hours a day, I garden a little (getting into it... still learning), go hiking with my husband on our days off, travel and in general have a good time! Christopher also has a full-time job that keeps him busy, and we are in the process of planning our future! Some of our goals include.... (this is going to freakout the haters out there) buying a house..... (ohhhhh no I didn't). Not so much for us, as for our friends, and our house would camp out in our backyard (think community). A great example of this would be the Portland Tiny House Community. It would be the same situation with what we have going on right now, the only difference is, we would own the house and land. :) I know... shocking to some, right!!!! haha. But it's cool, one could even say, we have a plan of a tack! ;) Funny last name usage (insert laughter here)! For future updates, be sure to check back... might be a couple days... or months... who knows, haha.
This is SethCat, and he starts to melt a little when it in the 90's for over 2 weeks. He will still go and find a sunny spot on the floor to take his catnap... crazy kitty!
I sprained my ankle pretty good, a couple months ago. Kids, don't run around a mole infested yard, while chasing a blind dog, wearing untied hiking boots with no socks on... why didn't my mother warn me about this before. It's doing much better, and luckily no breaks!
My girlfriend, Kat's Tiny House! She recently got delivery of her tiny house, through Shelterwise located in Portland, OR. I know you might want to see more, but she currently doesn't have a website to showcase her house and her story, but you can find more photos on my Instagram page.
I will never get over how cozy my loft is! Even if it's 90 degrees up there... I will still take a nap! I'v considered painting my walls white at one point, but I'm happy with they way they are right now. The warm glow just punches the cozy up another level!
Christopher and I just celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary, earlier this month, alongside our 10 wonderful years together! He picked up these flowers and surprised me with them, not on our wedding anniversary, but on the anniversary of when we first met! He's a keeper!
And to follow that sweet moment with this charming photo, is my privilege and honor to do so. It's important to not take yourself too seriously... or you might miss moments like this one, at one of my old college roommate's wedding. Amy and Rae did a fantastic job posing for our group mug shot, after we raided a local crazy hats and masks store and were caught wedding crashing and stealing people's smiles. :) Congratulations Sheena and Doug!!!!
My neighbors got two goats...... Isn't he cute! They named them Apollo and Helo.
Mt. Rainier! Life sure is beautiful!!!!
Last but not least... come September, this will be my mountain view!!!! Machu Picchu in Peru. This will be my first overnight trek in the jungle, and I'm sooo excited! Not to mention, my first trip out of the states... I don't include Canada, because I grew up in the U.P. of Michigan, which is basically Canada, haha. Two whole weeks in Peru... this is going to be an adventure!
Alright, I think I have given you enough to digest for now. Till next time!
Small is Beautiful: A Tiny House Documentary, is know available online for order!
If you haven't heard yet, my friend Jeremy Beasley's film is officially available on iTunes and the Small is Beautiful Movie website.
It's a touching first hand look at some of the lives that have been moved to try on tiny. It follows their journey, pain and accomplishment with personal reflections and moving inspirations. This is one to see!
Small is Beautiful is a documentary thats follows four people as they build their own tiny houses, to try and live a mortgage free lifestyle. Through the process they discover that living tiny is about much more than just the house.
The idea of having a 30 year mortgage is not something I'm comfortable with, so I started researching alternative ways to live. How could I live with less material possessions, in a smaller space and I thought what better way to learn about it than to interview the people in the process or already doing it.
How does your documentary differ from other tiny house films?
I wasn't aiming to glorify tiny house living in ways that has already been done. I explored what it is really like to build and live in a tiny house, sharing the subjects struggle and triumphs. We see them question their motives, their partners, their relationships with their family and their past. I wanted the film to go deeper than trends or aesthetic. To explore the real human aspect of choosing to live this way. The stories and the people are real. Varied, full of joy, hardship, and humanity.
It's available for Download via our website SmallBeautifulMovie.com which is the best way to support us directly. There is also loads of bonus content in different packages with hours of great info and footage that we couldn't fit in the film.
It's also available on iTunes (USA, Canada & Australia), Vimeo on Demand, Amazon Instant and Google Play.
Did you have previous movie making experience in the past?
I'd been a professional photographer for 6 years, having shot a whole series of short films as well. This was by far the biggest project I've ever undertaken though.
A lot of people want to know if people willingly choosing to live in a tiny house are introverted? The thing that surprised me the most is they're the exact opposite. The community is so strong, people are constantly helping other people build their own tiny houses or find land to park it. Like when Ben was trying to finish his house, over two days 20 people came to help him work on it and try and finish it. He had people banging nails, painting walls, sanding cupboards - everyone chipped in.
Do you have a tiny house?
I got so caught up on the research of tiny houses and in making the film that I haven't actually been able to make my own yet. Who knows, hopefully after we're finishing touring the film around I'll be able to build one then. I have definitely learnt a lot about it through the process of making the film and how I'd do it differently from what I originally planned.
I learned a lot about what goes in to building a tiny house, but the biggest take away for me is that when taking on a massive project, like building your own tiny house, or making a feature length film on them - the projects are a marathon, not a sprint. Ask for help along the way and when you're setting a time line, multiple it by about 8 and that's how long things really take.
I've developed friendships with all of the people involved in the film. It's really hard not to. I know we're meant to kept a journalistic distance when making documentaries, but when you watch someone struggling to build their house over the course of a year it's really hard to not put the camera down, pick up a hammer and help bang some nails into their house.
If you haven't been so luck to have seen it yet, there is still a handful of tickets available online for the Seattle Showing, this Tuesday night at the SIFF Film Center. Following the Screening, there will be a Panel Discussion with some special guests. See you all there!
Only 3 Days left to get your ticket to the screening of Small is Beautiful: A Tiny House Documentary.
Be part of the magic of tiny, at the first ever screening of Small is Beautiful, on Tuesday May 5th at the Seattle Center. Hangout with fellow tiny house enthusiasts and let's explore tiny together!
Chris has 12 years experience as a producer. He’s made three seasons of ABC2 TV’s music concert series jTV Presents, numerous short films (including AFC funded Directions by Kasimir Burgess), music videos for the likes of Empire of the Sun and another with the hugely talented Natasha Pincus, an ABC commissioned comedy web series Corn Cobs, along with $10M+ worth of TV commercial production for multinational blue chip clients including MasterCard, McDonalds, and Lion. In 2013, Chris completed a Master of Laws (Juris Doctor) as part of a plan to become a long form producer and independent distributor. Having grown up on the Internet, Chris is super passionate about the opportunities that online film distribution is bringing to the indie film world. Small is Beautiful represents Chris’ third documentary to be released via a direct-to-audience strategy. His first success was in 2012 on Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (deepblueseafilm.com), a film that offered a sorely needed humanitarian perspective on the highly politicised Australian asylum seeker issue and earned $100k revenue through a crowd funded national screening tour and online release. Most recently in 2014 Chris has released music documentary about Grammy award winning Americana icon Jim Lauderdale: The King of Broken Hearts (jimlauderdalemovie.com).
Armed only with his DSLR and field sound recording kit, Jeremy is the epitome of the modern day one-man-band filmmaker. This nimble and light weight methodology allows Jeremy to ease himself into the most intimate of scenarios to capture fascinating human stories. Relatively new to the film world, Small is Beautiful is Jeremy’s first documentary feature. Prior to film, Jeremy gained six years experience as a photographer, shooting weddings in Australia and internationally. His photographic work is widely celebrated for its un-staged documentary aesthetic. It is through this experience behind the lens that Jeremy has honed his unique skill to coax his subjects to lower their guard and open up with their most intimate thoughts, hopes and fears. The result is a delicate and genuine insight into the human condition.
Originally trained as an engineer, Jeremy also has a natural fascination with design, making, and problem solving – all central aspects to the challenge of building tiny. Upon discovering the tiny house world, Jeremy’s first impulse was to design and build his own tiny house. Yet after meeting many of the eccentric and alternative minded characters from this world he became fascinated about the story of an empowered community intent on creating their own housing.
Accordingly, Small is Beautiful was conceived: is the tiny house dream merely a naive and trending fad, or is living tiny a serious solution to today’s pressing issues of housing affordability and sustainability?
Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion for Small is Beautiful. So come out and support your Tiny House Family!
I hooked our solar setup several months after we moved into the house.
At first, I had the power going in directly into the breaker box. Once I was ready, I switched that over to the inverter & from the inverter back into the breaker box.
One of the first things to familiarize yourself with is the types of solar setups (off-grid, grid-tied, grid tied with battery backup, grid fallback). Our setup is classified as a grid tied with battery backup (we are not set up to sell power back to the grid).
During the winter months, the sun does not visit enough for us to rely on our solar exclusively here in the greater Seattle area. On the other hand, when it’s sunny, we are almost exclusively off-grid. In 2014 for instance, we got all but about 4 days of our power needs from solar mid-April through early November!
I wish I had an easy answer for all of your energy related questions…Unfortunately, it is not an easy thing to figure out. We ended up going through Whidbey Sun and Wind to assist with sizing our system. Also, some solar equipment manufacturers do not sell retail meaning you have to go through someone to order your system.
Once you have each of these items listed, you need to come up with a realistic number of hours that you use each of these items to calculate daily usage (be honest with yourself on this ;).
Once you have your power consumption figured out, you need to plug that all into a solar sizing spreadsheet & figure out how large of a system you need based on your geographic location (sun-hours/day).
I would definitely recommend you consider your appliances carefully if you want to be off-grid completely. You can find on-demand hot water heaters that use propane. You can also find propane refrigerators. By wiring our 4-gallon hot water into a switch, we leave it turned off when not in use. We also take military-style showers (water on long enough to get wet…back off…soap up…rinse off…done). This in conjunction with our low-flow shower head saves oodles of unnecessary power to heat water.
Hope this helps! Feel free to post in the comments section below & I will do my best to get any questions answered.
What we experience in winter weather.
Well, the holidays are upon us as we bring in the New Year tonight! Christopher and myself aren't planning anything big, just to enjoy each other's company! Maybe we will plan our next big adventure!
I wanted to take a moment and share a few adjustments we have to do to our tiny house, when old man winter starts blowing. One big thing for us, has been our windows. Let me start by saying, It's not that I don't like Jeld-Wen windows, but they have not served us well. Maybe there are other factors involved, but here is my experience. We purchased our windows straight from the factory, so they were nice and pricy, which when you spend over $3,000 on windows, you hope they are going to last more than a few years. Every winter, when the temps start to drop outside... and I'm not talking that low (we have not seen a winter with temps lower than 11 degrees, most of the time it's more like 25 degrees) and we keep our house at about 60 degrees at night, since it's warmer up in the loft (and we have lots of blankets!). So, the thing with the windows in a tiny house, and I've seen this happen in a lot of them, they get moisture collected at the bottoms of the ledges. If this water sits there long enough, it starts to bleed behind the adhesive and rot the wood from the inside. We did decide to go with wood windows, since the look of wood was what we were going with. Be sure if you do decide to go this route, to make sure you seal it up! We typically don't have issues with the windows in the spring, summer or fall, just the winter months. I find myself having to sand the black off my windows and reseal them every summer. I know, not much to complain about, if that is my only maintenance to the house. But it can feel frustrating when you spent the money you have for quality windows. Now, let's talk about moisture in the tiny house, since that seems to contribute to the issue as well. Since our first winter in the tiny house, we decided to get a much larger dehumidifier to take care of the moisture we experience in the pacific north west, during the winter months. If we kept it running for a full 24 hours, we would have to empty the 30 pint container every day... that's a lot of water floating around your house. Even with a fan, you are just going to be moving the moisture around, and you might still have persisting issues. Since we got the dehumidifier a few years ago, it has been much more comfortable inside the house, and easier to heat as well. We typically will keep the heater to about 70 degrees during the day (on low) and turn it down to about 60 degrees at night. We will actually find ourselves sweating at night if we keep it any higher (our blankets work amazingly! basically two comforters, haha) We only really experience the moisture on the windows at night, during the day, the sun works it's magic on them. Also, one thing to point out, when it's just me in the house, there really isn't enough moisture being put out to notice anything, but when Christopher is also in the house, is when I start to see the condensation starting. Cooking dinner in the evenings also will help with that. So we typically will turn the dehumidifier on during dinner and leave it on a few hours into the night. It has a built in timer, so we can set it, and it will turn itself off. Same thing with our little oil filled radiant heater, we can set the time and it will shut off within a few hours. Since I work from home, I can monitor the system, but when we have to go somewhere, we will set it to turn off. Keep in mind when you are considering building your very own tiny house that there are a lot of factors you aren't going to notice, until you live in one. I hope that our personal experiences can be of some help to those looking to build or live in a tiny house of their own. Thanks for all your support! I'll see you in the new year!
I hope everyone is having an amazing adventure! Let's bring in the New Year, with new possibilities!
Happy New Year From The Tiny Tack House!!!!!
Some photos of what I've been talking about.
My window with some moisture on the ledge. You can see some black on the wood, right next to the glass. The awning windows get it the worst, since they open out to the moisture outside.
For those interested, it's a GE 30-pint Dehumidifier.
This is our Honeywell- Oil Filled, Electric Space Heater. Has temp setting, high-medium-low settings and an off timer.
Happy 3 Year Tiny House Anniversary!
Today marks our 3 Year Anniversary of moving into our lovely Tiny Tack House! So much has changed around our house since then, as well as many new friends and experiences. Christopher has changed work and is now a product photographer with Zulily, and I'm working out of our home, doing Freelance 3D work. It has been such an amazing journey for the two of us, and I'm so happy that I've been able to share it with you all! I receive so many wonderful emails from people, and I'm so lucky to have had the chance to express our experiences and hear back from you all!
I also wanted to share some a few more photos from the last few days, because.....we got SNOW!!! We don't always get snow where we are, but this year we were luck to have our own little white winter wonderland, right outside our door.
Snow on the bamboo, outside our Tiny House.
Sunrise, behind our Tiny House.
Nice and cozy inside the Tiny House.
It has been so nice out this November, that we managed to get a few more hikes in, before most of the roads and trails are closed off for the season. Here are a few from our hike to Margaret Lake.
Was a fun trail, and not a lot of people. I think we passed only 4 other groups of 2. You start down in the new growth, and once you near the top, you get thrown into the beautiful old growth.
Christopher posing for a picture in the woods. Got his camera ready to capture some of the beautiful surroundings.
The view from just within the old growth, looking out to the new growth. Oh how much I love the PNW!
We made it! Margaret Lake was frozen solid... and when the rocks rolled down the hill, the lake made an awesomely alien sound. So cool!
Wonderful view of Mt. Rainier from the hiking trail.
Off the trail and heading home, but not without one last view!
And back home! I absolutely love this house! It has given Christopher and myself so much in these last 3 years... I can't wait to see what the next 3 years have to offer!
I just wanted to take a moment and say, Thank You... for all you supporters out there! You Rock! We forget to say Thank You sometimes, especially when our daily lives become filled with new tasks, responsibilities and adventures. Since building our home, we have been enriched by so many of your stories, and drive to do better and live happier. Thank you for supporting us, as well as inspiring others to do the same. I didn't start this movement, but I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to have my own place in it. We have received hundred and hundreds of emails over the past 3 years, and what an adventure it has been. I'm thankful for your wonderful comments, for they are a daily reminder that we don't just live for ourselves, but we live for each other. Even the simplest and mindless acts, can have a lasting impression on someone. I try to look toward to the future with hope and and understanding that I can change the world. And that I choose to make it the best place I can. Thank you everyone for encouraging us to do what we do, and to live a happy and thankful life. I also want to thank my Dad, for he is the one person in my life that has never questioned anything I have ever done. He has always looked at me with possibility to do good in this world, and has never stated that I couldn't do what I wanted or love. He has allowed me to become the person I am today, someone who sees possibilities in this world and to be thankful for everything I have, for he is the reason for it. I appreciate his quiet stillness and strong heart, I wish I could be more like him, and strive to, everyday.
I would challenge you to take a moment out of your day and reflect on the people around you, the ones that have helped shape your lives and make you the person you are today. Send them a letter, or a simple phone call... you might not get the chance to someday, so why not say thank you, now! Make the day count, and make it about more than yourself, it's an incredible feeling. For all your support with this movement, for it is a movement... it's a emotional and physical movement... I thank you.
Okay, now on to some images over the past few years, haha.
Thank You - Tammy and Logan for letting us into your home and share stories.
Thank You - Tabitha, for being the greatest friend, a girl could ask for.
Thank You - Mimi & Papa for your love and support.
Thank You - Brothers for putting your baby sister through a lot, and making her a stronger person!
Thank You - Dee Williams, for being an absolute inspiration and wonderful friend.
Thank You - Christopher, for being my friend, my support, my soulmate, my love and life!
Thank You - Dad, for everything! You are my hero!
Dee's on Tour -Get Excited!
She's going on tour and you aren't going to want to miss out on this! Christopher and I have come to know Dee quite well over the last few years, and she is an absolute pleasure to be around. She has this ora, that just draws you into her. So if you find yourself near any of the locations, I urge you to go and experience how AWESOME Dee is.
Let's show Dee how much we love and support her… she has loved and supported so many of us, now it's our turn!
Come Meet Dee on Tour!
For more info about this amazing book tour, please check out PAD's Website for more details.
Lets Get Excited for DEE!
Guess what time it is...based on the title of the post, you probably already guessed it ;) WORKSHOP TIME!!!!
If you are located in the Pacific Northwest & are considering building a tiny house, you might want to check out some upcoming workshops being offered by Portland Alternative Dwellings (PAD). Malissa & I have had the pleasure of taking part in several of their workshops in the past & feel they are a great resource for anyone considering building a tiny house!
Click here to visit PAD Tiny Houses.
Do you dream about building a tiny house on wheels, designed just for you? Do you picture it in your backyard, or nested into a community of sorts, or resting out in the country where you can finally hear yourself think? Then this workshop is for you!
The workshop includes both classroom-style learning and the chance to explore a tiny house. The topics we discuss are brought to life with a tour of pocket community.
The instructors are Dee Williams and Joan Grimm of PAD, Lina Menard of Niche Consulting, and other experts in energy efficiency and tiny house living.
Photos from around the house.
Thought I would share some photos from the past few weeks, in the tiny house.
We decorated the house with holiday fun! Some christmas lights and garland to help make the house more cozy, during the holiday season.
Seth hanging out, waiting for the sun to reach him… he moves for no one.
We got SNOW! It didn't last very long, about 24 hours or so… not to bad for the area. Mind you, when the solar panels are covered in snow, they don't work so much. Another reason why they are not mounted to our roof, it would be a challenge o maintain them. During the winter months we usually are hooked up to the grid, but from April till October, we run on Solar!
Seth was very interested in what Chris was unwrapping. He sure did have fun playing with the string once the gift was opened.
My orange scarf draped over the ladder… this method works for keeping Seth out of the loft. He has been itching a lot lately and spreading hair all over. We would find ourselves waking up with hair in our noses and eyes. So, for now, he sleeps down on the first level.
He's happy to sleep wherever in the house! He looks so cozy!
Seth gets very playful just after dinner, and he really knows how to play. This is the look he gives us, right before he's about to take off running down to the bathroom.
Another pic of the sleeping beauty. This has become his favorite sleeping spot in the house. We are also growing an Avocado plant from one of the seeds out of an avocado we ate. It has been a fun adventure!
Chris making a fresh batch of home brewed Kombucha! He has separated the mother from the jar and coving it in some of the liquid.
Starting to bottle the Kombucha! We decided to go with blueberries for this batch. In the past we have done nectarine, pear, ginger and peach.
The Kombucha will sit out for a few days to get nice and bubbly, then we move it to the fridge for a few more days… then enjoy!
Happy Winter from Christopher and myself!
Happy Holidays from the Tacks!
A Special Gift to You!
Head over to the House Plans page and enter the code tack2013 for a special discount on any of the plans. This code is good till Dec. 31st, so hurry and get your copy!
Join us in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 5-6, 2014 for the first ever Tiny House Conference! We’ll have speakers, workshops, tiny house tours and more!
There are going to be many great resources at this conference! This is a great opportunity to learn, explore, & meet other like-minded individuals!
Code good through Jan 1st 2014.