I had just gotten back from Wrapping Up Tiny House Design-Build Cert 2025 when Chrissy called to ask if I’d consider teaching Women’s+ Basic Carpentry. This was the first Yestermorrow course I ever heard of - nearly 20 years ago now! I signed up for the catalog - which was snail mailed back then - and I’d flip through it, circling all the courses I wanted to take. It was a couple of years before I finally signed up for the Sustainable Design-Build Certification and got myself to Yestermorrow. But I’ve been going there ever since! So it feels like I’ve come full circle, having the opportunity to teach the Women’s+ Basic Carpentry course.
Tiny House Design-Build Cert 2025 (Week 3)
What an awesome week it’s been at Yestermorrow, teaching and learning through the Tiny House Design-Build Certification! A big snow storm came through last night, so we’ve got about a foot on the ground and more still falling. This is a pretty darn cozy place to be snowed in! I’ve got some sweet rolls rising in the Yestermorrow kitchenette, so it seems like a good time to catch up on this past week.
Jumping into Tiny House Design Build Certificate 2025
Last night over dinner I said to my companions: “Okay, so where are you when you’re eating pad kee mao (with kale?!) while listening to live folk music on a snowy night and discussing building a small house out of bamboo in the Philippines and a tiny house on wheels in Greece, mostly in English, but also a little in Spanish?” They laughed and said “Yestermorrow!” Close enough. We were actually at Fit to be Thai’d at Sugarbush in the Mad River Valley, just down the road from Yestermorrow. But it was a Yestercrew. What a joy it is to be back here to teach the second two weeks of the annual month-long Tiny House Design Build Certification!
Maui, Hawaii
After A Week Long Send Off, My Round the World Trip kicked off with eight days in Maui visiting my sister Sarah who has split her time between Hawaii and Alaska for many years. What an epic way to start this adventure! There was mist falling when my sister greeted me at the Kahului airport on Maui a week ago, so she teased me about bringing the rain from the mainland. We headed straight for Paia where she presented me with a young coconut and a lei, accompanied by the chant for the gifting-of-a-lei.
My Apartment at Punalu'u
On Tuesday, I moved from My Brattleboro Landing Pad into an apartment on the property of my friends Erin Maile O’Keefe and Kevin O’Keefe…Now Erin and Kevin live in their tiny, which is considered a detached bedroom by the town. The house is occupied by some great folks, too, and now I’m in the apartment, which means that I am once again living in a tiny house community. This is the third one I’ve lived in, after Simply Home Community and Going Places.
My Brattleboro Landing Pad
Three weeks ago when I arrived in Brattleboro I landed at a furnished apartment that was created in the home of a friend-of-a-friend. In Portland, OR this would have been called a Carve Out Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), but here it’s known as an apartment-in-home. With door that separates these rooms from the rest of the house, an exterior entrance, and the addition of a kitchenette it’s a sweet little living space.
Tiny House Design at Yestermorrow (Feb 2020)
February is upon us and it’s amazing to think that in just two short weeks I’ll be winging my way across the country to teach Tiny House Design at Yestermorrow! Tiny House Design is a long-weekend course that provides oodles of info and inspiration for people to dream, design, and draft up tiny or small homes of their own.
2018 Recap & 2019 Look Ahead
Yesterday, as has become our tradition, Isha and I went for a hike (this one urban) and recapped 2018 (what was good, what was hard, what we learned). We also shared what we’re excited about and nervous about for 2019. Since I haven’t been sharing with the greater world recently, I figured I’d share a few of the highlights at this point of transition and some excitement about the year to come.
Now Collecting ADU Stories from Across America
Calling ADU Owners, Dwellers, Designers, and Builders from across America to share ADU stories for an exciting new project with AARP. The many benefits of ADUs - especially for multigenerational families - have caught the attention of AARP. They've commissioned a publication about ADUs, which will feature half a dozen case studies of ADUs with various configurations and uses. If you're an ADU owner, dweller, designer, builder, or city planner and you believe you can help with this project, we'd love to hear from you! Just send me an email at accessorydwellings@gmail.com by February 28th, letting us know which of the four items above you'd like to assist with and send along a photo!
Tiny House & ADU Design Workshops in Feb at PCC
Winter is a great time for your design process if you'd like to get your project launched this coming spring or summer.
This Winter Term I'm teaching two fun weekend design classes through Portland Community College:
- February 10-11: Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Design Course
- February 17-18: Tiny House Design Course
In these intensive two day workshops we cover many of the considerations for designing a small space, visit with special guests who have created ADUs or tiny homes (respectively), and go through a set of design exercises to help you develop a design of your own.