It was a delight to attend the Portland Tumbleweed Tiny House Workshop this weekend! I was honored that Dee Williams asked me to participate in a panel on Saturday afternoon and open up the tiny house I'm renting for a walk-through for the participants afterwards. I arrived bright and early and had a chance to meet several of the participants, including Denny who is so tiny house obsessed that he decided to celebrate his birthday by attending the tiny house workshop. He even brought along the tiny house birthday cake commissioned by excellent friends who support Denny's passion. As people introduced themselves we discovered that there were participants from as far away as Plano, TX and Anchorage, AK. Some had recently learned about tiny houses and some had been fascinated for years. People looking for a place to park connected up with people who own property and people who are eager to turn their designs into a structure met experienced builders.
Throughout the day Dee Williams, in all her glorious exuberance, wit, and wisdom, shared tiny house considerations such as wall systems, trailer and roof attachments, and moisture management. Over a lunch of food cart deliciousness, I joined a group of tiny house enthusiasts for discussion of downsizing and community-building. In the afternoon Brittany, Michelle, and I shared our experiences of living in a tiny house, including our inspirations and what we would do differently. I explained that I feel extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to try on the little life before building my own tiny house. We encouraged participants to rent Brittany's Bayside Bungalow by the weekend this summer to see what it's like to live in a tiny house. Brittany's website is up and running and she's now taking reservations.
Then fifty-ish people came over for a tiny house tour of Britt's Bungalow, taking turns in small batches to note all the details of the wee abode. A dozen or so workshop participants stuck around for the tiny house potluck afterwards, which was the highlight of an already splendid day. There's a fantastic tiny house community here in Portland and several tiny house dwellers joined us for the potluck. It was fun to watch the synergy as workshop participants asked questions of Portland tiny house dwellers, builders, and designers. My friend Emily Morris, who is a videographer, started filming for the movie she's making about Portland's tiny house community. I also got confirmation from a couple leaders for the upcoming Pedalpalooza Tiny Home Tour on Sunday, June 24th from 10AM-1PM which will feature 5 tiny houses in Portland.
Brittany and I were too exhausted by the end of the day to participate in the World Naked Bike Ride, but we considered it a Saturday very well spent. I look forward to seeing what comes of all these connections. Thanks for coming to Portland everyone. And special thanks to Dee, Brittany, and Tumbleweed for an incredible workshop!
This was the third year of the Tiny House Conference and my third year speaking at the event. There were around 350 people in attendance this year and the conference was split into two tracks with one focused more on lifestyle and one focused more on technical considerations.
