Kicking Off 2016 with Small Home Design

 

Happy New Year!

They say that what you do on the first day of the year is indicative of what the year will bring. If that's true, 2016 is going to bring me fun adventures! I started out the new year by hoping on a plane on New Year's day, bound for Vermont. I'm teaching the Less is More class at Yestermorrow, which is a 1-week design intensive focused on small homes. (You can also learn about past Less is More classes.)

We kicked off tonight with introductions and a design exercise to get the creative juices flowing. It was fun to hear about all the tiny house dreams and schemes that our students have. It seems this week on the drafting boards we're going to be seeing tiny houses on wheels, small cabins in the woods, and a smallish vacation home for 12. It should be fascinating!

Tomorrow we'll start out with field trips and then we'll jump right back into the design process.

It's nice to be starting class having already adjusted to the timezone. But really I planned an extra day onto the front end of my trip for two other reasons. First, I was traveling through Chicago. In January. So, you know, contingency. The second is that I've made some good friends here and one of them was celebrating a birthday. We had a fabulous day of... well, mostly eating, really... but other good fun, too! Yay for homemade waffles, fresh oysters, winter wanders, and the ridiculousness that is bowling! I've long liked the idea of secular sabbath but the past couple years I've been rather lousy at unplugging! Saturday was good practice and I plan to continue that throughout the year.

Visiting Orlando Lakefront RV & Tiny House Park

After living at Simply Home Community for a year and a half, this past weekend I had a unique opportunity to visit another tiny house community. My friend James Taylor, whom I met at the Tiny House Jamboree 2015, invited me and a few of the other folks we connected with there to come visit and check out what they’re up to. (Did someone say “Orlando in December?” Sign me up!)

And it’s so freakin’ cool! You can learn about it by exploring the Orlando Lakefront RV & Tiny House Park website. The story goes like this. A couple years ago a fellow named Adam purchased the existing RV park and a bit later a woman named Emily helped get the first tiny houses on wheels (THOWs) there. Once it became a tiny-house-friendly RV park other tiny house dwellers have decided to make Orlando Lakefront home. And James Taylor has been driving the welcome wagon since he moved there this spring. With their 12^th THOW moving in in just a couple weeks, the park is about ¼ tiny houses and ¾ RVs!

Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. James’ next door neighbor, who lives in an RV, visited with us and took photos. People who live in the park or are considering moving there gathered up for a little party. We also had the chance to tour four of the little houses. The tiniest one in the park is Christina’s awesome minimalist U-haul truck to house conversion. The biggest is Mary Kay’s 24’ long house with two full sleeping lofts, a bathroom, lounge, a kitchen, and a dining spot at the stairs. (This house really got me thinking about the two loft option. I just loved the way the stairs lead up to a sleeping loft with the bed platform over the bathroom. I’ve never seen anyone do it quite like this before and it made we want to smack my forehead in that “Hellooo! Of course!” sort of way. Simply brilliant!)

Meanwhile, Lee, BA, and Alek stayed in the Little Lake Nest. None of us brought a tape measure (so unlike us!) but I’m guessing this one was 18’ long. It’s a neat design with a catwalk connecting two sleeping lofts. I thought it was really clever how they took two sets of stair stringers, turned them the tall way, and sistered them together to make a steep set of stairs! This little house also has a small couch, a flip up table, two chairs hung on the wall behind the door, a micro and toaster oven that sit on top of the fridge, a closet under the stairs, and a dish rack is over the sink. The huge (by tiny house standards) bathroom has a trough tub, a handwashing sink, and a flush toilet. I’ve gotta say, after living in tiny houses for four years, that was probably the strangest thing about staying in tiny houses in an RV park: there were flush toilets! How bizzare, how bizarre!

But, I was the lucky one. I got to stay two nights in James’s awesome little house, The Company Store on Wheels. His house was built by Tennessee Tiny Homes with lots of his special design requests. It has a fabulous front porch so that it feels like a miner cabin. (James is a Coloradan so his house had to follow his heart!) It has a fabulous multi-functional couch that converts to a chaise or a guest bed (and has storage and the cat box underneath), a ladder at the same slope as the navy ladders (which James is used to so he can fly up and down it – even when half-asleep), an L-shaped kitchen with a sink, mini fridge with freezer, microwave, toaster oven, and a washer/dryer combo. His sleeping loft is asymmetrical with a dormer on one side, just as he requested it. It’s a lovely little home and it was extra special this time of year because James had decorated for the holidays and it was super festive.

It’s so exciting to see another community that welcomes tiny houses! I keep hearing about others in formation, too. I hope that by this time next year the number has increased exponentially.

Are you involved with the tiny house community? Where’s yours and what’s happening?

Less Is More: A 1-Week Small Home Design Intensive

Five years ago I created my first tiny house design in a Yestermorrow Design-Build School course called Less is More. Less is More is a 1-week-long design intensive that includes field trips, presentations, and design time. For the past three years, I've been teaching Less is More at Yestermorrow and thoroughly loving it! I hope you can join us this January!

Less Is More: Designing the Small or Tiny House

• Yestermorrow Design Build School (Waitsfield, VT)
• January 3 - 8, 2016
• Registration: https://yestermorrow.org/learn/courses/less-more-designing-small-or-tiny-house

Reese, who took the course two winters ago, is deep into the design phase for his tiny house on wheels, the Shred Shed. Reese looooves snowboarding, so he's designing his little house so that it can not only accommodate his lifestyle but so that the house itself can become a surface on which to perform snowboarding tricks. (You can check it out at Shred Shed.) It was great fun watching Reese go through his initial design process. In Less is More, Reese taped out the footprint of his little house on the floor and then borrowed furniture from the library so that he could rearrange the furniture until he figured out the ideal layout for his tiny house at a life-size scale!

Genevieve took Less is More last winter and she's now building her tiny house on wheels. She has lived in some truly amazing places (including spending winters in Antarctica!) and her tiny house is shaping up to be a pretty amazing place, too.

Here's what Genevieve said about the course:

"I can strongly recommend this course. Lina & David are very helpful. This course truly confirmed my design decisions before building my TH." - Genevieve

If you're serious about designing your tiny house so that you can start building this year, join us in January in Vermont for Less is More!

Here are some posts I've written about the course so you can get a better feel for it:

• Welcome to Less is More
• Less Time, More Drafting
• Less Is More Presentations
• Hello Again Less is More
• Less is More Tours & Programming
• Less is More Presentation Day

A Year Living in the Lucky Penny

It's my one year anniversary of living in The Lucky Penny! November 15th last year was my Move in Day & Housewarming. But Raffi and I officially moved out of the basement of The Big House and began living in my 100 square foot gypsy wagon, The Lucky Penny, on December 1^st of last year. So I’ve now lived in my little house for a full year. And what a full year it’s been!

I celebrated A Year of Little Living in September of 2012 and I commemorated Another Year of Little Living in 2013, but a year of Living in the Lucky Penny seems extra special because this is the house I designed and built for myself (with lots of Tiny House Helpers, of course!) After Offering Gratitudes this week, I’m especially thankful to have another year of Tiny Home for the Holidays!

I woke up to moonlight on my face this morning. It was shining right on me through my domed skylight, which someone recently referred to as my “moon roof.” I love that description! It totally is a moon roof! Of course, it also lets me see the stars, the clouds, the rain, the sun, the birds, and the mighty oak tree I’m parked under.

Here are a few things I’ve discovered after a year of living in this this little house:

• The Lucky Penny works really well for me. I don’t have any major regrets with the design or the construction though there are few things I’d do smarter now that I’ve done them once the hard way. (For instance, you’ll see in Musings on my Vardo Roof Box that I would do the roof differently next time!)
• I love that whatever activity I’m doing is what the house becomes. When I’m sleeping it’s a comfy bedroom. When I’m working the whole space becomes an office. When I’m cooking, it’s all kitchen.
• I have plenty of storage space in my little house. More, actually, than I know what to do with. The top half of my tansu is empty right now as are some of the upper cabinets and I don’t have much in the storage loft.
• When I’m here with just Raffi it’s very easy to do whatever I need or want to do in my house. Once I add another person to the mix we have to navigate around each other more. It gets to be a tango. The dance is fun when it’s my sweetie or a friend, but I can already see that it could get old over time if I shared this space. (Isha and I have talked about trying it just to see what it’s like, but we're happily scheming our Tiny House for Two.)
• I was afraid I would get annoyed by converting my multi-functional spaces, but I’ve found I actually like it as long as I’m not already stressed and in a hurry. For instance, putting My Pull Out Bed away in the morning is a nice part of my morning routine. Getting my drawer top table ready is just the first step of Setting the Table to have breakfast or tea. Isha likes this idea enough that we’d talking about designing it into our Tiny House for two.
• I find I sleep comfortably on My Pull Out Bed in either its closed up or pulled-out versions. The pulled-out version is especially nice because I’m under the moon roof, but it is also quite cozy when Raffi and I sleep on the bed when it’s in window seat mode. And no, I’ve never fallen off!
• Cooking and baking in My Plug & Play Kitchen is wonderful. Although I usually make big meals for our Community Dinners at the Big House, I make my own breakfasts and lunches in my little house. Sometimes that’s as simple as making tea and having a piece of fruit. Other times I get on a baking kick and make cardamom twists in my little house, rolling out the dough on top of My Tiny Chest Freezer and baking them in My Fabulous Toaster Oven.

There are some things still not done. I never have finished out the shower since I’ve been showering at The Big House. (This is one of the many advantages of living at Simply Home Community, a tiny cohousing community.) And still I have a punch list that’s 40 items long that includes little tasks like washing the windows and doing paint touch ups. I’ll get to those eventually. Say, this spring when it warms up again! But for now, I’m enjoying being hunkered down for the winter in my little house!

Now, to go hang my advent calendar and count down the days till I get to go visit my sisters and introduce them to my sweetie, Isha, The Guy Next Door!

Offering Gratitudes

This time last year I was Giving Thanks for the Little Life. The year before I was planning ways to Unstuff Your Holidays. (By the way, I’m teaching a Downsizing E-Course in January, so if you’re interested, you can join us!) The year before that I was thinking about how most of my stuff is Just Stuff. And the year before that, when I had first moved into a tiny house on wheels, it was just a simple Thanksgiving!

Gratitude has become more of a habit for me over the past year. It’s becoming easier to count my gratitudes.

I’m keeping a 5 Minute Journal. And although I like a paper journal for my morning sip, sit, and jot, I like the electronic version of the 5 Minute Journal because it has a little notification that reminds me to complete it in the morning to record gratitudes and set intentions and in the evening to reflect on gratitudes, accomplishments, and serendipities and think about how I could make the day better.

On the nights that I cook Community Dinner at Simply Home Community, I ask everyone to say something they’re grateful for to kick off the meal. Mind you, we don’t let the food get cold while we say thanks. We dig right into our dinner and go around the table to hear what everyone is thankful for. Usually it sparks other conversation as people have follow up questions.

This year I spent Thanksgiving at my fairy godparents house with my sweetie, The Guy Next Door. It was a fabulous visit with people near and dear. Between carbo-loading with a Bread Bake-Off on Wednesday night and our Thanksgiving day feast on Thursday it was a very rich and delicious couple of days! Fortunately, we also enjoyed a hot sauna, a chilly run, several mugs of tea, catch up conversations, and a hilarious party game.

To add to all that goodness, Isha and I also spent time on our drive to and from Corvallis comparing notes from our Tiny House Considerations Challenges as we scheme our tiny house for two. As we rolled back into Portland we were wrapping up a conversation about the objects we own and looking forward to the Downsizing E-Course I’ll be teaching this January and February.

While we were making breakfast this morning, Isha said “We have soooo much to be grateful for!” I completely agree. We really do.

Key Free

Yesterday while I was having a working date with one of my best friends at our beloved Townshend's Tea House, we got to talking about keys. This isn't necessarily an unusual topic of conversation for the two us because we used to be housemates and we have stories to tell of times that one of us (I won't say who) locked herself out and the other of us (I won't say who) rescued her! We were discussing losing things and she was showing me her pod. We each have one and I Still Don't Leave Home Without It! But what was interesting this time around was that when I showed her my new pod, she said "where are your keys?!" and I got to tell her that I'm now Key Free.

Yup. That's right. I don't have any keys anymore!

(Well, okay, that's not entirely true, since I do still have a key to my post box. Buuuut... it's a small space and they know me - and they're meticulous about checking my ID anyhow - so they give me my mail even if I don't have my key with me.)

I used to keep my keys on the zipper pull of my pod. But now I've upgraded. Now I just have a phone case with slots for my work and personal debit cards, my drivers license, my insurance cards, and a $20 bill. Easy peasy. My new case even protects the screen of my phone (which is great because I'm a klutz and I drop that poor thing on a daily basis!)

So how in the world did I become key free?

The biggest trick is that it's all about Access Rather Than Ownership. I can still access the stuff I need but I don't have to carry around keys to get to it.

I used to have two house keys for my garden cottage (this was part of the reason we locked ourselves out regularly!) but more recently while I've been living in tiny houses I've only had one key. When I built my tiny house, The Lucky Penny, I purposely put in a combination lock so that I could avoid having a house key anymore. (I do, of course, have a back up key, in case the batteries conk out in the combo lock - and the great thing about having a metal trailer as the foundation of my house is that there are soooo many places to tuck a magnetic hide-a-key - a trick I learned from a fellow tiny houser! No fake rocks for us, thank you very much!) Oh, and we have combination locks on The Big House, too. So, no house key.

I used to have a bike lock key, but when I was Bettering Things one day I got my combination U-lock all set up so I'd never have to carry a bike lock key again. So, no bike key.

I don't own a car. So, no car key. (I rent cars regularly through Car2Go, Enterprise, Getaround, and Zipcar, so when I'm using them I have nice big clunky car keys to contend with, but this usually only happens once or twice a month. By the way, what is up with having TWO big fat car keys attached to each other and big clunky plastic key rings, anyhow? Really. How does that make any sense at all?!)

I am self-employed these days so even though I don't always work from home, I no longer have any keys to gate locks or construction trailers or offices. So, no work keys.

I can't even remember now what else I used to have keys to, but at this point I'm glad that it's one less thing to think about. This is one of my favorite aspects of minimalism. Not just less stuff but less stuff to think about (and lose!)

Do you have keys? What are your keys to? Do you use them on a daily basis? Could you get by without your keys? Would you want to?

Staying at Sol Haus

When I was in Ojai last weekend for the Tiny House Community Workshop, I got to stay at Sol Haus, Vina Lustado’s beautiful tiny house on wheels. And it was so wonderful I must tell you all about it!

Lee and I confessed to each other as we were driving to Vina's that night that we anticipated we'd have some tiny house envy. We’d seen pictures of Vina’s beautiful home, but of course, Vina’s house, like so many other tiny houses, can’t really be captured in photos. The feel of her house is splendid! So cozy, such clean lines, such well-thought-out details. Vina is an architect and her design aesthetic is fabulous! I loved the curve of her spacious desk, the awesome library ladder, and the way the low window in the kitchen makes you feel like you’re cooking al fresco. It was awesome curling up on the comfy bench and falling asleep to the flickering flame of her propane fireplace. (Lee slept up in the loft which has a nest feel with a circular window and an operable skylight!)

There were a few other things Vina did that I was surprised I liked so much. Here are my top three:

1. 

   A ceiling under the loft. I’m used to seeing exposed joists under a loft which I like because it shows off the structure of the house and gives a sense of spaciousness. I'd always thought that a ceiling would make the space seem too small. So I was impressed by how the clean lines and light color of her kitchen ceiling actually made the space feel larger (of course, at 6'8" Vina's kitchen ceiling is about 5" higher than normal. And somehow the loft feels spacious, too! I'm pretty sure it's Vina magic! That and having the walls tall and the roof pitch a little shallower!)

2. A tiled shower. Vina’s lovely tiled shower reminded me that maybe it’s worth considering tile for the Tiny House for Two I’m designing with The Guy Next Door. I used to think tile was a bad idea for tiny houses on the move because of the weight and the cracking potential, but for little houses that don’t move much, I think they can make a lot of sense (especially if they’re small tiles which seem to handle movement a little better). I installed tile in Tandem (under the instruction of a great teacher named Rocky) and it’s held up well.
3. A second sink. I also appreciated the handwashing sink in the bathroom. Typically I don’t feel it’s necessary to have two sinks in a tiny house if there are just one or two people, but since Lee and I were staying in Sol Haus and Vina was in and out hanging out with us and getting herself ready in the morning and for bed, it was quite nice to have two sinks. I’m now convinced that if two or more people are sharing a space it’s at least worth considering a second sink.

I feel very, very lucky to have had the opportunity to stay at Sol Haus. If you ever have the chance to tour this little house, please take it!

Talking Tiny House Community in Ojai

What a treat it was to teach a Tiny House Community Workshop in Ojai with Lee Pera and Vina Lustado last week! I’ve been under the weather the past few days, but I’m still buzzing with excitement from this great group of folks interested in creating tiny house communities. On Thursday afternoon I hopped on a plane to L.A. where I was met by Lee. She and I had a fascinating conversation (as usual) as we drove to Ojai, CA to meet up with Vina and Anna who coordinated the Tiny House Community Workshop.

After designing and building her beautiful tiny home, Sol Haus, Vina is excited about the possibility of creating a tiny house community in Ojai. She knew she wasn’t alone because she’d been having good conversations with lots of other interested folks in her area. So after seeing the presentation on Tiny House Community that Lee and I did at Tiny House Jamboree 2015 in August, Vina asked us to come to Ojai to share our experiences with tiny house community. After months of planning across time zones, conference calls, and a shared Dropbox folder, it was exciting to know that the time had finally arrived and the workshop was sold out! That night, as Lee and I were Staying at Sol Haus, we were giddy with excitement that we’d get to expand on our previous presentation.

In the morning Vina hosted a tour of her tiny home and Lee and I finished final details for the workshop. Around noon I also got to reconnect with Julie, a former student from Yestermorrow's Tiny House Design-Build Class who is in my Tiny House Considerations E-Course but also happens to be living at the Krishnamurti Center right now. It's a tiny world after all!

When the participants arrived at the Pavillion at the Krishnamurti Center and we had them introduce themselves by telling us where they hail from and what their tiny house community dream is. Then Lee and I presented the Six Ways to Create Tiny House Community that we’re familiar with. We asked the workshop attendees to identify which one we think best suits their dream. We then did a Regulation Roundtable and we were lucky to have several people in the room who work in building and zoning who were able to help us describe the complexities of the regulatory landscape. At one point one of the participants said “Wait! I’m confused!” I asked “Who else is confused?” and we ALL raised our hands. It is, indeed, confusing to navigate the paradoxes of tiny house regulation. No one has all the answers, but collectively we can come up with great solutions (or at least the right questions to ask!) The power of being in a group of other tiny house advocates is amazing! One fellow said he felt like he was in a support group for tiny house enthusiasts and he was so glad to know he wasn’t alone! We feel ya, man!

We then shared five steps for creating tiny house communities and split into groups to brainstorm. It was neat to see groups form around creating tiny house communities in particular areas (we had an Ojai group and an LA group) as well as tiny house businesses and tiny house regulations. We brought everyone back to share some of the things we’d discovered in our small groups.

No one wanted the conversation to end, but by the time we reached the end of the workshop the sun was setting and it was time to say goodbye. We took a group photo, swapped hugs and contact info, and told everyone to keep us posted about their tiny house community adventures!

Small Home Weekend Wrap Up

What an action-packed weekend it was for little houses!

On Friday I enjoyed visiting with other small home advocates and enthusiasts from all across the country at the Build Small, Live Large Summit. Alan Durning of the Sightline Institute and Dee Williams of Portland Alternative Dwellings laid the scene perfectly in their Keynote Address: The Power of Small. I especially appreciated that Alan’s point that small housing is so often illegal and his encouragement to think really BIG about how we can move forward housing options that are better for people, communities, and natural environments. It was hard to pick between the concurrent sessions, but I’m glad I went to the one about demographic shifts and housing trends because it was really interesting learning about how certain trends (towards smaller households, larger homes, longer lives, delayed marriage and childbearing, increased desire for walkability, etc.) are impacting housing choices.

The five panelists for the Space-Efficient Housing Policy Round Table (Eli Spevak, Jean-Pierre Veillet, Danell Norby, Liz Getty, and Rachel Ginis) did an excellent job describing the regulatory challenges they face in their daily work as they attempt to create small homes. They also presented clever solutions to address or work around these challenges and we left the audience with Tangible Ways You Can Support Space-Efficient Housing.

The Courtyard Clusters session with my heroes Ross Chapin, Mark Lakeman, and Eli Spevak was full of incredible ideas and images. I tried frantically (and failed miserably) to capture the poetry of how smart land use creates sustainable community. I also learned new words like “pre-legal” which I have already begun employing. (Thanks, Mark!)

The Best of Small Design Slam was fabulous, too. As he was ducking out at the end of Mark Lakeman’s presentation, Mayor Charlie Hales leaned over to me and said: “I know a vacancy coming up soon and that guy would be a good candidate to fill it!” I completely agree, Mayor Hales.

On Saturday Eli and I both lead Guided ADU Tours with 14 participants, showing them a great line-up of accessory dwellings. Many of the people in my group are considering creating an ADU on their own property so they had lots of questions about the ins and outs of the upcoming Accessory Structures Zoning Code Amendments and the impacts of Multnomah County’s new method for assessing property values on properties with detached ADUs. It poured down rain all day, so we ended up soaked, but morale remained high as we went to as many ADUs as we could fit in.

That evening we celebrated Simply Home Community’s 1 Year Anniversary with a party at our place. It’s always fun to get our friends together to mix and mingle. We hosted little parties in our tiny houses (at one point I had 17 people in The Lucky Penny!) as well as activities in the Big House. And, of course, we had singing and s’mores around the bonfire to wrap up the night.

Yesterday during our Simply Home Work Party we donned our rain coats and put our garden to bed. (Amazing how much we can get done quickly when working together!) Then Jake, Isha and I hunkered down at Bison Coffeehouse in the rainstorm to work through our Tiny House Considerations Lesson & Challenge for Week 2. (Since I've fallen in love with The Guy Next Door, I'm going through the same process of scheming a tiny house as the other participants in the E-Course!) We had a great conference call for Week 2 of the Tiny House Considerations E-Course and I look forward to sharing the Lesson and Challenge for Week 3 because it’s full of fun design exercises so participants can consider what’s most important to them. The bell rang for Community Dinner just as the conference call wrapped up, so we trooped inside for one of Lindsey’s fabulous meals. Our Heart Meeting after supper focused on capturing our Values in preparation for upcoming conversations about Vision and Mission.

If my weekends are going to be so full, I'm glad that they're full of great things and wonderful people! With a good breakfast in my belly (fried green tomatoes from yesterday’s garden harvest) I’m ready for a brand new week! Happy Monday, everyone!

Small Home Weekend in Portland

This weekend is jam-packed with small house events! Some folks are even referring to it as Tinypalooza! The Build Small, Live Large Summit on Friday, Nov 6th will take place at Portland State University. I'm moderating the Space Efficient Housing Policy Roundtable, which includes a great line-up of panelists. On Saturday and Sunday Dee Williams' company Portland Alternative Dwellings (PAD) is leading a Tiny House Basics Weekend Workshop.

On Saturday, I'll be leading a Guided ADU Tour, showing off 11 fabulous ADUs in Portland. I've lead Guided ADU Tours a couple times now and they're always a blast. This one should be, too, because the ADUs on this tour are beautiful and use lots of clever space-saving tips which I get to point out. Coordinating the ADU Case Studies Project the past two years has been a fabulous experience! I've learned a great deal about the challenges related to ADUs as well as the creative solutions homeowners, designers, and builders have developed. It will be fun to share these tips, tricks, and cautions with the group of people joining me for the tour. My guided tour is sold out, but you can still Register for the ADU Tour and take yourself on a self-guided tour. If you can't make it, keep reading the ADU Case Studies to learn about how other people have created second dwellings to create community, housing flexibility, and additional income.

Finally, on Sunday Caravan - The Tiny House Hotel is hosting a Tiny House Tour and they've asked me to be there. It's always fun showing off Tandem, the tiny house I helped finish out for Orange Splot when I had my Summer Dream Job: Tiny House Design-Building.

I look forward to the chance to geek out with so many other small home lovers this weekend. Will you be there? If so, what are you most excited about?