Debt/car-free tiny house couple: simple living + resilience

October 19, 2014 john 0 26

Six years ago, Tammy Strobel was unhappy- “I was commuting 2 hours a day, going to a job I hated, overweight, unhappy, kind of middle class plight”. Then she watched a youtube video featuring Dee Williams and her tiny home- a moment she calls her “turning point”- and she began to dream about less. Prior…

Zen forest house: 11K, handcrafted, small home in Oregon

October 19, 2014 john 1 32

Brian Schulz wanted to see “how small of a house I could make feel big”. Inspired by the traditional Japanese minka homes that rely on local materials and steeply sloped roofs to create affordable, open structures, Schulz created a home using materials salvaged or sourced from within 10 miles of his home. The result is…

America’s 1st tiny house hotel had to be in dense Portland

October 19, 2014 john 0 24

Deb Delman and Kol Peterson love tiny homes: she’s spent the past couple decades living in a converted garage, a yurt, a tiny unelectrified cabin; he studied urban planning and is a “really big advocate of ADUs [accessory dwelling units AKA granny cottages, in-law suites]“; and the couple now live together in a self-built ADU.…

Tiny house pioneer Jay Shafer: thinking beyond trailer parks

October 17, 2014 john 0 81

In 1997, Jay Shafer built a tiny house on wheels that shunned trailer park conventions and attempted to mimic a classic gabled home. This act of design rebellion- coupled with Shafer’s challenge to building codes (first in Iowa City and later in California) and his co-founding of the Small House Society- helped launch a movement.…

Tiny Texas Houses’ “Willy Wonka” on making magic reusing wood

October 17, 2014 john 1 501

Brad “Darby” Kittel came to Texas living on a converted school bus. He had planned to write the Great American Novel, but he ended up buying up boarded-up homes and fixing them up using materials he salvaged from other old houses, barns and buildings. After a couple decades refining his salvage mining techniques, he began…