Tiny House Movement

Down the road from where I grew up there was a tiny little camper parked on a tiny little lot.  Round and aluminum, the little camper could have easily been pulled by a Ford Pinto. Yet, each day as my school bus rolled past, I would see signs of life.  Even in the winter snow, a path would be beaten from the camper to the outhouse. Unfortunately this was not a family's vacation tow along, but the home of an elderly lady.

At the time I wondered what circumstances had lead to this purgatory.  I imagined a sedimentary lifestyle, a hot plate, a worn comfortable chair, and a tiny black & white television. When I say small, I am quite literal, as the camping trailer was only about 12 foot long and barely eight foot wide.  How odd I thought it all, this little camper perched on a landscape of giant cars and giant homes.

Quite right, this was a few years ago.  Ah, the good old days when cars got 8 miles per gallon of leaded gas and the farmland horizon sprouted monster mansions. Today however, hidden in the muddle of tweets and twerks, we catch doomsday snippets of progressive climate change and dwindling resources. Suffering a series of knee jerk reactions to the issue of the day, we now drive smaller fuel efficient cars and have been guilt into recycling.  While the economic collapse may have been the true driving force behind these changes, the results have been positive on the environmental front.  We have adapted to smaller and more efficient cars, yet not so much when it comes to our homes. Personally, I wouldn’t want to have to clean a 2,400 square foot home.

So, yes, I am going to build a tiny home.  Fortunately, I am not alone.  I have found numerous builders, residents, and admirers of the tiny house movement.  I thank each of them for their inspiration and ideas.

While I sense this list will soon become unruly, I am happy to share some of my favorites.

Dale