ADU, Travel, Community
Lina Menard
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.

Maui, Hawaii
Tiny House, Travel, Planning
Lina Menard
Lucky Penny Moves to Walla Walla

A number of circumstances collided recently to compel me to move the Lucky Penny to my property in Walla Walla where I have a ground bound small house called Valencia Cottage. So on Tuesday trusted tiny house movers Linh and Stephanie Pham helped me move the Lucky Penny safely from Portland to my place in Walla Walla.

Lucky Penny Moves to Walla Walla
Minimalism, Workshop
Lina Menard
Downsizing Tune Up

As I packed up recently in preparation to travel cross country in my Honda Fit, I did some downsizing… It was harder than it had been during my last couple of moves because this time I had more stuff. I’d been living in a bigger space…My apartment was a studio, but it was still about 6 times bigger than the Lucky Penny! I talked with several people about the experience and a handful of them said “oh my goodness, I need to do more of that!” So I’ve decided to offer a 6-week Downsizing Tune Up…

Downsizing Tune Up

Joan Grimm

November Tiny House Mixer Draws A Crowd

Forty-four people crowded around tables into the back room at the Lucky Labrador Brewing Company in SE Portland on Saturday evening so we could mix and mingle with other tiny house enthusiasts. Portland Alternative Dwellings hosted the Tiny House Mixer at the end of Day 1 of the November Tiny House Basics Workshop. We're working on booking a bigger venue for the December Tiny House Mixer! To hear about the next event, like the PAD Tiny Houses facebook page.

The Mixer started out with a welcome from Joan Grimm and Dee Williams of PAD, followed by a short program in which eight people had 2 minutes to share their tiny house story. Nathan Miller of All Ways Electric talked about electrical considerations, Derin Williams of Shelter Wise shared info about the tiny houses on wheels he's built, and Deb Delman and Kol Peterson gave an update on Caravan - The Tiny House Hotel (and coupons for tiny house enthusiasts to use for a staycation! Thanks Kol and Deb!) Then Tony talked about lessons learned since he began building his tiny house three months ago (he encouraged us to heed the warning about the spontaneous combustion potential of oily rags!), Ben described how his design evolved once he started Ben Builds a Tiny House at ADX in September, and Audrey and Tomas of Trying on Tiny shared their lessons learned from living in a tiny house for a year. There were a few good-of-the order announcements about new projects and available materials. If anyone knows of a good parking spot for Lynda and her tiny house, please contact her by email or phone (503-623-7898)!

Afterwards, people got acquainted by sharing their tiny house inspirations and design ideas. It was a treat to meet so many fascinating people, including Todd who's having his tiny house built by Abel Zimmerman of Zyl Vardos this spring and Chris of Builder by Bike whose tiny house I just happened upon a few days ago.

The tiny house community is growing by leaps and bounds and it's so exciting to be part of it. See you at the December Tiny House Mixer! Day and location TBA. Stay tuned!

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Partnering with Portland Alternative Dwellings

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PAD Partners A few months ago Dee Williams and Joan Grimm of Portland Alternative Dwellings gave me the heads up that they would be restructuring their company. With Katy Anderson, PAD had been doing design and building work for tiny houses, but Katy has moved on to other projects so Dee and Joan decided to focus on workshops, education, and consulting for tiny houses and pocket communities. Check out the new PAD Tiny Houses website!

I was delighted when PAD Tiny Houses asked me to join them as a Consulting Partner and a team teacher for some of their workshops. In partnership with PAD I’ve already had the opportunity to do consultations with several folks dreaming about tiny houses. They live across town (howdy, Cully!), across the country (hello, New England), and around the world (cheers, Australia!) It’s really exciting to have Dee Williams to bounce ideas off and double-check my work as I do concept and schematic design work.

PAD has also partnered with Derin and Andrea Willimas of Shelter Wise, a tiny house building and energy-efficiency consulting company. We had a great time presenting together last fall at the Build Small, Live Large Summit, which got us talking about working together in a more intentional way.

Today all of us gathered to discuss our working relationships and scheme about shrinking the world. We’re excited about the upcoming Tiny House Workshop later this month (join us!), building a tiny house at the Casa Verde festival in April, and participating in the first ever Tiny House Fair hosted by Yestermorrow Design-Build School in Vermont in June 2013. Stay tuned as we carry out our plans to make the world a better place, one tiny house at a time!