Kicking Off Spring with Tiny House Prep

I returned home from teaching Less is More: Designing the Small or Tiny Home at Yestermorrow in Vermont to find that Portland had greeted spring in a cacophony of cherry blossoms! So it is time, officially to begin my tiny house build.

I celebrated the first day of spring with lots of tiny house prep. In the morning Laura Klement and I went to Green Anchors to check it out as a potential build site. Laura and I met in the Tiny House Design-Build class at Yestermorrow last October and she moved back to Portland to build her tiny home because, well, Portland is the epicenter of the tiny house universe! Laura and I are interested in building together because we are on a similar timeline and can help each other out and make things go more quickly.

Green Anchors is an alluring option for these reasons:

• it's right under the incredible St. John's bridge
• there are storage lockers available
• there are other talented people who are up for skill sharing
• the river is right there, which will be very tempting the summer
• there's plenty of space to move comfortably around a tiny house
• there's no need to worry about making a racket with power tools

The only big disadvantage is that it's a 9 mile bike ride from my house. And that's not such a big deal now that the weather is beautiful, but it's going to be a royal pain if I'm hauling things! I've considered buying a truck, but so far I haven't quite figure out how to make it pencil out.

In the afternoon, I went to Iron Eagle Trailers so I could talk to Rob and get exact measurements for my vardo trailer so I can refine my design. Rob told me that someone was coming down from Alaska to pick up a tiny house trailer. It seems like a long haul, but Rob is truly the tiny house trailer expert in the Pacific Northwest and he builds stronger, lighter, smarter, and less expensive tiny house trailers than anyone else I've found. I've been very pleased with the trailers Rob has built for me and I refer people to Rob all day long, so we recently set up a deal. If you tell Rob I sent you can get $50 off your trailer order! If you're thinking of building this summer, it's time to get your trailer into the production line! You'll be right behind Laura who placed her order last week.

I also made a trip to the hardware store to pick up my glue, clamps, and glue applicator so I can begin building my arched rafters for my vardo. Stay tuned for more about Building My Arched Rafters.

In the evening I went to PAD's Tiny House Mixer and it was a lot of fun to visit with fellow tiny house enthusiasts. I also loved seeing the update on Ben's tiny house. He's done a fabulous job with his tongue and groove interior siding. It looks beautiful!

Three cheers for cracking open the tiny house. Are you building this summer, too?!

My Kitchen Windows

 

My Tiny House Started with a Window and a couple weeks ago I dropped the sashes off at Wooddale Windows so that a frame could be made for them. I knew that Wooddale, who has been making wood windows for the past several decades, was precisely the person I wanted to build the arched frame for the window that started this whole project. I believe it will be the piece de resistance in my wee home and I was pleased that Wooddale was fascinated by my project. I grinned when I read his emails:

"Ya know, we have built many arched windows in the past. There is a lot of labor that goes into building arched top frames and sash. Along with that costs are much higher. We are interested in your project. We have never built windows for a Gypsy Wagon, which will be a nice change... Send a 50% deposit that gets you in and I'll buy lumber and get it in here, when I trip on it a couple of times, it's time to build your windows. Thank you so much, looking to enjoy this job." - Wooddale

Besides the arched window, my vardo design called for two more windows, one for either side of my galley kitchen. So I had been haunting the ReBuilding Center for the past few months, looking for my kitchen windows.

I knew just what I wanted: They had to be a matching set. They had to be double paned. They had to be wooden, at least on the interior. They had to be about 3 feet tall and between 4 and 6 feet wide. They had to be in good working order. They had to be beautiful. Not that I was picky about it...

Needless to say, I hadn't found them. So I was just about to commission Wooddale to build me the kitchen windows of my dreams. I thought I'd wanted a little curve in the top trim the way old streetcar windows are, but I also wanted some sort of divided lites and when I tried sketching it out I realized it just didn't look right. So I came up with a new design, one that had both the curve and the divided lites. After I sent Wooddale the sketch of what I wanted I started seeing similar windows around town. And every time I did my heart skipped a beat. So I knew they would be gorgeous. And probably worth every penny of the price tag that accompanies meticulous craftsmanship.

But yesterday, just before I was going to send a deposit check for my windows, I decided to make one more trip to the ReBuilding Center to scout for my kitchen windows. And this time, when I walked among the rows of windows on a Tiny House Treasure Hunt, there they were.

My kitchen windows.

Two matching Pella windows. Double paned. Wood interiors. Three feet tall and 4 feet wide. In good working order. And beautiful.

Yes, one of them needed a new crank. Yes, their flanges had been cut off, as they so often are on reclaimed windows. Yes, they needed a good wipe down. Yes, a new coat of sealer probably wouldn't hurt either. But otherwise, they were just right. They were also a fraction of what I would have paid for brand new custom windows.

As I admired them I realized that my only hesitation was that if I purchased these windows Wooddale wouldn't be making me the windows of my dreams. I love supporting craftspeople like Wooddale, especially those carrying on traditions like building wood windows the old-fashioned way. So I'm delighted that Wooddale will be building the frame for my arched window. I know he has customers lined up, eager to have him create beautiful windows that match their historic homes. So I certainly know who I'll turn to if I ever decide to have the windows of my dreams built for me.

For now, I'm thrilled that I found my kitchen windows. It means I'm this much closer to being able to order my Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs)!

A Sink for Good Measure

For several of my tiny house heros The Kitchen Sink was the first purchase. It was their way of saying "Hey, I'm really going to do this thing! I'm going to build myself a tiny house." And then things started to fall into place for them.

My Tiny House Started With a Window and I felt pretty lucky that I'd found My Beautiful Arched Door, too. Since I'm a rather superstitious person, and I wanted the good luck to keep coming my way, I decided I'd better find myself a sink, too.

One morning I came across a beautiful hand-hammered copper sink on Craigslist. When I called the number the man who was selling it said he was on his way downtown and he offered to bring it by so I could take a look. I decided if he was determined to get his asking price I'd have to let it go. I am hesitant to pay more than I've budgeted since I know how budgets creep. I really can't afford to let that happen.

On the other hand, I know that a handful of beautiful things really matter. For me, the parts of a house I interact with daily - the sink, windows, door, knobs, pulls, and latches - are the parts that need to be beautiful and functional. It's like my cousin explaining that it's okay to buy jeans, t-shirts, and socks that don't speak to your soul, but you've got to have good shoes and a coat you love.

Fortunately, when I offered the man the amount I'd budgeted for a sink he accepted. He lives in a floating home, but he thought my tiny house was novel anyhow. When he saw Bayside Bungalow, the tiny house on wheels I'd rented for the year, he was pretty impressed. He liked the idea of his tiny sink finding a place in my tiny home.

My copper sink is large enough and deep enough that I'll be able to do dishes easily. But it's also small enough that it has moved with me three times now. First to My Summer Garden Cottage, then to my Home Sweet Yurt, and most recently to Sweet Pea. I love knowing that the next time I move it will be to install it in my vardo! I've begun scouting for a copper faucet that will match my sink. It seems the only way to do it justice.

So it seems My Tiny House Starts with a Window... and A Beautiful Arched Door... and a sink for good measure. With these three pieces guiding the character of my gypsy wagon, I think it's going to be lovely!

Let the Tiny House Treasure Hunt begin!

My Beautiful Arched Door

The summer before last I had My Summer Dream Job: Tiny House Design-Building. It was brilliant, lucky, backwards, or some combination of all three that I had the chance to build a tiny house for someone else before I built my own.

While I was finishing out Tandem (which is now located at Caravan - The Tiny House Hotel and available for nightly rental), I soaked up as much information and muscle memory as I could so that someday I would be ready to build my tiny dream house. And I started scouting Craigslist for materials, just to get a sense of what was out there.

I wasn't going to actually buy anything since I knew I wouldn't be building that summer. I definitely wasn't going to buy anything large!

But a friend invited me to visit the ReBuilding Center on a Saturday afternoon in August and I saw it.

My door.

An arched door with an arched leaded glass window and an arched frame, too. The fella I asked about it said it had been there a couple weeks. The price was more than I'd been wanting to pay for a door, but it was just what I wanted.

I decided to sleep on it.

And I didn't sleep well because I was nervous about making the commitment... but even more nervous someone else would get MY door. So I reserved a truck through Getaround and was at the ReBuilding Center before it opened on Sunday morning. When I walked in and told the guy I was going to buy that arched door he grinned and gave me a discount. The man who helped me load it into the truck said arched doors are rare but arched doors with frames in good shape are one in a thousand. I feel lucky that we found each other despite the odds, my door and me. So My Tiny House Started with a Window and then, all of the sudden I had a beautiful door, too. With an arched door and an arched window, my house was definitely taking on a life of it's own. And a shape of its own. When I found my arched window I was already pretty sure my house would be a vardo, but finding my arched door sealed the deal.

Then I started getting a little nervous because I didn't have A Sink for Good Measure, so my scouting began again...

Happy Birthday to Niche Consulting LLC

A year ago today I started my own sustainable design consulting company, Niche Consulting LLC. So my baby company is one year old today! Happy Birthday, Niche!

For Niche, like for most start-up companies – and most human babies for that matter – the first year was full of experimentation and growth. Through Niche this year I taught workshops, met with clients for design and lifestyle consultations, sketched up tiny house designs, participated in conferences and working groups, and supported other sustainable development companies. I worked with dozens of great individuals and a handful of wonderful companies, including Intrinsic Ventures, Portland Alternative Dwellings, Caravan – The Tiny House Hotel, and Yestermorrow Design-Build School.

As I've embarked on Lina's Next Adventure, I've learned a great deal through trial-and-error as well as from the advice and support of friends, family, colleagues, and a few perfect strangers, too. Sometimes it’s felt like I could barely hold my head up and sometimes it’s felt like I was crawling, but now that I’ve got my feet underneath me, Niche and I are eager to toddle out and explore what this second year of life is all about. (Hopefully, it won’t be the terrible twos!)

Of course, I’ve also been overwhelmed by the support from my friends and family. Special thanks go to Sandy Hall, Amy Gammill, Rose Jones, Kathy MacMaster, and Pat Hovis for being my cheer squad! It’s also been great to be starting up my company while several friends and two of my sisters start companies of their own.

These friends and family members of mine also welcomed new businesses into the world this year:

• My sister Sarah created Farthest North Films so that she can pursue her love of documenting life in Alaska. (Her company is so new the website hasn't been built out yet - stay tuned!)
• My sister Katie created Bring Baby Fitness so she (and her infant son Caleb) can help other new parents take good care of themselves and their little ones. (Her company is so new the website hasn't been built out yet - stay tuned!)
• My friends Derin and Andra Williams have created Shelter Wise LLC to build tiny houses and do energy efficiency work.
• My friends Deb Delman and Kol Peterson created Caravan - The Tiny House Hotel.
• My friends Jeremy Beasley and Kelly Nardo are creating a film about tiny living called Small is Beautiful.
• My friend Karin Parramore co-founded Good Life Medicine Center (and its development overlapped with construction of her tiny house on wheels, Serenity! Two new babies for Karin this year! She deserves a medal – and a break!)
• My friend Lindsey Thompson started up Thompson Family Acupuncture Clinic and began blogging at Stick Out Your Tongue.
• My friend Lisa Curtis has developed Kuli Kuli Bars which you can now request that your local Whole Foods carry.

Meanwhile, I continue to be inspired by the friends who have blazed the entrepreneurial path before me and created sustainability-focused companies of their own:

• Brittany Yunker rents out her sweet Bayside Bungalow as a tiny vacation rental.
• Tammy Strobel teaches e-courses on simple living, writing, and photography (I've just registered for her latest one A Simple Year and I'm so excited to get started!)
• Dee Williams and Joan Grimm provide inspiration, education, and information for people creating tiny houses through Portland Alternative Dwellings
• Matt Eppelsheimer does web development through is company Rocket Lift Incorporated
• Corey McKrill builds websites through Jupiterwise Design
• Curt Bowen supports sustainable farming practices in Guatamala through Semilla Nueva
• Emily Dietsman and Andy Asmus grow amazing food, flowers, and community through Welcome Table Farm
• Apologies to anyone I left off the list! Remind me and I'll add you!

It’s been an honor to work alongside these impressive folks as we create companies that strive to do well by doing good. Here’s to supporting small businesses with big hearts this year!

Looking Forward to 2014

With the transition to a New Year, I'm celebrating Another Year of Little Living. (You can read the highlights of my 2012 A Year of Little Living, too.) Here are some of the things I'm most excited about for 2014:

January & February

On January 6th and 20th I'll be teaching Organize Your New Year: A 2-Part Decluttering Workshop. On January 25th and February 8th, I'll be co-teaching Portland Alternative Dwellings' Tiny Chair Workshop, which is an introduction to power tools. I'm exciting to be co-teaching the Tiny Chair Workshop with Laura Klement, who participated in the Tiny House Design-Build class at Yestermorrow. The first weekend of February and the first weekend of March I'll be helping out with PAD's Tiny House Basics Workshops. This weekend workshop introduces tiny house enthusiasts to everything they need to consider from tiny house structural issues to regulations and community building.

Over the next couple months I'm also Coordinating the ADU Case Studies Project, which involves interviewing ADU owners from across Oregon and writing up case studies which are featured on the AccessoryDwellings.org website. Our goal is to help people articulate what motivated them to develop an ADU on their property, what's working well and what they would do differently, and what advice they have for people considering building an ADU on their property.

I will also continue to build out TinyHomes.com, a website for tiny homes and the people who love them. Our goal is to create an in-depth, engaging, and informative website for people interested in tiny homes. We are currently collecting Profiles for tiny homes and tiny house enthusiasts. We look forward to having the profiles serve as a who's who of the Tiny House Movement, so we'd love to have you add a profile for yourself or your tiny home! We also feature regular blog posts from people who are exploring, designing, building, living in tiny homes. If you would like to be a contributor on our blog or facebook page, please contact me at lina@tinyhomes.com. I look forward to meeting more bloggers and supporting the small house movement through TinyHomes.com!

March & April

In March, I'll be teaching a week-long Less is More class at Yestermorrow Design-Build School in Vermont with the fabulous Dave Cain. This course, which I took myself in the fall of 2010, helps people design a small (or tiny) home of their own. After seeing a great set of presentation following the two-week Tiny House Design-Build, which I co-instructed in October, I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!

The first weekend of April I'll be speaking at the Tiny House Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. There's a great speaker line-up, including Dee Williams as the keynote, so I look forward to this opportunity to meet giants of the Tiny House Movement.

I'm considering staying on the east coast during the time between my Yestermorrow course wrapping up and the Tiny House Conference starting up. I've got connections with Greater Boston Tiny House Enthusiasts, Boneyard Studios, and an artist community in West Virginia, so it seems like it could be a fabulous adventure. If you know of other things I should check out if I decided to spend this time on the East Coast, please let me know!

Dee Williams' book, The Big Tiny (which I've already pre-ordered in Kindle format!) comes out on Earth Day and there will be festivities surrounding its release. I'll likely join in the fun here in the Portland area.

It looks like 2014 is off to a great start! What are you most looking forward to in the coming year?

Another Year of Little Living

The end of the year presents us with a great opportunity to look back and reflect upon what we've accomplished and what we've learned. I cataloged A Year of Little Living back in 2012. In 2013 I wrote 87 posts about my Little Life experience and you can read the best of the best here. I'm grateful for the opportunities that were presented to me in 2013 and I'm already Looking Forward to 2014.

Here are some highlights from 2013:

This Is The Little Life

I started blogging two and a half years ago, but I was shy about it, so I didn't tell anyone at first. For all intents and purposes, this month marks my two year anniversary as a blogger. It's been an incredible experience to share my vignettes about my Little Life with all of you. I've enjoyed engaging in fascinating conversations with followers from around the world. It's especially been a pleasure to meet many of you over the past couple of years at gatherings or during visits. Word Press conveniently showed me yesterday that in 2013 This Is The Little Life was viewed approximately 140,000 times by people in 155 countries. Thank you for your support, encouragement, ideas, insights, and for following along!

Niche Consulting LLC

In January 2013, I started up my own sustainable design consulting company, Niche Consulting LLC. I created Niche so that I could work with clients from across the country and around the world who want to create a little home of their own. I've enjoyed doing individual consultations, teaching small group workshops, and assisting clients with small home design work. It's a real thrill to see a design that I helped a client develop be constructed in real life! I've also been able to partner with fabulous sustainable development companies like Portland Alternative Dwellings, Caravan - The Tiny House Hotel, Yestermorrow Design-Build School, Shelter Wise, and Intrinsic Ventures.

Workshops

I kicked off 2013 by teaching a tiny house workshop for my cousin's fifth grade classroom and discovered Ten Year Olds Design Awesome Tiny Houses! In February, April, July, and November I co-taught Tiny House Basics Workshops with Dee Williams and Joan Grimm of Portland Alternative Dwellings. In April, I worked with Shelter Wise, PAD, and six amazing students to build a tiny house in two days for the Casa Pequena workshop at Casa Verde in McMinnville, OR. In a July PAD Tiny House Build Workshop we constructed the floor of Dee Williams' vardo and built three walls for Naj Haus. In October, I co-taught a two-week-long Tiny House Design-Build class at Yestermorrow and in December I taught Unstuff Your Holidays: A 1-Day Decluttering Workshop.

My 200 Things Challenge

Before Downsizing from a Tiny House to a Tinier House, I decided to embark upon My 200 Things Challenge. This time last year I was half way through the challenge. I did a New Year's Re-Inventory and spent some time Taking Stock Without Stocking Up. I also made a New Year's resolution to go paper-free, so I was Strategizing Digitizing and Getting All My Docs in a Row. I recapped What My 200 Things Challenge Taught Me in October.

Masters Degree & Urban Design Certificate

From January through June I worked with Five to Nine Consulting to develop a framework for reintroducing housing into downtown Oregon City. This was our workshop project for our Masters of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) degree. In June I graduated from Portland State University's College of Urban and Public Affairs with a MURP and I wrapped up my Urban Design Certificate the next month.

Tiny House Fair

Unfortunately, I missed graduation because I was at Yestermorrow in Vermont, presenting at the Tiny House Fair. Fortunately, it was one of the best weekends of my life. I joked that I was taking commencement really seriously and getting on with my career. It was a treat to be back on the Yestermorrow campus and to meet so many great tiny house enthusiasts, builders, designers, and dwellers. My posts about the Tiny House Fair were republished in Tiny House Magazine.

Pedalpalooza ADU & Tiny House Tours

In June, Kimber and I coordinated the Pedalpalooza ADU & Tiny House Tours. I'd coordinated the tours in 2012 while working with Orange Splot. In 2013 we put both tours on one epic day, which you can read about in the Pedalpalooza Recap. It was great fun to meet so many small home enthusiasts and show off great spaces. We wrapped up at Caravan - The Tiny House Hotel, where we showed off Caravan's Tiny Houses, including Tandem, the tiny house on wheels I finished out in the summer of 2012 as part of My Summer Dream Job: Tiny House Design-Building with Orange Splot.

Moving from Home, Sweet Yurt to Home, Sweet Pea

In August, I moved from my Home, Sweet Yurt into Sweet Pea, a tiny house on wheels located in POD49. It's a great little place with really great neighbors in a wonderful location. (And the Sweet Pea Plan Set is available for sale through PAD.) I've thoroughly enjoyed this little home. I've had a Snow Day in the Tiny House and I've even tried Sharing Sweet Pea with my Sweetie.

Site Managing at Caravan - The Tiny House Hotel

In July, my friends Kol Peterson and Deb Delman opened Caravan - The Tiny House Hotel. Their soft opening was serving as the final destination for the Pedalpalooza ADU & Tiny House Tours, but the Caravan Grand Opening in July was a truly wonderful party. I loved visiting with the people who stopped in to take a look at Tandem, the tiny house on wheels owned by Eli Spevak of Orange Splot that I finished out as my Practicum Project for my Yestermorrow Sustainable Design-Build Certificate. Speaking of parties, I celebrated my 30th birthday with a Big Birthday Bash at the Tiny House Hotel. In September I served as site manager of Caravan for two weeks while Kol and Deb were getting married then on their honeymoon. I got to know all the little houses a whole lot better as I developed my Tiny House Cleaning Checklist and I joked Everything I Need to Know About Designing Tiny Houses I Learned From Cleaning Them.

Tiny House Mixers

In 2012 I helped coordinate several Tiny House Potlucks. They were a lot of fun, especially when we had them in parks during the summer months, but it was hard to find a place big enough for us to meet in the winter since we all live in small houses. Fortunately, in 2013 PAD began hosting Tiny House Mixers, which have been wildly popular. The November Tiny House Mixer drew nearly 50 people and the December Tiny House Mixer drew more than 30. I'm already looking forward to the January Tiny House Mixer and February Tiny House Mixer.

TinyHomes.com

In October, I began building out TinyHomes.com, a new website which I've co-founded with web developer Kenny Bavoso. TinyHomes.com is a website for tiny homes and the people who love them. Kenny and I are both huge fans of small spaces and we look forward to making TinyHomes.com an in-depth, engaging, and informative website for people interested in tiny homes. You can learn more about what we're up to and how you can contribute in Looking Forward to 2014.

Coordinating the ADU Case Studies Project

In December I began Coordinating the ADU Case Studies Project on a contract with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. I'll be compiling a series of case studies of permitted accessory dwellings throughout the state of Oregon over the next couple months. Read about the ADU Case Studies Project to learn how you can contribute or follow along.

Coordinating the ADU Case Studies Project

While I was working with Orange Splot LLC, a Portland-based development company that specializes in innovative sustainable infill housing projects, I Showcased Accessory Dwellings in Portland on the AccessoryDwellings.org website. You can read these posts here:

• Shawn’s Live Work Accessory Dwelling
• A Sister in Law House
• The Granger House: Own Two, Rent One

Now we have updated the AccessoryDwellings.org website so that we can feature more ADU profiles. Our goal is to compile a collection of case studies of permitted accessory dwellings from across Oregon. I’m delighted to be coordinating the ADU Case Studies Project. I look forward to helping people share their ADU stories so that we can continue advocating for ADUs as a flexible, affordable housing option. You can read our first new case study, Kol Peterson's ADU: A Backyard Home.

If you or someone you know has a permitted accessory dwelling in Oregon and you would like to participate in the project, please email me at accessorydwellings.org.

Sincerely,

Lina Menard

Coordinator

ADU Case Studies Project

AccessoryDwellings.org

(541) 854-0875

December Tiny House Mixer at ADX

On Thursday night more than thirty people filled the loading dock at ADX for the December Tiny House Mixer. There was a great November Tiny House Mixer which I cross-posted about on TinyHomes.com.

This Mixer was the debut of what I can only imagine will be an incredible partnership between ADX and Portland Alternative Dwellings. PAD is committed to educating, inspiring, and empowering people to create tiny homes of their own. ADX is a collective workspace for builders, makers, and tinkers. I think PAD and ADX go together like butter cookies and apple cider. Yummy!

It's awesome that PAD's upcoming Tiny House Basics Workshops, Tiny Chair Workshops, and Tiny House Mixers will be hosted at ADX. There is already one PAD Grad, the intrepid Ben Campbell, who has claimed a tiny house building spot at ADX and he’s well on his way to a wee home of his own. You can follow along (or better yet, help him build) by checking out Ben Builds a Tiny House.

At the Mixer, Joan Grimm welcomed the crowd and shared information about PAD’s newest products and services, including a holiday sale on plan sets, a series of winter and spring workshops (including Tiny House Basics in February and March and a Tiny Chair Workshop in January and February), and PAD’s new Consulting Partners program. Then Dee Williams gave a teaser for her soon-to-be-released book The Big Tiny and reminded everyone to explore our world with curiosity and wonder.

Then I invited up a series of guest speakers who had 2 minutes to share their 2 cents. Nathan Miller of All-Ways Electric and Ian Bruner of Bruner Plumbing offered information about their tiny house services. Then Karin Parramore described building her wee home, Serenity. Ben Campbell talked about his experience building his vardo at ADX and Whitney Johnson talked about her project to facilitate insurance options for tiny home owners. (If you’re a tiny homeowner, please take her survey!) Four of my students from the 2013 Tiny House Design-Build class at Yestermorrow attended the December Mixer from as far away as Boston. We think that's quorum - or at least a reunion!

After the mini-speeches Ben offered a tour of his tiny house in the ADX parking lot. Then there was much mixing and mingling next to the snack spread. There was talk about tiny parking spots available and discussion about which on-demand propane heaters are the best. Many tiny housers also swapped tales of frozen hose woe (Portland had an unusual cold snap this year which left most tiny house folks hauling water for a whole week!) It was, as always, fabulous to see so many connections being made and I'm already looking forward to the January Tiny House Mixer at ADX. Please register so you can join the fun!