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!

Snow Day in the Tiny House

I love that I get my Weather Report while laying in bed. Last night, as I fell asleep in my sleeping loft at Sweet Pea gazing out the skylight, I noticed that the sky had that pregnant golden-gray glow of city lights trapped by cloud cover. This morning I woke before dawn to the sound of the bamboo brushing against the metal roof, long rat-a-tat strokes like the brush on a snare drum. "Blustery out there," I thought to myself and I lay there for a few moments in the dark, grateful for such a cozy place to sleep. Then climbed down the ladder and snuggled up on my window seat to write for a bit while I waited for the rest of the world to wake up. As the sky brightened, I opened the shades and gasped in delight to see a dusting of snow! I crawled back into the loft to see the snow from there since snow on the skylight is awesome, particularly when a flake, distinct and unique, splays flat on the pane as though it's begging to come in from the cold.

It rarely snows here in Portland and when it does, it tends to be Lazy Snow, sloppy non-committal flakes that nevertheless manage to shut down a city that isn't well-acquainted with them. So snow days are exciting around here and I was surprised that there hadn't been a buzz about snow yesterday. I ran next door to squeal with my neighbors in the Big House, the fine folks of POD 49.

They asked how I'm faring in my tiny house and it made me realize there are three big differences in tiny house living when the temperature drops below freezing.

1. First, my Envi Heater keeps up pretty well as long as the temperatures aren't below freezing, but once it gets this cold I need to bring in supplemental heat. (This was true in Bayside Bungalow, too, though I'm hoping that since the vardo I want to build for myself will be smaller I might not need additional heat. You can read more about Installing My Envi Heater.)
2. Two, the food in My Chiller with a high water content freezes. This isn't a problem for most of what's in there - in fact, the tofu I cooked up last night with rice noodles was improved by freezing - but I'm glad I remembered to bring the eggs inside!
3. Three, my water system freezes. This happened to me twice when I was living in Bayside Bungalow and both times it warmed up enough the next day that I was able to get on with life uninterrupted. This time, however, the weather is expected to stay cold for several days. I forgot to unhook the hose before Tuesday night so on Wednesday I had to wait till it warmed up enough to unhook it. Looks like I'll be living without running water until the temps inch back up again, so I filled up water jugs at the Big House. This part reminds me of cooking in the yurt with My Kitchen Cupboard.

These inconveniences are just that: inconvenient. They're not crises or disasters. They're just not quite as pleasant as when the weather is above freezing. They're a reminder to me about the difference between Simple Living vs. Intentional Living. I'll probably experience another week or two of below freezing temps at some point this winter, but overall, this is a pretty pleasant climate for tiny house living. Today there's an extra layer of adventure to a snow day.

Later today I plan to visit my friend Karin and her tiny house Serenity, so I'll get to venture out into the flurry and see how the city is coping. But for right now, its awfully nice to be snuggled up on my window seat with a cup of cocoa and some oatmeal, watching the flakes flutter down.

My Chiller: A Natural Refrigerator

I've just created My Chiller - an electricity-free, propane-free, noise-free natural refrigeration system. And the best part is it only cost $7, so it was almost free-free!

Years ago I worked with a colleague who grew up in Astoria, OR. She explained to me that in addition to an icebox, her childhood home had a chiller. The chiller was a cabinet in the kitchen that had a screen on the exterior wall so it was open to the sea breezes. The walls and the door of the chiller were insulated, so this box was outside the building envelope. I’ve been fascinated by the concept of natural refrigeration ever since.

Other tiny house dwellers I know have lived without a refrigerator. Dee Wiliams uses a cooler and ice packs to keep her beer and half-and-half cool. Tammy and Logan decided they would live in their little house Smalltopia without a fridge, too, and they have explored How to Eat Yummy Without a Fridge. The first time I visited Tammy and Logan they showed me that they kept veggies in a hanging basket on the porch and their half-and-half in the gap between the kitchen window and the screen. Six months out of the year the outdoor air temperature in Portland, OR presents the same conditions as a refrigerator. Seeing Tammy and Logan’s set up convinced me that it’s rather silly in this part of the world to use electricity or propane to run a refrigerator when the outdoors present the ideal chilling conditions!

So last weekend I made a chiller of my own. My mini fridge was nearly empty when I returned from Family Time. I figured it was the perfect opportunity to defrost the freezer before plugging it back in and filling it back up. I packed my handful of chill items into my dishpan and set the dishpan on the porch while I was waiting for the ice to melt from the mini fridge. That night I hauled the fridge back in since it started to rain, but I realized the food was perfectly fine out there, so I covered my dishpan with my laundry basket to keep the critters from digging in. It seemed to work just fine so I decided it was time for a trip to the ReBuilding Center.

I found a drawer that was the size I wanted and a cabinet door that would fit with it (hinges and all!) The components put me back a whopping $7. At home I chiseled out a spot for the hinges, attached the cabinet door to the drawer, repositioned the handle, and drilled holes in the sides. I ran out of daylight at that point and I've been busy with other projects. But as soon as I can I'll sand it, paint it, and attach a pest screen that was repurposed from an old shelving unit.

I’ve been using my chiller for a week now and I’m perfectly happy with it. Yes, it’s slightly less convenient to step onto the porch to get food items out of the chiller than it was to grab them from the mini fridge in the kitchen. But considering that we’re talking about just a few feet of distance, no complaints here! I figure I should be able to use my chiller until about April when the temperature here starts to warm up again. So I have another 4 months of free refrigeration, thanks to living in a mild climate!

The added bonus is that since I’m not running my electric mini-fridge I was able to relocate my Envi Heater to the end of the kitchen cabinet. I Installed my Envi Heater on this wall back in October, but since the wall is shared with the fridge both were working too hard. So I relocated my heater to an exterior wall in early November. Once I shifted my food to the chiller a couple weeks ago I was able to put my heater back in end-of-kitchen-counter location, which means it’s on an interior wall and right at the edge of my loft. It's already cozier in my little house.

Luckily, the same time of year that I need to run the heater it's cool enough to chill my food outside. Now that's what I call elegant simplicity! Yet another reason I'm Giving Thanks for Tiny Living!

Unstuff Your Holidays

With Black Friday less than a week away, even a minimalist like me cannot help noticing that the pressure to buy Stuff has already ratcheted up to a frenetic level. (For more on Stuff, check out one of my favorite little spoofs by George Carlin.)

So what do you give to the person on your list who has everything? (And what do you do if that's you!?) How about reversing the trend? How about organizing and purging to make room so you can find the things you actually like and spend more time with the people you care about?

I’m excited to be teaching Unstuff Your Holidays: A 1-Day Decluttering Workshop on December 8th and Organize Your New Year: A 2-Part Decluttering Workshop in January. I look forward to sharing the tips and tricks I’ve learned as I’ve lived in a tiny house on wheels, taken on My 200 Things Challenge, and explored the difference between Simple Living & Intentional Living. If you'd like to give a spot in the class to a loved-one (or yourself) this holiday season, you can claim one of the five spots left in the December workshop and six spots in the January workshop by registering for Unstuff Your Holidays or Organize Your New Year on the Niche website.

Meanwhile, as I make plans to visit with family for the Thanksgiving Holiday, I know I'll encounter the throngs of Black Friday shoppers. So I'm fortifying myself and building up my resolve. I admit that one of my best minimalism strategies this time of year is just plain avoidance. I don’t expose myself to much advertising. I don’t have a TV so watch movies on my laptop and I’m not bombarded with television commercials. My New Year’s resolution was to go paper-free by Strategizing Digitizing so I don’t subscribe to the newspaper, which means I don’t have to deal with all those glossy print ads I can’t shred and compost. My sisters and I have decided to produce a holiday card in PDF format to send out to our loved ones. I intend to avoid the mall completely. Anything I do acquire during the holiday season will probably be the result of comparing my wishlist against the deals at the after Christmas sales at REI. Like everyone else, I do have things on my list. I, too, wear through my rain gear, accidentally shrink my favorite wool sweater, and occasionally need to buy replacement parts for my favorite gadgets.

But my consumption feels sensible these days. I own beautiful and practical things. I don’t feel deprived in the least. But I’m so glad that I rarely get that feeling greedy feeling anymore that I used to always get this time of year. Of course, sometimes I do. For instance, my rate of impulse-buying hot cocoa soars this time of year! But I recognize now, more than ever before, that money can't buy happiness. (Actually, tiny houser Tammy Strobel's book You Can Buy Happiness (and It's Cheap) is the counterpoint to that, but only sort-of!)

The stuff is Just Stuff. It won't bring me as much joy as the stuff that money can't buy: the pine scent of the wreath on the door, the twinkle of the lights in the trees, the squeals of glee from kids on the carousel, the flicker of candles in the menorah in the window, the coziness of cocoa and fires and scarves and walking mitten-in-mitten with someone I love.

Unstuffing my holidays helps me focus on what really matters: Giving Thanks for Tiny Living!

Niche Design & Decluttering Workshops

Two years ago I downsized from a 2-bedroom bungalow to a tiny house on wheels. A year ago I downsized again to a 12-ft diameter yurt and embarked upon My 200 Things Challenge. These days I live in a 130 square foot tiny house on wheels and I've made space-efficient housing both my livelihood and my lifestyle. I've quit counting my possessions, but I'm mindful everyday of What My 200 Things Challenge Taught Me. Now I'm excited to offer a 1-day Tiny House Design Workshop to help people new to design capture their tiny homes and a Decluttering Workshop series to share the tips and tricks that have helped me in my right-sizing journey. Please join me for one of these workshops if you're interested in the Little Life!

Tiny House Design Workshop

If you want to design your own tiny house but you've never designed anything before this workshop is for you! In this 1-day workshop we'll cover programming, bubble diagramming, basic drafting techniques, floor plans, elevations, and design considerations for tiny spaces. You'll leave with a design concept for your tiny house and the techniques you need to capture the desired look and feel. Appropriate for design newbies whether they plan to do their own design or hire a designer. Register for the Tiny House Design Workshop through Niche Consulting LLC.

Unstuff Your Holidays: A Decluttering Workshop

Are you dreading the accumulation that always happens during the Holiday Season? Do you already feel like you have too much stuff? If you want to focus on your family and friends instead of your stuff this holiday season, this workshop is for you. We'll address our relationship with stuff, discuss needs and wants to figure out what really matters, set priorities, and evaluate our possessions. We'll identify old habits and clutter magnets and tackle problem areas in our homes. Then we'll develop organizational systems and new habits to reduce clutter. In this 1-day workshop, we'll cover everything from keeping track of our keys to developing a wardrobe full of clothes we love. Register for Unstuff Your Holidays through Niche Consulting LLC.

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!

PAD Tiny House Basics November 2-3, 2013

This time next week we'll be in the midst of the November Portland Alternative Dwellings Tiny House Basics Workshop. If you'd like to join in on the tiny house fun, please come to our Tiny House Mixer on Saturday, November 2 from 5:30-7:30pm at Lucky Lab on SE Hawthorne. I've had the opportunity to work with Dee Williams and Joan Grimm for five of these workshops now and I'm excited to meet a new batch of tiny house enthusiasts. PAD's Tiny House Basics is a 2-day workshop which covers all the considerations for someone looking to build a tiny home or have one designed and built for them.

In addition to discussing considerations like road legal limits and the house to trailer connection, we also address the invisible structures - the legal, financial, and social systems that accompany the decision to embrace the Little Life. We'll be talking about fire safety, structural mechanics, moisture management, zoning and building code, and how to create community.

Past workshops have included upwards of 50 people, but this one is going to be a more intimate workshop with around a dozen people, so we should have a good chance to learn about the workshop participants' tiny dreams. As always, it will be fun to help connect them with inspiration, information, and resources to help them move forward along their tiny house journey.

Tiny Chair Workshop at ADX in Portland, OR

On Saturday, October 26th I'll be teaching a Tiny Chair Workshop at ADX in Portland, OR. This is a Portland Alternative Dwellings workshop intended as a fun introduction to carpentry. Start small by building yourself a simple, comfortable tiny chair. In this 1-day workshop, you’ll learn how to safely use basic power and hand tools. You’ll head home with your very own tiny chair and the confidence to tackle the next project. The class has limited space, so sign up pronto on the ADX website!

"What is a tiny chair?" you ask. A tiny chair is a sweet little wooden and canvas chair that can be folded into itself and tucked away - or hung on the wall as a piece of art - how's that for turniture?! (I should also mention, as we head into the holiday season, that the chair would be a great gift for someone who is living light and the class itself would be a fun present for someone who is minimizing!)

"And where and what is this ADX place?" you wonder. ADX is a fabulous non-profit located in Portland's Central Eastside that is "building a community of thinkers and makers." They have a complete woodshop where we will be constructing our little chairs.

ADX is also where PAD Grad Ben is building his tiny house on wheels! You can follow along at Ben Builds a Tiny House. Ben attended the Pedalapalooza Tiny House Bike Tour and participated in the PAD building workshop for the Naj Haus Wall Raising. He's now raised the walls on his own little house. Once you've taken the Tiny Chair Workshop you'll be ready to lend a hand to Ben and other tiny house builders to get more hands-on experience before tackling your own tiny house build!

Day 12: Tiny House Presentations

Yesterday we wrapped up Yestermorrow's 2013 Tiny House Design-Build with final presentations from 13 brilliant students. (See more photos in the Day 12 Slideshow.)

It's amazing to think that less than two weeks ago we were perfect strangers, introducing ourselves and our partis. There were many different reasons people shared for selecting Yestermorrow's Tiny House Design-Build course and today we were able to watch as 13 people shared how their thinking has changed as they've had the opportunity to learn about tiny house design considerations and build the shell of a tiny house on wheels.

Today we saw clever space-efficient design solutions presented through beautiful drawings and detailed models. We got to learn about:

• Cate's gypsy wagon with an arched roof, full extension drawers, leaded glass windows, and a multi-purpose mud room

  

• Julien's tiny home on wheels for a family of four, complete with a cow catcher, a movie screen, an electronic keyboard, and a set of brilliant cube turniture that serves as seats, storage, and a guest bed
• Amanda's backyard retreat, nestled into an edible landscape with a private outdoor seating area and sunset views
• Ben's cabin in the woods of the Olympic Peninsula with a great porch for sitting and a woodshop for projects that is as elegantly simple as the Stanley hand planer that inspired it
• Annika's little backpack-inspired house with a place for everything and so much more: a garage door opening to a courtyard, a greenhouse for food production and passive solar heat gain, a cozy loft, and easy access to fresh cookies when one walks in the front door
• Apayo's boat-shaped guest house in an incredible landscape, which serves as a canvas for her ocean-insipred art and a retreat for her visitors

  

• Oliver's multi-story house with a top-floor kitchen equipped with a dumbwaiter and windows that march up the corner of the house in step with the spiral staircase
• Laura's tiny house on wheels with a clerestory providing light for the loft and a multi-functional furniture to maximize the space
• Evan's little house on wheels with a clever central storage solution to ensure that everything has its place so that the house fits Evan juuust right
• Whitney's tiny house with a soaring garage door that enables the house to serve her differently for each of Vermont's 6 seasons (spring, summer, foliage season, stick season, winter, and mud season)
• Julie's Japanese-teahouse-inspired mobile home, complete with tatami mats, shoji screens, a table that serves as artwork, and a circular window

• 

  OJ's mobile design-build classroom that deploys like the tape measure that inspired it, opening to create more working space for projects while also serving as a crash pad for the instructor while traveling

• Jonathan's not-so-tiny but super cool home in the clearing with 27 instances of the magical Number 27 hidden amongst stained glass windows, a stone fireplace, a secret passageway, a breakfast nook, and several cozy sitting spots

Everyone should be immensely proud of the work they've produced. Their ideas, insight, and imagination have been thoroughly inspiring. I can't wait to see some of these little houses become a reality in the next couple years. Three cheers for Yestermorrow's 2013 Tiny House Design-Build course!

Day 10: A Sprig for the Last Rafter

Most of Day 10 of Yestermorrow's Tiny House Design-Build course was dedicated to building so that we could get the rest of the roof rafters up. However, there were also a group of students who hunkered down in the studio to get farther along on their models and drawing sets. I enjoyed spending time in both places as the work progresses. (See more photos in the Day 10 Slideshow.)

Because the house has dormers in the center there are two different pitches. So we created rafters with two different slopes. Both sets of rafters meet at the ridge beam and rest on the walls (at two different heights) with bird's mouth cuts. The rake rafters for the dormers will need to wait until we've sheathed the roof sections on either side, but the house is definitely taking shape.

We managed to get the last of the common rafters up before supper and we had a little "topping out" celebration as we attached a sprig to it. Lizabeth explained that in the Druidic tradition a sprig was attached to the last rafter as a thank you to the trees for contributing to the house. This tradition has continued among timberframers here in America and it continues now on Day's little house. Hooray!