Discovery
I first came across tiny houses around November/December 2012. I don’t know how I found the site I was on, and I don’t even remember the site. It looked interesting, so I clicked on a few more links and found The Tiny Tack House site. Their house was beautiful. I especially liked how much wood there was. It reminded me of my grandparents’ log house, which my grandfather built. I could definitely picture myself living in something like that.
Imagine, a little mini home custom designed by you for you. I could have exactly what I wanted (which mainly was a window seat). It was like an apartment, but I could change it however I liked and I could take it with me to university, wherever I decide to go.
I liked the idea of building my own tiny house and kept it in the back of my mind for a few months. In February 2013, I told my parents and younger sister what I was planning, having decided I was actually going to do it. They were skeptical, especially about how the water system was going to work, but they were supportive.
In April, I drew up my first floor plan on some white paper. For the next many months, I spent hours online, watching videos and reading everything I could find on tiny houses (fortunately, there’s a lot more information now than there was in the beginning of the movement). I started to buy books, magazines, and videos on tiny houses. Then in December, while my mum was looking online for something tiny house related to get me for Christmas, she found that Tumbleweed workshop tickets were half off (and their construction video came free with the deal). I bought a ticket for me, and there was another deal to get a second ticket even cheaper, so I asked my dad to come with me and offered to buy his ticket. He was the most skeptical of my family and I was hoping he’d help with the build, so it’d be good for him to go to the workshop too. He agreed to come.
My first tool, a tape measure, was a gift from my parents along with The Small House Book, a few tiny house magazines, and a little paper model of the Cypress Overlook.
In 2014, as I learned more, I started drawing more detailed plans. I also have Excel spreadsheets with a budget and what I’ve spent so far, a PowerPoint with tons of pictures of tiny houses, countless bookmarks for tiny house sites, and pages and pages of designs and lists.
At the end of May 2014, my dad and I drove to Toronto for the Tumbleweed workshop. Now, I’ve started this blog, and the adventure continues!
Lovely Little Dream 
Jul 12, 2016 @ 07:26:17
In 2009 I started seeing little sites popping up about tiny houses on wheels and how small and yet big they were and it hit me that a tiny house was perfect for me. Like you I researched the hell out of them and eventually decided I was going to build. I’m gonna be 60 this year and I’ve never owned a home or been able to and the thought of getting to own my own home without a mortgage was awesome to me. I’ve been an artist all my life and although I feel I was successful doing that, it was never successful enough to save enough money to buy a home of any size. So most of the last 40 years has been spent in different construction trades and I even became a general contractor for five years. So with the art background and building all my life, I took to making structural plans like a duck to water. The rest is just figuring out how everything in it works for you.
It’s refreshing to see younger people with a similar dream to live free and own what they build. There’s a good amount of pride that comes from building something with your own hands that most people will never understand till they hopefully do it themselves someday. I started looking at what everyone else was doing and noticing what I called little act of genius, “short cuts” and made the builds easier and created a file to remind me of what you can do in preparation of a build. Some of those little acts I’ve already used as I build my tiny dream. So are little acts that I’ll use later after I get the shell complete.
Make no mistake, everyone that builds a tiny dream has some hidden wisdom to contribute, some know it and some don’t know they’re imparting it to you but it’s there just the same if you read and look at the pictures, closely.
I expect to be done by winter this year and happily enjoying my little home.
Jul 14, 2016 @ 23:45:42
One of the great things about tiny houses is that they are so versatile and appeal to so many different people across all walks of life.
There truly is a difference when you’re building something yourself. I find it so fulfilling to literally be building my dream. 🙂
I wish you luck on your build!