A Tiny Home

My Tiny House project was the result of a series of events over the course of several years. The idea built gradually in my mind and had to overcome a long series of resistances, as it seemed like a rather silly thing to do to begin with.

In 2012 I sold my house, took a year's leave of absence from work, and went to live in a monastic community in Thailand. I lived with, and like, the monks and nuns in the community during this time and so I had a great opportunity to experience a simpler and in many ways more free style of life. (I have a blog about that as well. It can be found here) Coming home, the size and "heaviness" of all of the things we tend to tie ourselves down with here in Canada seemed to have become magnified in my mind.

I didn't have a home when I came back of course, having sold it before going. I looked a bit for rental places but they were generally more expensive than I was hoping, and less inspiring. Also, there wasn't really much available where I live. I therefore accepted my parent's very kind offer of staying in their basement while I was figuring out my next steps.

While I was in Thailand, a lot in town that I'd been looking at for quite a while came up for sale. I decided to buy it in preparation for building a house when I returned. Before my wife died, we had been looking very seriously at the idea of an Earthship style house, and even visited the Earthship community in Taos New Mexico to learn more about them and to see what it felt like to stay in one for a night.

My town lot is perfect for an Earthsip style house, as it is on a south facing hillside. However, it is also an unserviced lot, and as I began investigating the costs to drill a well and to put in a sewer system it began to be clear that this was going to be a project that would keep me deeply in debt for most of the rest of my life. My stay in Thailand had convinced me that housing ought to be affordable and simple and the complications and expense of a full sized house seemed very oppressive to me.

I also began to investigate the building codes and requirements for building in town and discovered that there are restrictions on size and of course lots of difficulties if you want to stray a bit from standard building practice.

All of this helped me to move beyond the concept of a Tiny House as a nice idea and closer to making it a serious consideration.

As the lot in town didn't seem to be working out, I was quite unsure of where exactly I would go. My monk-like life in Thailand had also given me a taste for impermanence and I didn't want to be permanently fixed to a particular location. I also wanted to decrease my footprint, sort out my things, simplify, and get a bit "lighter" in all directions. The Tiny House was the only housing option that fit all of the criteria. So, despite a fair bit of trepidation, I purchased some plans for the "Elm" from the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company and got down to seriously planning my tiny home.

The Tiny Home blog was born as a result of people's interest in the project, and because I thought it would be helpful for anyone else who would like to try going down the Tiny House road. It will be a pictorial journal, documenting the construction process and all of the many deviations from the plan that have resulted as I've pieced together my ideas of the meeting place between simplification of lifestyle, and maintaining a level of comfort.

One final note before getting started: I had intended to call this blog "Todd's Tiny House" but was surprised to discover that the address was already taken. At the time of this writing, there aren't any posts in the blog, but somewhere out there another Todd is hoping to build a tiny home as well. Good luck to you brother - may your dreams happen!