Tiny Houses That Make My Tiny Heart Flutter
We got very close to building a tiny house on wheels. (If you know me and you’ve seen how much clothing, craft supplies, and weird stuff I own - this is the point at which you start laughing.)
But it’s true. It was when we were still living in Richmond Virginia. We drove up to go to a Tiny House Expo show in Northern Virginia and then back up to “NOVA” a few weeks later to meet with a tiny house building company we liked. We met with a few banks and a loan officer which is easily the most adult thing I’ve ever done.
But the timing wasn’t right and the universe knew better, so it didn’t happen. Without knowing it at the moment we’d be picking our world up and moving across the country to Bend Oregon only a few months later. . .
Why Tiny?
I could really get into here, but I’ll try to keep it succinct!
Tiny living is not a new or novel concept, but it defies the traditional American Dream. Especially when you’re talking technical “tiny homes” which dance somewhere around 300-400 square feet. When we first voiced interest in going tiny most people struggled to wrap their brains around it. “Why would you want to live in a tiny house?!”
To me it represents the challenge of living minimally and much more sustainably; and freeing your lifestyle from the weight of your possessions. Freeing yourself of the vicious cycle of working too much to pay for a house that’s too big that you end up spending your precious free time cleaning and tending to when you’d just rather be outside anyway.
And while I don’t see us necessarily doing a 300 square foot tiny-house-on-wheels anymore (we’re currently thinking a piece of land with a ~700-1000 square foot tiny house on it), I could definitely see us coming back to a vanagon or a skoolie or a tiny house on wheels one day when we’re older and a bit gray and but still ready-enough to roam the open roads.
The legislature in most states still has a long way to go for tiny houses, too. Some real estate for sale doesn’t allow the build-style. Or just as often you’ll find land for sale but it will have a minimum square footage requirement on any structures built or placed there.
For anyone who’s trying to go tiny or simply live more sustainably by building a smaller homesite, this makes it hard and frustrating and shines a light on some of the regulations that need to be addressed and changed as the American Dream is reevaluated and reimagined.
We’re mostly focused nowadays on finding the right piece of land with at least a few acres where we can build something reasonably tiny - and we can’t wait.
Because if you’re like us — you also spend the afternoon on Zillow just favoriting dreamy homes + properties and parcels of land that you could do something with one day; even if the time isn’t right right now.
It can’t hurt to start dreaming it up now!
Source: Remonis
One of our favorites that we keep going back to are shipping container tiny homes. (I have an entirely separate post on fabulous container homes here — because trust me. . . I’ve seen some amazing ones in my digging and many of them are not tiny.)
But regardless of how large or small you want to go your build, containers arrange in such a beautifully modular way — like LEGOs — they’re really fun to see put together in different angles and orientations.
So many Tiny styles we love:
cabins: a-frame + log
skoolies
THOWs
Yurts
Shipping Containers
Cottages
Tinies that make my heart skip:
Source. — Doesn’t hurt when it’s situated on a million dollar view! But hey… a girl can dream.
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Source, above and below: Decoholic.
Super cool Scandinavian tiny house. Source: Remodelista
California coast tiny. Source.
From über sleek and modern, angular and architectural, to the magic cabin in the woods…
It’ll take I think several years of planning together to find the happy sweet spot that we like that strikes a little balance of eclectic and quirky but beautiful and special, too. (Tall order!)
Views for days. Source.
The windows and moss and angle in the woodwork is all so intentional and well designed! Quite magical! Source.
Diamond Cabin. Omg this is a fairytale come to life! Designed by Jacob Witzling & Sara Underwood. Source.
Source this Author’s cottage is located in my hometown of Sarasota Florida
Source The Yolo County Cabin, on a 400 acre property in Northern California
Source I would totally copy this treehouse guest space from Camp Wandawega in Wisconsin
Or how about this tiny, with a view overlooking NYC and Lady Liberty?
What do you think? Could you do a tiny? Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!
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