So you want to build a tiny house...

Our little cedar and steel tiny, nestled on a farm in a valley of West Virginia.

The tiny house movement washed across the United States within the last decade or so and took the tiny curious by storm. My partner, Jaz, and I were two of those people.

This is our story of how we came to build a tiny house, and our thoughtful advise based on our journey if you, too, are tiny curious.

Why a tiny house?

This is the most common question we are asked. Obviously, our reasons are unique to our own lifestyle and goals, but maybe they'll spark some inspiration in you.

Jaz and I have been fostering a dream for a long time. A dream of having access to a plot of land to grow our own food and live harmoniously with nature... or as much as one feasibly can in this modern world. I like the term "land-based living", meaning that the majority of our life revolves around tending to the land. Neither of us grew up on a farm, nor have any family with land (Notice I intentionally refer to it as land - not property - because property is the commodification of land. I view land as its own entity with rights, not an object to be exploited and profited from).

We were also pretty young when we started to nurture this dream seed, and didn't have a fruitful career, life savings, or extensive credit history to make any big investments with. So this dream felt out of reach at times. But Jaz devised a plan, and I agreed - with a healthy dose of skepticism - and followed.

A wood stove was a must for us, and she proved to work wonders this winter. We stayed cozy all season long! And thoroughly enjoyed hunkering down in our tiny for hibernation.

Our two biggest obstacles were clear: Land access and a home to call our own. While those two things can go together, they don't necessarily need to be attached. Let me explain...

For context, we live in Jefferson County, West Virginia. A historically rural, agricultural region for many decades, if not centuries. A shift away from agriculture here has been fairly recent, within the last few decades. We are just 60 miles from Washington D.C., so an influx of DC expats has been drastically changing this area for some time now. Some say it will become a DC suburb, others say it already has. Just in the short 8 years that I've lived here, I've watched dozens of farms turn into housing developments. Despite this rapid development, its still very rural, and part of what attracted us to this area and convinced us to stay is the amount of farmland that is protected and the number of people here who want to see it continue to be protected. So we knew from the get go that this place could be the place to foster our dreams of land-based living.

But how do you gain land access without buying it? And once you gain access, how do you live there? If you're curious about ways to gain land access without having to go into debt, I'll be writing a post about it soon, and in the meantime you can follow me on social media for new posting alerts. For this post, I'm going to focus on how we began actualizing our dream.

First, we had to accept the reality that we were not in a place to buy our own land or a house- but quite frankly, we weren't too interested in that route either. Here in the US, land ownership is incredibly expensive and daunting. And really, we don't believe in individual land ownership. Like I mentioned in the beginning, we view land as a sovereign entity that should not be commodified. Collective ownership (because you still have to own land in our society to have rights to it) is our ideal cup of tea, but again- that's a story for a different time. So how else could we have our own home without buying one? Well, just build one of course! Said the novices.

The truth is, building can be nearly expensive as buying these days, especially if one of your goals is using natural and sustainable materials, which is a top priority for us. The cost of materials adds up quickly, and unless you're milling all the lumber your self from land you have access to or are an experienced carpenter, the time it will take you to learn to build as you go could end up costing more than buying. But, a lot of that also depends on where you live, the cost of living, and the current housing market.

The solution? Build tiny! Or that was the solution we came to, anyway. But where to build without land? Luckily, the tiny house movement was already in full swing when we tapped into it, and turns out, most folks who were inspired to build tiny were in the same predicament as us: lack of land ownership or access. So they built them onto trailers. There are even now tiny house trailer manufacturers, which is what our trailer came from. They're really just glorified trailer homes. So we decided we would build a tiny house on a trailer and park it on someones farm whose values aligned with ours. Bam! Easy peasy. ...right?

Just kidding. That was simply the dream seed. But if you've every grown a plant from seed, you know that it takes time, patience, and nurturing for that seed to grow into a flourishing plant. And some seeds- particularly perennial plants (they live for multiple years) require long spans of time to mature, sometimes several years. We spent about 4 years dreaming about and planning our tiny house, and exactly two years to actually build it. A lesson in patience and perseverance, for sure.

To summarize why we decided to build a tiny house (on a trailer):

• Smaller house = less materials = more affordable

• Building on a trailer = mobile = can park it anywhere = not necessary to purchase land

• Building on a trailer also circumvents building code laws (in most US states). More on this later.

• Tiny, rectangular shape = simple design for beginners (like us) = less intimidating to build

That right there is really all that drove us to build a tiny house. Another big reason that's popular in the greater tiny house movement is the idea of "minimalism". But I can tell you from experience, tiny does not equal minimalism. Minimalism is simply the idea of living with less stuff, some folks take it to an extreme and only own a couple versions of all their belongings (think two bowls, two spoons, two pairs of shoes, etc.). But you can do that in any size home. And while I certainly don't agree with the ridiculous McMansions that plague the US (you know, those crazy big houses that look like they could house a village but probably house 2-6 people max? Yeah, not my cup of tea), I also don't think everyone needs to live in a 150 square foot tiny house and only own two bowls (I definitely own more than two bowls).

While I fully believe Americans (on average) live in material excess and could and should simplify their lives tremendously, you don't need to go to extremes to get there. If you're interested in going tiny for the sake of scaling down your belongings and living more minimally, here is my advice: Start with simply getting rid of belongings you don't need. And maybe downsize to a smaller home if you feel called. I don't plan to live in a tiny house for the long run, and I honestly wouldn't recommend it to someone as their long term living situation (except to maybe a single person who has no interest in sharing space with someone else ever- then I think a tiny house is perfectly reasonable).

A glimpse into our tiny house design and layout.

We're still working on finishing touches as we live in it and feel the space out more fully.

To me, the primary advantages of a tiny house on a trailer is the mobility, and that you own it. And I mean you own it, not the bank. The small footprint makes it much easier to pay as you build and avoid debt. I'll talk on this more in a later post. But if you don't plan to be mobile and you already have land, I honestly do not recommend building a "tiny" house on a trailer, per say. Unless you plan to sell it in the long run. It just doesn't make much sense. Build a small house - a cottage or cabin. A sweet little 400 square ft two bedroom, one story, cottage with an open kitchen and living room sounds perfect for my long term dreams, once we are permanently settled somewhere. And while our house is parked on the farm we've landed at for the foreseeable future, we do not own the land, but we do own our house, and if we ever need to leave the land, we get to take our home with us. That right there is the main reason we went the tiny house route.

My point is simply that the tiny house movement is heavily romanticized, so if you are considering building a tiny house, my first suggestion is to ask yourself why you want to build a tiny house. Is it really a tiny house you're after, or are you just seeking to simplify your life?

If your tiny curious reasons align with anything I mentioned above, then keep reading. If not, perhaps it's not a tiny house you're really after. I'd suggest thinking more deeply about what you want. Because despite their name, building a tiny house is no small task, and I want you to really understand what you may be preparing to undertake. Okay, now that we've thoroughly discussed why one may want a tiny house, lets talk tiny logistics! Head on over to my next post (to be published soon) to get started on the planning process.