Category: Tiny Houses

Six years ago, Tammy Strobel was unhappy- “I was commuting 2 hours a day, going to a job I hated, overweight, unhappy, kind of middle class plight”. Then she watched a youtube video featuring Dee Williams and her tiny home- a moment she calls her “turning point”- and she began to dream about less.

Prior to downsizing Tammy and her husband, Logan Smith, were living in a two-bedroom apartment, driving two cars, commuting long distances and $30,000 in debt, but they were hesitant change the status quo. “Initially, we resisted the idea of moving into a smaller one-bedroom apartment because we were more concerned about appearances and space for guests than for our financial well-being. We decided something needed to change once we realized our debt was causing us so much stress.”

Tammy and Logan began with small steps. They sold one car and moved into a one bedroom apartment. Next it was a 400 square foot home. Today they are car-free and living in a 128-square-foot home on wheels (designed by Dee Williams’ company PAD). Along the way, the couple shed weight, stress, debt and the unhappiness they felt being tied to jobs they didn’t enjoy. Today, Tammy is a full-time blogger/photographer/teacher.

Tammy recently published a book titled “You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap)”, but she explains that it’s not exactly happiness that she pursues, but resilience. “Jobs move, people lose jobs, people die,” she explains, “So how can you structure your life so that you’re more flexible and embrace the good stuff even when loss makes it really really difficult?”

One of the biggest side effects of living in a small, mortgage-free home on wheels is the freedom to move, something that has served them well in the past year. When Tammy’s father had a stroke, unfettered by home or car loans, Tammy was able to be with him during the last months of his life. When Logan lost his job (it was transferred to Boston), they were able to pick up their home and move from Portland to Northern California to be closer to family.

For their first move, they attached their tiny, wheeled home to the back of a pickup truck and drove the 400 miles from Portland to Logan’s family cattle ranch in Montague, California (in exchange for free rent they put in “workshare” hours). Within the year, they moved again to be closer to Tammy’s mother: this time they parked in her yard in Red Bluff, CA. Again within the same year, they moved to a more permanent home in Chico (their college town and still close enough to family) where they pay $500 in rent for an empty lot and hookups (it was previously occupied by a mobile home).

“Even though the past year has been a lot of upheaval with moving the house, like it’s harder than you think to move the tiny house and stressful and all that, but I’m really grateful for that because we’ve had that flexibility to really be there for family”, explains Tammy. Her father’s death “was part of the reason we decided to move back home just to be closer to family and really focus on that because that’s what matters, you only get one shot.”

Photo credit: Tammy Strobel. She teaches e-courses on how to photograph everyday life: http://rowdykittens.com/everydaymagic/

“You Can Buy Happiness (And It’s Cheap)” http://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Buy-Happiness-Cheap/dp/1608680835

Original story: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/debtcar-free-tiny-house-couple-simple-living-resilience/

Kristie Wolfe spent $5000 to build herself a tiny home on wheels in her hometown of Pocatello, Idaho. It started off as a yearlong experiment in simple living, but she liked it so much she decided to keep living small, not only in Idaho, but she began looking for land to build a tiny vacation home.
She bought a plot of land in Hawaii sight-unseen for $8000. A year later she bought a plane ticket, packed her bags full of tools and with the help of her mother, began to build a bamboo “treehouse” that to fit the surrounding jungle (though rather than using trees for support, she built it on stilts). After two months of building every day “from dawn to dusk” and an $11,000 investment, she had a second home.
For Wolfe, the fact that it’s small- 15’ by 15’ or 225 square feet- is an asset. “My original house was 97 square feet so that was really tiny so this feels huge… I think small homes are beautiful because it fits with my lifestyle. I think having a lot of stuff mentally weighs you down even in ways that you don’t realize.”
Building her own home meant that Kristie was able to design everything custom: from a toilet-sink to save water (she’s not only off-grid, but she relies on rainwater capture for water) to an indoor/outdoor shower with cork-bark tiling. Whether she ever moves here permanently or simply moves on to building yet another home, she now knows she can build her own shelter.

Filming credit: Ivan Nanney – IvanTheIntrepid.com

Kristie’s blog: http://tinyhouseontheprairie.net/

Original story: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/building-your-own-hawaii-minimal-house-for-a-vacations-cost/