Why a Tinyhouse?

Our tinyhouse didn't start out SO tiny but finances dictated. I began by designing a 900 square foot home plus a basement for root cellar and storage, ample covered porches to enhance outdoor living and aid in rainwater collection. It looked too good to be true! Wow, wouldn't this be great?! Well absolutely, yes until I started realizing the real cost of building that home, bringing in the utilities, site work, installing a septic system, drilling a well, building permit fees, and the list goes on. Essentially we would be moving out of our 2000 square feet and into less than 1000 square feet and more than likely maintaining the same debt level...

Deflation of my enthusiasm followed. So I thought about smaller; I thought about 200 square feet to skip all the red tape. But how, pray tell, do you put 8 people in 200 square feet??? We build 4 tinyhouses, that's how! One for my wife and I, one for the girls, one for the boys, and one for a family/ dining/ kitchen.  It was sounding pretty good though I hadn't verbalized it... I was scared to. How do you ask your wife, “hey, honey, how would you like to live in a really small house with a composting toilet and no washing machine? Does that sound good? Oh ya, and we also have to cut our electric usage to virtually nil. What do you say?”

Thankfully I have been blessed with a wife who is ridiculously supportive and has an adventurous spirit. She thought it was a great idea! Okay, hurdle one cleared, now for the kids. The oldest two, whom I thought would be the least excited, are the most excited. They can't wait. “You better not wait til we move out to do this, Dad!”