This little house journey was probably first inspired by my love of the children's book Andrew Henry's Meadow by Doris Burns.

Andrew was a boy who liked to "build things," but his family often scolded him for taking their things to use as building supplies. So Andrew, goes off to a meadow and builds his own tiny house. Soon every kid in town has joined Andrew and he builds them all houses to suit their personalities. One gets a house built over the creek so he can sail his toy boats; another gets a house in the trees so she can bird watch; another gets an underground house so she can be with her pets who live underground. As a kid, I was amazed. First that anyone could build their own house, and second that you could have a house suited perfectly for you.

When I built this tiny house, my brother gave me the first annual Andrew Henry Award. The tiny house inspired him to follow his own dream of buying the boat he's always wanted. There will be years of renovating before it's seaworthy, but he's calling his Florida Trawler "Andrew Henry."

Interestingly, Doris Burns lived in her own tiny house when she wrote her books.

"According to the blurb accompanying that book, her studio was "a small cabin where she spends the day at work after chopping enough wood to keep the fire going through the day, hauling two buckets of water from the pump for washing brushes and pens and brewing 'a perpetual pot of tea'". In 1965 Waldron Island was without electricity, telephone service, running water or merchants. All of her goods and supplies were brought by boat from the mainland." Wikipedia (Note – since I still own the book, I can verify that this is what the blurb says.)

In any case, reading Andrew Henry's Meadow was life changing. It planted the seed of a tiny house, dozens of books germinated the seed, and Jay's workshop fertilized it. The plans made all the difference. Without them, I wouldn't have known where to begin. Obviously, Bob St. Cyr and his class did 95% of the hard labour. Sure I paid the bills, and I wielded the odd hammer, but the little house only exists because of Bob, Bob's class (especially Denny and Aaron) and Jay.

Thanks so much. I'll send a final blog after all the finishing details and decorating are done.