Living in a tiny house is often thought of as a lifestyle that appeals to the alternative types such as hippies, gypsies and everyone else who falls into the "eccentric" crowd. After all, who in their right mind would willingly live a life with fewer square feet and fewer possessions when both are so readily available? Or are they? Supply and demand is the most fundamental element of any economy and the short supply of money most people have has lowered the demand for square feet and all of the expenses associated with them.
The feedback I receive from the people I speak with daily is that they are no longer interested in exchanging their time working for a large house and filling it up with costly things. Another basic and fundamental economic term is scarcity, and the most precious and limited resource we all have is time. The growing number of converts buying into the tiny house philosophy are regular folks willing to look at their housing choices with a clear and open mind.
The Tiny House Listing website is geared specifically to the purchasing and selling of tiny homes which means it's not only visited by people curious about tiny houses, but actively seeking to purchase one for themselves. Here is a quick rundown of the demographics of people tha visit the Tiny House Listings site. This paints a clear picture of who is interested in living in tiny homes. You can click the image for a larger view.
As you can see, the tiny house crowd is a very diverse group of people. While the majority are educated with above-average incomes, all ages, races, male, female, with kids, no kids and so on are represented. So what is the message? The majority are educated with above-average incomes. That make the tiny house movement less centered around the eccentric and more mainstream. If you don't consider yourself an "alternative" type but are interested in tiny homes and the benefits of living in one, you're not alone.
Most of my houses are named after people I like. I choose names from my long list of such folks once the design is finished, which means there’s usually no intentional resemblance between a house and its namesake. For anyone interested, I’m including a list of some house names and their (mostly) human counterparts here…
The Fencl- It’s pronounced like pencil, but with an “F”, or, at least, that’s what my friend John Fencl tells me. John spent about a year helping me build my first house for nothing but beer and dinner. Thanks, John.
The Weller- Francis Weller’s the most socially intelligent friend I have. His new book, “Entering the Healing Ground” is transformative and its form is 100% artful. Thanks, Francis. You are a well-loved man.
The Gifford- Zeke Gifford helped me to build my most recent house. I like how he’ simply smiled and broke out the crowbar when I’d told him I’d decided to change the roof pitch by 2 degrees. I heart Z. G.
The Beavan- Collin Beavan is one of those folks who wrote to ask what significance the house names have. He was, of course, most curious about the “Beavan”. I told him it was named after one of my favorite anti-consumption heroes. That’s you, Collin.
The Stamper- Norm Stamper resigned from the Seattle Police Department a few years back. As he puts it, "the paramilitary bureaucracy that is American policing", will not change "unless, even as we cull 'bad apples' from our police forces, we recognize that the barrel itself is rotten". I love good cops as much as I despise the petty tyrants they work with. Thank you, Mr. Stamper.
The Anderjack- Jane Anderjack was the first Tumbleweed customer, ever. Along with her payment for the Small House Book, I received a $20 donation towards the cause. She sent another $20 later that month with some nice stationary and a note encouraging my efforts. Thank you, Jane.
The Zinn- As in “Howard”, of course.
The Epu- A friend in need would be lucky to know Mark Sours. Despite our, otherwise, hetero-tendencies, I came to calling him “Mark-epu”, which became Mr. Epu, which became, and remains, the saccharine source for the name of my “Epu” design. Thanks, Mr. Epu.
The Weebee- Jenny Thomas (one time lesbian fiancé o’ mine) became known to me by this (also very saccharine) name. As an ex who broke my heart, she may well have become known to me by other terms, but I so appreciate her coming out of the closet before we tied the knot. Thanks, Jenny.
The Tarleton- If it weren’t for the kindness of virtual strangers, Tumbleweed would have sunk before it ever got off the ground. Mr. and Mrs. Tarleton (I think they’d prefer it if I didn’t use their first names) donated an extra $6000 to me when I realized I had bid the building of their house to produce a negative profit. Greg Johnson (see Biensi) did the same thing when I way-underbid his house. My relatively prudent business partner does all the pricing now. Thanks, Tarletons. Thanks, Greg. Thanks, Steve.
The Lusby- Cecile Lusby let me live in her backyard between Sebastopol and Santa Rosa (Sebastarosa) for a while. I paid her a few bucks, but, mostly, she just wanted to see that I had a place from which to work on pushing the tiny-house-thing while she did the same from her home out front. Thank you, Cecile.
The Loring- Loring was another landlord more interested in promoting the greater good than collecting rent. He’s the least territorial man I’ve ever met. “… come into the big house any time. Use the shower. Use whatever you want. Build a whole village in the orchard. It’s all very good”. I’m paraphrasing, of course. Thank you, Loring.
Z-Glass- Same theme, different landlord. I met Zaporah Glass while standing in front of the Sebastopol Whole Foods with my XS-House. I’d been soliciting for a place to live in it for less than an hour when this stranger suggested that I live on her property in the redwoods for free. A sheynem dank, ya’ hootsbah!
The Walden- Walden Pond is closely associated with its one-time resident Henry David Thoreau, and that’s who I’m referring to here. Henry (early tiny house adaptor and proponent of grunge apparel before it was even cool) has been an inspiration to me from the start. Other primary influences include Lester Walker (author of “Tiny Houses”), sacred architecture, vernacular design, Francis Weller and LSD. Thanks to Henry, Les, Francis, Albert and all those unnamed folks who understand common sense and good design.
XS House- The remainder of the names listed here are of non-human origin. “XS” means “extra small” or (for those who need more) “excessively small”.
New Vesica- First there was the Vesica. And it was good. Then there was the New Vesica. And it was good”er”. The term “vesica” is intended as a shout-out to sacred geometry, in which this shape often symbolizes the inherent creativity shared by people and the universe we live in. When it’s done right, our built environment is formed by the same thing that makes trees and flowers and “nature”.
B-53- I named one of my early designs the B-52, after the big airplane. It was one of my larger houses and I thought it was an “airplane bungalow”. It turns out I’d misinterpreted the term, but that’s of no consequence now. The B-53 is just a slightly larger version of the original, and it’s not an airplane either.
Enesti- N.S.T. (en-es-tee) As in, “not-so-tiny.
Biensi- B.N.C. (bee-en-see) As in, Building-of-No-Consequence. This term has sometimes been used to describe buildings that are so small that they don’t require permitting. This design was originally going to be called The Tiny Johnson, which I like, partly because I’m a sucker for phallic connotations, and, mostly, because it refers to one of my favorite people. Greg Johnson was the first man to ever buy a house from me. He also helped Shay Salomon, Nigel Valdez and me to establish The Small House Society, which really got the Small House Movement ball rolling. When I say Greg “helped”, I mean he did, and continues to do all the work, while Nigel, Shay and I have occasionally thrown ideas his way.
On the horizon, I will, most likely, be releasing houses with such names as…
The Marmara- Named after the ship that was hijacked by military forces while attempting to deliver humanitarian aid.
The Colbert- Named after the artless guy on TV. What I mean by “artless” is that if [as Picasso said… (kind of)], “art uses lies to expose the truth”, then one who uses truthiness to expose lies” (as I believe Steven Colbert does) must be a complete philistine. I applaud his efforts anyway.
The Schoolcraft- Another good cop amongst some bad apples. Adrian Schoolcraft (formerly) of the NYPD outed his precinct for systemic corruption. They tried to blackmail him and have him locked away before he could get the word out, but (too bad for them) he was recording everything. The tapes and Officer Schoolcrafts’ story can be heard on the radio program This American Life.
The al-Zaidi- Muntadhar al-Zaidi is the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George Bush during a press conference while screaming, “This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog”. I think we needed someone like him over here to see the President out of office in 2010.
I get asked all the time about official Tumbleweed swag. Well, guess what? We have an online shop on Cafepressfull of cool stuff. Is there something we should add to the shop? Let me know in the comments below.
Architectural ideas are not protected by copyright law. The same goes for the individual design elements, like doors and windows, that are needed to make a building work. Standard layouts are not covered either, but home designs, in general, are. They are copyrightable in any tangible form including plans and actual buildings. Since December 1, 1990, section 102 of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. has granted protection to the overall form and composition of such “architectural works”.
While bridges, boats, and trailers are not protected as “architectural works”, the architectural plans and technical drawings used to depict them are protected as, “pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works”. The “sculptural” part, really refers not to the plans so much, but to any part of the RV or bridge that can be called artful rather than utilitarian. In other words, something is protected as “sculptural” only to the extent that its artful qualities exist independent of its utility.
Copyright law’s purpose, as stated in Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, is to encourage progress in the arts and sciences by giving ownership where ownership is due. If a design is inordinately similar to a previously copyrighted work, the designer could face an infringement claim. The theft is often obvious, but, when it is not, a painstaking comparison of the overall composition of the original and the building in question ensues.
All Tumbleweed Tiny Houses are copyrighted. Every one of our trailer plans has also been published as a plan without wheels to ensure that each is protected both as an “architectural work” and as “pictorial, graphic and sculptural work”. This means that Tumbleweed Tiny House Company alone retains the right to reproduce my designs, create new houses based on my designs, and allow others to build my designs by buying our plans.
Please do not steal my work. If common decency does not seem like reason enough to refrain, consider these points… 1) It costs us a lot of money and time to litigate plagiarism. I would rather spend that time creating more houses and educating folks about the merits of simple living, and I would rather put that money, as savings, into the pockets of the honest people who are buying our products. 2) I have worked hard to make my dream viable, and there is no room on my proverbial coattails for freeloaders. I spent seven years laboring to keep this business afloat on far less than most Americans make in just one year. Prior to that, I spent much of the 90s living on the street in order to save what was needed to build my first prototype. And I took enormous risk by investing everything I had in an idea completely contradictory to what market trends had shown would sell. I did this primarily because I believed it would benefit the greater good. 3) One of the unique provisions of the U.S. Copyright Act, as it relates to architecture, is the right to seek damages of up to $150,000 for willful infringement as an alternative to proving actual damages. $495 - $859 for plans is a small price by comparison. I put over 250 hours into each of my designs. $859 is really quite a good deal. $150,000 is not, especially when the structure you build may ultimately be seized by the courts.
From the beginning, my hope has been that my small houses would inspire others to live more simply and, perhaps, design their own small dwellings. I love running across an original little structure built by somebody else. If it shares some of the same qualities as my designs… all the better. If it is on wheels, or it has a 12/12 pitch metal roof or cedar siding, I like to flatter myself by imagining that maybe it was partly inspired by my work. What I do not like is running across unlicensed people’s little houses that have a 12/12 pitch metal roof, cedar siding, a pine interior, a porch opposite the hitch, a cathedral ceiling over a loft, layouts that look a lot like mine AND wheels.
While assimilating forms from a number of sources can result in beautiful works of art, taking all or most of your ideas from a single source is just stealing. Vernacular designers and folk artists have never shied away from using the good ideas of others, and I am no exception. Tumbleweed houses are composed of some of the preexisting forms I’ve encountered in countless other vernacular buildings. When these forms are combined in new ways with adherence to the laws of sacred geometry, beautiful, new compositions result. I love this process, and I look forward to seeing more beautiful works from others who embrace the same method and philosophy. This world needs more appropriately-sized, well-designed houses, but it does not need any more plagiarism.
All of our midsize houses (250s.f.- 800s.f.) should meet all IBC size restrictions, and the little ones should get around such building codes because they are not buildings; they are vehicles.
Laws dictating how small our homes can be were introduced back in the 70s and 80s by lobbyists from the housing industry. It had become clear that, as the number of houses being sold by the industry leveled off, fiscal growth would remain possible only so long as the size of their product was increased. Size restrictions were thus written into building code at the federal level and adopted by municipalities throughout the US. Banks quickly followed suit by providing loans only for houses large enough to warrant the cost of the land on which they would sit. Local zoning, in turn, ensured exorbitant land costs by generally demanding that each little house sit on a parcel no smaller than one required for a large structure.
It is now literally illegal to build a new small home in most populated areas of the United States. And, even if it weren't, financing the construction of such a dwelling would still be all but impossible.
Our socialist economy cannot sustain the burden of imposed excess in the same way that we had hoped the capitalist model would. American citizens cannot be expected to buy more house than they need solely for the purpose of padding the pockets of their banks and industries then be expected to provide more padding for those same pockets when this unviable system fails. Allowing citizens to live beyond their means is one thing. Mandating that citizens live beyond their means then taxing them again to cover the inevitable damage caused by such unsustainable policy is quite another.
Americans should be allowed to live as simply as they see fit. More house than one needs means more time spent on maintenance, more money spent on a mortgage or rent and more greenhouse gasses and senseless consumption of fossil fuels and other vital resources. It also means more foreclosures and more bailouts in our future. The only entities minimum size standards seem to serve are the housing industry and the banks that pushed for them in the first place. Now, even they are reaping the consequences of their actions (albeit, consequences dramatically lessened by subsidies so generously provided by American taxpayers).
As long as the law ignores justice and reason, then just and reasonable people will ignore the law. At this point civil disobedience is not only justified, for many it is the only option. The people of this purportedly free country will live in houses of any size that suits them whenever reasonable egress and land ownership or a landowner will allow. Thousands of Americans are already living beneath the radar in structures commonly regarded as too small to meet code. These folks live largely outside the system of imposed excess, and they do so within the rights granted to all of us by the Constitution of the United States. It now remains for our banks, zoning and codes to catch up.
While it may still be illegal to live in a small house throughout many parts of this country, most areas do allow you to store a trailer in your yard. If someone wants to camp out in it on occasion, that's fine too. Code generally makes no official distinction between "inhabiting" a structure and "napping" in it. I bought a house in 2000 and camped out in my own backyard for years with the City's blessing. The rent collected on the front house covered the mortgage payments.
That said, most people do not advertise their campsite to the local municipality (or the rest of the world) as openly as I have. The housing departments would rather not be put in the position of upholding or refuting unconstitutional and/or unpopular laws. For most jurisdictions small housing regulation and its enforcement has become a matter of don’t ask don’t tell.
It is sometimes easier to ask for forgiveness than permission... and put some wheels on your house just in case one of our more vigilant officials starts thinking his rules trump reason.
