Come See Us in Sebastopol

Come and see the world’s most famous Tumbleweed and the voice of the tiny house nation himself, Jay Shafer. Our monthly open house is this Saturday, May 14, 2011 from 2pm – 4 pm.

Not only will you get an opportunity to step inside and see what a tiny house looks and feels like, you’ll also be able to ask Jay all about tiny house living. Looks like it’s going to be a nice spring day and we would love to see you there. Sign up here for directions. We have a special treat in store for this open house only: at 3:30 pm we will head over to our warehouse so you can see our homes being built.  We think you’ll really enjoy what you see.

The Perfect Summer Project

Summer is coming and it’s the perfect time to think about starting your Tumbleweed. That’s what Jonathan Bellows did back in the summer of 2009 when he started to build his very own Fencl. Thanks to his very comprehensive online journal, we get to see how he went from purchasing plans to actually living in a Tumbleweed home. Here’s how his journey began:

“This summer I’ve decided I’m going to build a house. I’ve been wanting to build a house for a long time now but I’ve been putting it off… mostly because I’ve had nowhere to build it. With recent real estate prices reaching all-time lows, now would be the time to buy. Of course, I’m also paranoid that, as soon as I DO buy, I’ll end up wanting to move. Hardly any of y’all live around here anymore, you know? I don’t want to end up stuck with a mortgage – I’m very debt-averse and it just feels wrong to me. I’m also tired of living in “standard” houses. Don’t get me wrong, this is a nice house… I just want someplace where I can live more in tune with my ideals.”

Jonathan’s mother pointed him to our website and he took a liking to the Fencl. The rest is, as they say, history. Here’s some early images of the trailer being built. You can read the rest of Jonathan’s first post here. We’ll be featuring highlights of Jonathan’s build in future posts.

KCI – Inspiration

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.

KCI-bedding down for the winter

We put the little house to sleep in November – we drained the water and locked the doors.  That was pretty much it.

When the roofers came they missed some areas that needed caulking, so we recorded all of these, used some tape to show where the problems were and hopefully it will get fixed asap.

Though the daytime weather was beautiful (13 degree celcius), it was quite cool in the evening.  Still we were toasty warm.  I guess two people in a tiny space generate a fair bit of heat.  We didn’t notice this in the summer because the windows were always open, and even in the warmest weather we stayed cool.  Conversely, we’re staying toasty in lower temperatures.  We didn’t use a heater, though we had a little ceramic one. We turned it on for about 15 minutes, and then it just wasn’t necessary.  We’ve got good sleeping bags so maybe that makes a difference.  Someday, I might install propane. For now, this will do. We’re not staying there in the winter for more than a night or two so this won’t be a problem short term.

My gram's dog bed

I love sleeping under the eaves and hearing the rain fall, it makes me fall asleep with a smile.

The little couch is actually a dog bed that belonged to my Gram.  It just fit through the tiny door.  We had to take the door off its hinges to fit it in, but it worked.  Of course, now I wish the dog bed was a few inches longer so it would butt up right to the walls.  The stool is also ancient.  I haven’t brought anything new into the tiny house for furnishings and that’s satisfying.  I did buy material for the dog bed cushion and stool, but even that was bought on sale and I did the sewing myself.

KCI- Ceiling paneling

We went up a couple of weekends to install the ceiling paneling and the end gables.  We got more proficient and by the second weekend we were flying along.  We won’t be touching anything else until the spring.  So all trim work and baseboards will wait until then. Still, the house looks wonderful and it is worth every penny.  For inspiration, in the last ten years, I’ve had a picture on my fridge of a woman reading in her tiny house, now I can replace that house with my house.  It’s very satisfying.

We’ve got a queen sized mattress in the loft and it feels quite roomy.  I can sit up without knocking my head; however, I’m five feet tall.  My husband has to be more careful.

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