Living Large in Small Spaces
April 23, 2009 · Print This Article
This is an excerpt from my new book.
This is a six part post. Part 1 | Part 2 … more to come.
The Airstream
I have been living in houses of fewer than 100 square feet for nearly twelve years. The first of my little abodes was a fourteen-foot Airstream. I bought it in the summer of 1997 for three thousand dollars. It came as-is, with an aluminum shell as streamlined and polished as what lay inside was hideous. The 1964 orange shag, asbestos tiles, and green Formica would have to go. I began gutting, then meticulously refurbishing the interior in August, and by October, I was sleeping with an aluminum roof over my head. The place looked like a barrel on the inside, with pine tongue-and-groove running from front-to-back and floor-to-vaulted ceiling.
I settled in on a tree-lined ridge at the edge of a friend’s alfalfa field. It was a three-minute walk to Rapid Creek Road and a ten-minute drive from there to Iowa City. I carried water in from a well by the road and allowed it to drain from my sink and shower directly into the grass outside. I carried my sawdust toilet (i.e., bucket) out about once a month and took it to the sewage treatment facility in town. My electrical appliances consisted of a fan, six lights, a 9-inch TV/VCR and a small boom box. A single solar panel fed them all. It seemed that this simple existence would provide all I needed.
Then December came. I had reinforced most of the trailer’s insulation, but some areas remained thin. I spent over a half-hour each morning, from Christmas until Valentine’s Day, chipping ice and sponging up condensation from my walls, floors and desktop. This went on for a couple of winters before I began construction on the tiny house I have since come to call “Tumbleweed”.
The Small House Book
by Jay Shafer
Price: $36.95 
I just received the new book today and learning about subtractive design and vernacular architecture as demonstrated in your book was very enlightening. I found the entire book very informative and extremely inpiring! Despite the few printing errors, this is a great little book that everyone interested in small homes should read. Looking forward to your next book and wishing you great success on this one. -Nicole Marie
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Jay Shafer reply on May 16th, 2009 12:08 pm:
Thanks, Nicole. Yes, some of those typos seemm quite glaring to me, now.
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Nicole Marie reply on May 16th, 2009 8:04 pm:
In all seriousness though Jay; the paragraph that got printed twice on pages 44 and 45 is a really optimistic paragraph that gives a great sense of hope. Saying it twice may actually be a good thing.
Donn’t worry about any of it man. It’s still a great manifesto, and I’m still buying it for presents next holiday season. Wishing you the best. -Nicole Marie
P.S. there should be at least 4 typos and a punctuation error in this reply. Get out your red pens people and enjoy …
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Donna F. reply on May 16th, 2009 9:24 pm:
Next time let me have a look at it before going to press!…or, let me have a look at it before it goes to press a 2nd time!
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Jay Shafer reply on May 17th, 2009 12:47 pm:
I think that’s a great idea.
Renae reply on July 3rd, 2009 1:34 pm:
Hello, I sent my money order out for my new book. When should I expect to recieve my book. I mailed the money order back on June 12, 2009. Hope the tour is going well. THANK YOU
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Jay Shafer reply on July 5th, 2009 11:56 am:
I’m emailing you right now, Renae. If you haven’t received it by now there must have been some sort of a glitch.
Wow, Jay,
We enjoyed seeing the Fencl in Boulder! It is a beautiful little cottage. We are buiding our little building out back. Your enthusiasm and encouragement was what we needed; to talk to someone else like-minded. Thanks so much
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I envy all of you who have built any of the Tumbleweed homes and wish to heck my lifestyle were such that I could live in one as well. I have Jay’s book on my nightstand and it’s the last thing I read before I go to sleep every night.
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