This document discusses tiny homes and simple living. It provides background on how the author became interested in tiny homes and describes the history and goals of the Tiny House Blog community project. Benefits of living in a tiny home include saving money, freedom from debt and stuff, mobility, and having more free time. The environmental impacts of tiny homes are also more sustainable than traditional homes.

1. Tiny House Blog
Community Project
INDES 145
By Cammy Davis
Sustainable Design

2. Why Tiny Homes?
• I first became interested in Eny homes when my
parents decided to sell our middle class stucco
home and buy an Airstream travel trailer and “live
off the land”.
• My childhood goal was to have a “real house” like
all my friends. APer years and years of chasing the
American dream, the economy and reality
interceded. Now the idea of going back in Eme,
simplifying my living situaEon and having Eme to
actually live life has become very appealing.

3. History of Tiny House Blog
• Developed by Kent Griswold in 2007
• MoEvaEon: love of small spaces
• Goal: to discover the different opEons available for a
person looking to down size into a Eny house or cabin
• Looking at different type of construcEon, book reviews,
alternate energy for heat and electricity.
• Encourages:
• feedback and ideas
• Stories of people who are living this dream.
• Pictures of Eny houses and cabins, etc.

4. Benefits of Living in a Tiny Home
• 1. Tiny Homes Save Huge Money
• The smaller the house, the lower
Have House, Will Travel. the cost.
• 2. Freedom from Debt
• Big houses come with big
mortgages. Smaller houses can
result in no mortgage at all.
• 3. Freedom from Stuff
• Living in a Eny home forces you to
decluZer and only keep things that
you use frequently
• 4. Freedom to Take your Home
with you
• A large number of Eny homes are
being built upon truck beds,

5. Benefits of Living in a Tiny Home
• 5. More Time
• Homes are very Eme consuming. But what if you
could vacuum your floor in 1 minute and just be
done with it? The size of your home is inversely
proporEonal to the free Eme that you have. With
liZle home to take care of, you have plenty of Eme
to do the things you really want to do. And that’s
liberaEng.
• 6. Great Minds Think Alike
• You’ll also become a local celebrity of sorts and
random interesEng people from around the country
will strike up conversaEon wherever you take your
home. (This is also true of riding a Vespa in
Issaquah.)
• 7. BeLer Quality Home
• You should, in theory, be able to upgrade the quality
of the home around you because you’ve been able
to cut down on the materials and cost of the home
so significantly. Pubng in that marble counter‐top
shouldn’t cost that much when it is only 5 square
feet. Hardwood floors? You can install hardwoods in
your whole house for the price that most people pay
for one bedroom!

6. Tiny Home Interiors

7. Environmental Impact
• The average American home consumes about 75% of an acre of
forest and produces about 7 tons of construcEon waste! And ... it
emits 18 tons of greenhouse gases every year!
• One style of Eny home is made of 4,800 pounds of building
materials each, and less than 100 pounds go to the landfill. Plus
they produce less than 900 pounds of greenhouse gases during a
typical Iowa winter!

8. The American Dream
• Today in America, 1 in 5 homeowners owe
more money than what their home is worth!
Many people are literally walking away from
their homes because of this tragedy. But
that's only part of the story!
• According to RealtyTrac, over 2.8 million
homes were foreclosed in 2009.
• Just think, all those months of making the
house note, paying steep uElity bills,
property taxes, and maintenance ‐ up in
smoke. Don't you deserve beZer than this?
• People were sold a bill of goods that they
need more home than they can afford and
now their finances, relaEonships and lives
are in chaos.
• Being shackled with debt Ell the grave
doesn't sound like the American dream to
me.

9. “I don’t want this life.”
• IN his 20s, Michael Janzen at 40 has all the trappings
of a successful homeowner: in‐ground pool, maid
service, a yard landscaped with Japanese black pine
bonsai trees. He owns an 1,800‐square‐foot home in
Fair Oaks, Calif.
• So why has Mr. Janzen spent the summer building an
80‐square‐foot “Eny house” out of free stuff he
found on Craigslist?
• There he is on nights and weekends, designing a
floor plan whose dimensions are measured not in
feet but inches, nailing scavenged wood pallets
together for the frame, or fixing up an old trailer to
serve as the foundaEon. The iniEal reacEon from his
wife, Julia: “Is this a Unabomber building?”
• According to Mr. Janzen, he came to the realizaEon
that “I don’t want this life — the life of someone
who’s working too hard to pay a large mortgage to
live in this house.” The catalyst, he said, was
watching the value of his home plummet with the
rest of the real estate market, while the Eme and
money required to maintain the property only
increased. “The energy cost is enormous,” he said,
“and the bigger your property gets, the more there
is to do.”

10. Simple Living
• “Half of knowing what it is to live simply is
knowing how to live happily.“ From YouTube,
Thoreau’s cabin redux: Eny homes and
happiness video

11. cammysEnyhome.blogspot.com
• As I search for simplifying my own life, the idea
of living in a small home without a huge
mortgage appeals to me. However, the
logisEcs seem overwhelming. More so, the
reacEon from family and friends can be a bit
daunEng as well. I decided to take it one step
at a Eme and started a blog about my path
towards simple living. You can follow me at:
cammysEnyhome.blogspot.com

12. Tiny House Directory
The Tiny House Blog has a website directory
by category and state. These are just the
companies located in Washington state:
• Modern Shed ‐ WA
• Rainier Yurts – WA
• Old Western Wagons – WA
• LiZle Green Buildings – WA
• Shed Boy – WA
• Penny Pincher Barn Company – WA
• Rough Cut Sheds – WA
• Green Pod Development – WA
• Gypsy Wagon Workshop – WA
• FloaEng Pods – WA

13. Relevant Websites
• hZp://weehouse.com/pdfs/weeGreen.pdf
•
• hZp://www.blueskymod.com/info.html
•
• hZp://www.cusatocoZages.com/selectaplan.php#
•
• hZp://www.livingoffgrid.org/the‐pros‐and‐cons‐of‐Eny‐
homes/