the number one question: why?

I think to fully understand why someone might want to build a tiny house, you have to know a little bit about the people making the decision. Allow me to introduce us to you…

Kenton, my husband, has been a curious, enthusiastic learner in pretty much any field for his entire life. If you looked at his resume, you would think he is 5 years older than he is. He has traveled the world to increase  his know-how in all things sustainable. One area that kept his interest is Permaculture, the science of working with nature to meet our needs (food, shelter, community). You should google that. I’ll wait.

My name is Melissa. I like science, cats, learning new skills and thinking new thoughts.

Kenton introduced me to the concept of tiny houses on our first date. Like most people in the tiny house movement, I thought it was crazy at first. Cute idea. No thanks. Over time though, I really began to consider it. How much space do we really use in our house right now? I mean REALLY use. I began to deconstruct my spaces. I never walk on that side of the room. I never sit in that chair. I never dust the top of my fridge. Well, that’s a different story…

Even beyond cutting down on useless areas of my living space, financially it makes sense. If you build a tiny house, you can bet that it will cost less than a conventional house. We really were taken with the idea that we could build something that would essentially cost us nothing after we put in the initial money. A lot of our wages are currently going towards rent, utilities, etc to a place that we don’t own, and we don’t benefit from (aside from sustaining our lives which is great, thank you landlord). If we freed up all that money, we could use it for something else, sure. Another way to look at it is that we no longer need to earn that extra money. We could have that time instead – to play with the cat, to learn how to do accounting/basket weaving/dark arts/bake a mean apple pie. The things in life you remember, the stuff that really make this life YOUR life. Essentially, we could have more of that by cutting down on the stuff we don’t need and aren’t using.

So a week after our wedding, we bought a trailer.