Tiny home life

why would one Live for years in an 8 foot wide building?

I have lived most of my life in a series of tiny buildings that I built for myself. I prefer to stay far outside of cities, and actually feel more comfortable in a dwelling that is small and cozy. I have been looking at tiny home groups and sites, and have noticed some things.

For one, it is easy to tell that many of the posts are insincere. A certain percentage are super rustic cabins that appear to be isolated. It is clearly not a persons house, but just an outbuilding that has been denied paint and attention. The outbuilding is not visited, but is also not remote. The other buildings have simply been left out of the photo. These posts appear to be from city people who are taunting each other. The caption is something like: ‘wouldn’t you love to live here?’ For me, these are both amusing and irritating. I have seen city people trying to live like that for a few days before they go racing back to the comforting press of humanity.

It is also common to see super large and costly homes posted. These are like a good tiny home that is bloated to beyond it's maximum size. Then, a sad type of 'crowing for a free tiny home' ensues. The participants take turns finding flaws with the floor plan and the appliances. They attempt to outdo each other with complaints about the absurdly high price. There are often claims that the commenter could build it way better for one quarter of the price. When I ask, such authorities have usually not purchased materials, used tools, or created anything during their lifetime. They have remained in a large city, squawking into a telephone or pecking at a keyboard. They seem to be trying to shame the builder into giving them the product for free. While this sort of flaw finding seems to be fun for the urban office workers, I can tell you that it is not fun for a builder. This is the reason that one sees many generic and charmless tiny homes for sale, and few creative and charming ones. If one whines about the cost of a long lasting zippo lighter, they end up purchasing a Bic disposable each week.

The homes that get posted are interesting but quite often not livable. What makes them non functional is the lack of space and a sense of unbalanced clutter. The home is a typical suburban house, deflated so that there is barely room for the people. Nothing has been left behind. All the junk is lined up along either wall of a long room that is only 7 foot 9 inches wide! This leaves a narrow corridor or walkway through the stuff. If more than one person enters the home, They will become irritated without knowing why. They can not pass each other in the 2 foot swath of open space down the center. Moving about an overfilled space is an elaborate dance that is awkward rather than fun. ‘Cleaning’ this sort of space is time consuming and complicated. It does not really ever become ‘clean’. Windows must be kept tiny, because there is little unencumbered wall space for openings. And, there is no subsitute for widows!

After living in a series of truly tiny tree houses, cliff dwellings, and vehicles. I have found that an empty building with movable units works best.  Fixed carpet is a total no-no, as is any attempt at a bathroom. Unless one breathes through a different orifice than the one used for detecting odor, there can not be a single paarticle of poop in a truly tiny building!  I use a separate storage space for my stuff. In a trailer, the storage can be underneath, on the roof, or in the towing vehicle. A crew cab pick-up works really well for towing. Fancy stuff can be in the back seats, while smelly, flamable or bulky stuff ride in the truck’s bed. Tiny home life is not for the lazy. There is plenty of shuffling things around and lifting.

Tiny homes are not meant to being stacked like cord-wood in a densely populated area. A great tiny home is the opposite of a prison cell. It is all windows and doors, so that those inside are constantly invited to look out of the windows and go out of the doors. The location and orientation of the building is of the greatest importance. I don’t want to go into great detail, but solar gain, view, sound proofing, aroma, and esthetics come into play. If the building faces the wrong way, smells bad, or is located where the occupant does not want to live, it quickly becomes a prison cell.

The size and shape of the home are important. As Americans, we are often interested in appearing to be wealthy, and in bringing the size of everything we own to it’s maximum. Tiny home folks need to resist this temptation. If the home must travel down the road, the 8 foot width and 14 foot height are constraints. Weight is a  huge concern. While I am amused by the giant ‘tiny’ homes made in factories, I feel that they lack personality, and tend to be non functional containers for expensive appliances and way too much stuff. If they are created just to obtain money, they will never be ‘right’. Many have roofs that do not work in the climate for which they are intended, or ‘lofts’ that will never be used. These Non functional lofts are added to increase the square footage. Solar energy and passive solar heating are typically ignored.

A 10 by 12 foot building that is nearly empty is more functional by far than an 8 foot by 50 foot overfilled warehouse. For me, a 10 foot ceiling is far better than a 6 foot ceiling and a 3 foot 6 inch loft.

And finally, there is the actual purpose of tiny homes. I knew when I started building them that I wanted them to be constructed and used by people like me. In practice, they are sought by back-to-the-land city folk, and sit, unused, beside giant homes just like RVs. The fad provides city dwellers with the feeling that they could leave their confined life at any time with the turn of a key.  And, captive city dwellers have the ability to pay for more and more things that they do not need. Hence, we note the belief that tiny homes are not allowed in the US. They are simply not allowed in US cities. Likewise, a well built tiny home costs as much as several rooms of a really nice house. You don’t build a foundation, but a double or triple axle trailer is just as costly. It is too expensive as a decoration for a rich persons estate, but it is perfect for actually living in.

I was present when the town of Moab, Utah banned homes smaller than 500 square feet. The reasons given were obvious lies. Many homes in Moab are moldy single-wide trailers from the mining era. Yet, it was stated that quality tiny homes would lower property values, and invite the wrong type of people!

The real reason is that there is no room for home ownership in the current degraded version of our society. The folks that have money are the ones that don’t mind harming the earth or their fellow humans. Causing harm is how this type of human has managed to get 'their' money. The poor have been squeezed and squeezed, until they have no hope of owning a decent car or home. They rent these things, and pay the entire value of their home or car periodically, instead purchasing it a single time. The rich have developed an attitude that the poor are infected with a poverty disease, which befell them because they were lazy, drug addled, or stupid. That allows the rich to treat the poor like zombies, with tall walls and machine guns.

I believe that we can fix this. A new sort of business structure can be devised, where human beings are much more important than quantities of money. Altruism can be rewarded, and harm to humans and the environment can be punished and taxed. Cities seem absolutely crucial to the modern person, but a properly distributed network of cottage industries can change that. People could work with tools and valuable materials at ‘home’. They would not be forced to live too close together. The cities would be depopulated in a natural way. A balance between population density and sustainable quality of life would be reached. People would live where they really want to be, and measure their success without quoting quantities of currency. We have seen how well it works when decisions are based on money alone [it doesn’t!]

Mobile buildings that are fully owned and made to last are part of this plan. Solar, wind power, and rooftop water capture would seem clever without our constant ‘bean counting’.  And really small structures would seem large when placed far apart on great ground. Gouging rents and junky disposable products would not be attractive to a population that is mobile and financially solvent.

Folks might prefer to stay home a lot if ‘home’ was a quiet and nurturing spot. The concepts of ‘insurance’, ‘vacation’, ‘pleasure driving’, etc, would fade from memory. These are coping mechanisms for tightly squeezed Homo Sapiens. I suspect that autism would decline, as would drug addiction, crime, and suicide. We must admit that the white invasion of the United States was poorly done. It now looks like we should have emulated the native Americans instead of fencing, poisoning and murdering them. They had it right. Portable dwellings, a tribal structure, and overwhelming respect for the earth provided excellent [if short] lives. Gifting does work better than exploitation, and war is best as a sort of violent recreation for itchy young males.

So, you see that tiny homes are not just a product or possession to me. They are a way to live with less harm to the earth, and a way to arrange ourselves so that almost no motorized travel is required. If We 'stay home' more and consume less, we will find life more rewarding. Can we make the transition? As hopeful as I am, it does not look good. The current ‘haves’ really like being rich! They have shown that they are willing to wreck the whole thing if they can not keep the majority of the toys. Thus, any new type of structure has to exist at the same time as the current 'war on the poor'. By analogy, Einstein had to write the equations for his new physics so that every one of Newton’s laws still worked.

There are rural areas of the US where a network of cottage industries can take root. One can only hope that the members of the current system would see the benefit, and refrain from destroying each attempt. Perhaps, a less exploitive system can be allowed if it is presented as a return to previously held values like good neighborly behavior, self reliance, and barter. Perhaps it would be seen as a form of welfare that takes care of elderly, homeless and disabled at no cost to the super rich. To the desperate, failing bean counters, it has to be cheaper than chasing the vulnerable around as economic refugees. This takes an ever increasing force of police and soldiers. It requires more and more body and street cameras, surveillance systems, and other measures that degrade our quality of life.

In my mind, the question is not ‘why buy a tiny home instead of a used travel trailer?’ It is ‘should I remain in the current system, to live in a sort of dystopian prison city, on the refuse and effluent of the super rich?’ The stuff that the rich throw away is better than our very best stuff. I am accustomed to this inequality, but see beyond it to a possible future where people live where they like without the need to pave everything over.  A possible future where Americans do highly skilled work without all of the captivity. Where they are healthful and filled with vitality, instead of obese, and overly concerned with cars and health insurance.

So, lets do this!