What does a Realtor think of tiny houses? And what’s a tiny house concierge? Today I speak with Alaska Wagoner, who shares her experience buying a pre-owned tiny house, dealing with winter plumbing issues galore, finding parking, and more. Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/204 In This Episode: Explaining tiny house magic Buying in bulk is possible in a tiny house Is it possible to buy a tiny home from a Realtor? Tips to avoid tiny house meltdowns How to increase the resale value of ...
Mar 11, 2022•35 min•Ep. 204
You’ve probably never heard of hyper adobe. And what’s a bunker bus? Why would someone want to move off-grid to the Arizona Desert? On this week’s show, Richard Ward gives us an inside view of his 24-acre homestead outside of Bisbee Arizona, where he teaches sustainable, natural building practices and off-grid living. And make sure you listen to the end because Richard has an invitation for our listeners to actually come and EXPERIENCE and help build with natural materials through an Eco Residen...
Mar 04, 2022•53 min•Ep. 203
You’ll never guess what this empty nest tiny house couple built into their tiny house porch roof! Colin and Megan Leeson tell the story of their pre-built shell, why the nest doesn’t always stay empty, and discuss some of the clever and innovative features they build into their gorgeous tiny home on wheels. Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/202 In This Episode: Colin and Megan’s reasons for buying a pre-built shell The non-compromising list may be the key to planning together How to...
Feb 25, 2022•42 min•Ep. 202
Have you been approaching minimalism the wrong way? Think of this: You’re never going to truly become a minimalist until you find out why you are so drawn to owning so much stuff in the first place. Christine Platt approaches the concept of minimalism from a different lens by focusing on why we are attached to things, why we consume them in the first place, and how that understanding helps to find the path to minimalism. This lovely conversation contains both practical tips for people who are do...
Feb 18, 2022•46 min•Ep. 201
I’m excited to share this conversion with Nomad Brad because I think that we all have a lot to learn from vanlifers in the tiny house space. Brad converted an old U-Haul, which is something that not a lot of vanlifers are doing, and we’ll get into why it makes a lot of sense and some of the unique things that Brad has done. There is a lot to learn in this inspiring conversation, no matter what type of tiny house dwelling you’re interested in. Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/200 In...
Feb 11, 2022•47 min•Ep. 200
Justin Draplin is a visionary entrepreneur who is going vertical with tiny house development by building tiny homes, developing tiny home communities, and also developing and manufacturing technology for the homes in-house. In this wide-ranging interview, Justin tells me why “tiny house” is a bit of a swear word in his company, his mentality about finding land for development, and some of the features of these impressive cottages. Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/199 In This Episod...
Jan 28, 2022•45 min•Ep. 199
Michael Bartz talks to me about all things tiny houses, environmentalism, and climate change. When Michael hand-built his own tiny house on wheels, it set him on the path to thinking more about how what we do and how we live impacts climate change and inspired him to start his podcast, In Over My Head, to discuss that with others. In this interview, we talk about his show, his tiny house and its special features, and more. Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/198 In This Episode: Tiny ...
Jan 21, 2022•38 min•Ep. 198
Joe Callantine has both the desire and the vision to live tiny in community. He has already built and lived in his own tiny house, he owns the land for the tiny community, and now he is working through the legal and regulatory steps to make his dream a reality. Joe is incredibly patient, kind, and does a great job of describing how this process works. As more and more people build tiny houses, the demand for legal tiny house parking is rising so that people who do want to live legally don’t have...
Jan 14, 2022•55 min•Ep. 197
I was excited to finally sit down with Melanie Copeland because it seems like her name is everywhere! Between a book that is charting on the Amazon bestseller list and involvement with Tiny House Alliance USA, Melanie is a mover and a shaker in the tiny house world. She also has an amazing personal story of renovating a tiny house in just 7 days. Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/196 In This Episode: How do you build a tiny home in 7 days? Why hammocks are an amazing creative seatin...
Jan 07, 2022•44 min•Ep. 196
This is a conversation about a family coming together after a tragic accident and the DIY. Alex became a diesel mechanic in order to learn how to work on the bus that she converted and then ultimately went on to convert a skoolie that had special features for her brother who was the victim of an accident that left him a quadriplegic. It’s an incredibly uplifting story and a fascinating look at how tiny houses can solve so many unique problems. Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/195 I...
Dec 31, 2021•42 min•Ep. 195
Rex Hohlbein started a Facebook page that has become a thriving nonprofit called Facing Homelessness. Among other things, Facing Homelessness reaches out to local homeowners and places ADUs in their back yards to help house homeless people in their communities. There’s more to it than that and I hope you stick around for my conversation with Rex as we talk about the causes of homelessness, the way that society looks past homeless people, and what we can all do about it. Full show notes and image...
Dec 24, 2021•49 min•Ep. 194
The road to tiny house living can sometimes be bumpy, but my guests today, Justin and Juby, show us that a life of adventure is possible when living tiny - even with a child. Justin and Juby have been sharing their skoolie adventure on Instagram and YouTube for a while now. I'd heard about them from both members of Tiny House Engage and previous guests on the show, so I knew I had to have them on for an interview. In this episode, we talk about what it's like to live on a bus, what it takes to s...
Dec 17, 2021•50 min•Ep. 193
Erica Smith Ewing is a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice and she is leading a lawsuit against a town in Georgia that is preventing somebody from building tiny houses solely based on a minimum square footage requirement. According to Ewing and the Institute for Justice, this is a violation of the Georgia constitution. I've been fascinated by stories of people and groups striking down restrictive tiny house laws based on the constitutionality of land use and size restrictions. in this...
Dec 10, 2021•29 min•Ep. 192
Guillaume Gabriele has been working for the builder, Ma Petite Maison, who is building some of the most beautiful tiny houses in all of Europe. I've been following them for a while and I'm excited to finally get to sit down with Guillaume to talk about the designs that Ma Petite Maison uses and how they're different in Europe than tiny house designs are in the United States, the state of the tiny house movement in Europe, and his own personal tiny house story. Full show notes and images at theti...
Dec 03, 2021•37 min•Ep. 191
Solar heaters can make a lot of sense if you live in a cold climate with sun because they essentially provide free heat during the day. The designs haven't always been great, though. Eric Latocki, DIY tinkerer and lifelong fabricator, has incorporated his industrial oven design experience into a DIY solar heater build that can be built with common materials found at local big box stores. His plans, which are completely free, don't require any welding or special knowledge and if you're already bu...
Nov 26, 2021•39 min•Ep. 190
Corianne Holmes is here to tell us her amazing story about moving to New Zealand with her boyfriend, using their life savings to build a tiny house, almost losing the tiny house due to a legal hiccup with their trailer, and ultimately building a slightly larger home and converting their tiny into an Airbnb. Stick around to hear me mispronounce the name of Corianne's town.... and for a delightful conversation and story about living tiny in New Zealand. Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.n...
Nov 19, 2021•45 min•Ep. 189
The tiny house movement in the United States seems to get all of the attention, but there are people, groups, and advocates all around the world working to make tiny living possible. Enter Miranda and Jan from Tiny Living Alliance. The Tiny Living Alliance is working to make your relationship with builders more transparent and trustworthy through several tools and initiatives through their website. In this interview, we'll learn about what Tiny Living Alliance does, how they do it, and why Miran...
Nov 12, 2021•38 min•Ep. 188
Mental health is not something that we talk about frequently in the tiny house industry or in the tiny house movement, so today's guests are a welcome addition of mental health to the tiny house conversation. Sophie and Ryan set to work saving and learning all they could about boats and sailing. They decided to delay their adventure to address their anxiety and depression through therapy. After they set sail, they realized that life on a boat isn't all smooth sailing - so they both still suffer ...
Nov 05, 2021•47 min•Ep. 187
I'm welcoming returning guest, Jewel Pearson back to the podcast today. Jewel did a beautiful and creative addition to her tiny house, a sunroom called "The Tiny House Remix" and the moment I saw it I knew I needed to have her on the show to talk about it! The Remix is a very well-done way of slightly expanding a tiny house to make it fit your needs and I think you'll find what Jewel has done inspiring. Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/186 In This Episode: What Jewel learned from t...
Oct 29, 2021•52 min•Ep. 186
My guest today is like a secret rock star of the tiny house world. I'm sure that she has inspired many of the well-known tiny house designers and thinkers that you know of today. Sarah Susanka published her world-changing book, The Not So Big House , in 1998 and I can't stress enough how inspiring this book was to me when I was designing my tiny house. I think that this conversation will give you a taste of the wisdom and insights that you will gain from Sarah through her book that has now becom...
Oct 22, 2021•54 min•Ep. 185
Parenting and running a business while living tiny and traveling full-time is no easy task, but today's guest, Erin Carey, is doing it all. Erin lives on a boat with her family and also runs her own PR agency, a business she started after making this transition to living tiny. In this interview, we're going to hear her and her family's story, learn about the headspace and some of the things Erin did to stay motivated for making this big transition. Erin also tells us how she is able to stay prod...
Oct 15, 2021•53 min•Ep. 184
Not long ago, the Maine legislature passed LD 1981, a bill that defined tiny homes. It says "Tiny Home means a living space permanently constructed on a frame or chassis and designed for use as permanent living quarters." It then goes on to specify some other things about what a tiny home is. The Maine legislature then passed LD 1530, which is an act to allow people to live in Tiny Homes as a primary or accessory dwelling. This makes Maine the first state in the United States to legalize tiny ho...
Oct 08, 2021•30 min•Ep. 183
Figuring out what you need for a tiny house can be really confusing. Returning guest, Isabell Nagel-Brice has been working with 475 Building Supply, a company that sells high-performance building materials. In this episode, Isabelle breaks down which materials will help your house breathe properly, ventilate well, prevent mold, and just be a healthy tiny house to live in. She shares the names of these various products and explains what exactly they do to make your tiny house a healthy tiny house...
Oct 01, 2021•50 min•Ep. 182
Janet and I have been talking for a while and we've decided that it's finally time to pull back the curtain on the efforts that she has been working on for the last several months and do an interview on the Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast. Janet is the Founder, President, and Treasurer of Tiny House Alliance USA and is currently leading an exploratory initiative to develop new global building standards with ASTM. Before your eyes glaze over, I encourage you to stick with this show because Janet doe...
Sep 24, 2021•49 min•Ep. 181
Kol Peterson has been on the forefront of ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) development and advocacy for at least the last 10 years in Portland, Oregon. But don't worry! This conversation applies to ADUs at least everywhere in the United States, if not beyond. Kol is a really great thinker, is whip-smart, quite funny, and passionate about ADUs. In this conversation, we dive into why Kol sees ADUs as such an incredible opportunity for solving the housing crisis. We also talk about what's happening in...
Sep 17, 2021•47 min•Ep. 180
I love finding out about new ways that tiny homes are being used to help people that are in need and the Veterans Community Project is an incredibly impressive organization that has accomplished a ton in just a few short years, including 49 tiny homes for veterans on a piece of property that they now own! Vincent Morales has been there from the start and together we go through the organization's history, what they do, how they settled on tiny houses, and how everything works with the Veterans Co...
Sep 10, 2021•48 min•Ep. 179
Katy Zientek's tiny house caught my eye, when I learned that it was actually a shed that was converted into a tiny house. I have a very popular blog post about how to convert a shed to a tiny house, but I have never interviewed someone on the show who actually did it. Enter Katie, Katie and her husband took a shed that was built in the 1980s on their grandparents property, and turned it into a gorgeous Pinterest worthy tiny house. In this conversation, we go through all the basics, like how they...
Sep 03, 2021•30 min•Ep. 178
Alexis and Christian are returning to the show and so much has happened since Episode 12, their first appearance on the Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast. For one thing, they have actually been staying put in their tiny house for the last two years and they are about to publish a new book, The Beginner's Guide to Tiny Houses. In this interview, we will catch up, learn about the new book and other projects that they're working on, and also talk about some of the exciting things that have been happenin...
Aug 27, 2021•38 min•Ep. 177
This week I am bringing you another show that I was a guest on. This time with the House Maven Katharine MacPhail on her show, Talking Home Renovations. Talking Home Renovations with the House Maven is an educational and entertaining podcast that will ease your fears if you are planning a home renovation and are worried that you don't know what you're doing. Katharine had me on the show to talk about renovating tiny homes. It was a great conversation and I think you'll enjoy this week's show. Fu...
Aug 20, 2021•44 min•Ep. 176
As I record this today, I just got back from a week-long bicycle tour with my cousin on the coast of Maine and in a couple of days, I'm heading down to the New Jersey shore to spend a week with aunts, uncles, and cousins. Instead of bringing you a show where I interview someone, I thought it would be interesting to share a show that I was a guest on where somebody interviews me. Enter Liz Sumner and the I Always Wanted To Podcast. The I Always Wanted To Podcast is a podcast for people who long t...
Aug 13, 2021•32 min•Ep. 175
