TINY: a documentary

THIS movie (2013) explores an attempt to DIY a tiny house....
You can stream the hour-long movie on Netflix.

Check out the trailer below:

Tiny Stats: 

Hartsel, Colorado. Image courtesy of bgautrea via Flickr

• located in Hartsel, Colorado
• temporary structure on a trailer with wheels (to get around minimum square footage requirements)
• 124 square feet
• 19' x 7'
• completed in one year
• cost about $26,000
• SolMan solar generator
• composting bucket toilet
• sailboat fireplace

How Tiny is a Tiny House?

Image courtesy of AtomicLlama via Flickr

At 4:15, Darren Macca (a tiny house owner) tentatively asserts for the sake of definition that a "tiny" house is be less than 200 square feet.  I'm going to disagree with that assertion a little bit, because I believe it matters how many people you're housing.  His home houses two, so maybe that's a good number.

My family has five people.  At 200 square feet, our house had better be a padded cell, because that's a formula for insanity!  Shafer reports at 52:15 that his family-sized "mansion" is 500 square feet.

What is a Home?

Image courtesy of anna gutermuth via Flickr

• a place of attachment
• a place to selectively surround ourselves with our stuff
• not a consolation prize
• a sense of home, a sense of place, a sense of belonging
• a place where you spend time; not empty of family
• = freedom (?)
• where the inside draws you in and the outside draws you out
• helps a person define what they want from life -- their values
• livable, regardless of size
• a self-portrait
• people
• an experiment
• a collection of details that tell who we are and where we belong
• a point of orientation

Image courtesy of nicolas.boullosa via Flickr

Other Stuff

• 10:57 & 41:20 check out the beautiful little fireplace heaters
• Watching this, it occurs to me that when I build my tiny house I should build a patio or deck first, so that I can have a level workspace.
• Tumbleweed Tiny Houses: ready-made or build-it-yourself
• the erroneous idea that "bettering oneself" is more square footage
• some crave the open space of the country; but by building on it, we change it.
• be comfortable with you you are, because you are may be all you're ever going to be.