SEATTLE — Asuman Engin and her family, making their first visit to Seattle recently from their home in San Diego, spotted what may be the most famous tiny house in the world as they were coming over a nearby bridge.

“This is the house! This is the house!” Ms. Engin shouted. And so a few minutes later, here they were: Ms. Engin and her husband, Ege, pinning balloons to the chain-link fence that cordons off the property, and trying to explain to their somewhat bewildered-looking sons, ages 5 and 11, why they were here.

“We want to help them understand that modernism is not always the best thing, that playing with the iPad is not always the best thing — that there are values to think about,” said Ms. Engin, 43, a Turkish immigrant who teaches English and math at Southwestern College.

Most people call it the “ ‘Up’ House,” for its resemblance to the house in the Disney movie “Up,” about an old man who, finding himself unhappily headed toward a retirement home, attaches balloons to his little wooden home and floats away. In real life, the house’s owner, Edith Macefield, did the opposite and anchored herself down as development encroached on her block in the Ballard neighborhood in 2006. The two-story house is now abutted on three sides by taller commercial buildings.