It’s been 18 months since Audrey and I started dating bliss, with 7 of those months living together in harmony. We’ve recently decided to go the next step in our relationship and look into home ownership. Rather than the typical “American Dream” of having a 2,000 square foot McMansion with a 30 year mortgage, we opted for something much more simple.

We’re having a Tiny House custom built for the two of us! (Plus Benjamin, the cat)

Why a Tiny House?

Ultimately, it’s to lower our cost-of-living so that we may spend more time of our lives traveling, having adventures, and working less.

Back in June, during Pedalpalooza, we took a tour of tiny homes and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to find out more information about smaller living. We were pretty much already sold on the idea of the house but after seeing more inhabitants in action and other factors in our lives, so we decided to get the gears turning on finding a builder.

It’s all moving faster than we imagined.

We joined the Facebook Group “Portland Tiny Houses” and Google Group “Tiny House Network” and put up an ad looking for a host site in which to park our tiny home. In less than 24 hours we had a response form an enthusiastic supporter of the smaller home movement and met with her a day later. Our host-to-be ended up being everything we could have wanted and more! We’ll be able to get water, power, and use a gray-water system for our shower and have a composting pile going for our toilet.

Back in early July, we took a 1.5 hour drive down to Albany to meet a tiny house builder that we found on the internet that had a model home on display. It was pretty much what we were looking to build in terms of layout, materials and price range.

After talking to the builder and gathering some basic info, we started churning the details of what the two of us wanted out of the home and how to get it all paid off in 5 years or so.

Next thing I know, we are e-mailing the builder, meeting a second time to hammer out specifics in dimensions, amenities, roof pitches, and details we didn’t really think about from the get-go. But our builder, Nathan, and archictect, Tor, were both very nice and knowledgeable.

By the end of July, we handed them a down payment to start construction!

We have now visited the build site twice to see it in person to grasp the reality of the project and to get a taste of how big it’s really going to be.

I’ll post again as our project nears completion, delivery, move-in, and whatever else happens in our Tiny House Adventure.

Quick facts about our home-to-be: