The Tiny Life

We have had several readers write in about house trucks, which isn’t a new concept by any means, but perhaps a precursor to tiny houses?  They have a certain charm to them that RV’s lack and makes me think of gypsies for some reason.  Anyway, there is some romantic appeal to them that I can’t put my finger on but regardless they represent a subculture in the Tiny House Community.

Reprinted: Here

The Morisons exhibited their self-sufficient wooden house-truck, customized from a decommissioned fire engine and containing, next to a stove and pot plants, a library of apocalypse-themed fiction. Tales of Space and Time, as it was called, embodied a jauntily over-optimistic attitude to surviving the end of the world, simultaneously mocking the ‘art will save us all’ attitude of some contemporary civic reformists. Art won’t save Folkestone. I hope something does though – something real, something solid.
Jonathan Griffin, Folkestone Triennial, Frieze, Issue 117 September 2008

Ivan Morison: What made you build your first truck?

Roger Beck: The first one I call my escape vehicle! I grew up in LA, a metropolitan, screwy city. And so it just got to the point where I just had to get out. So I left a whole bunch of stuff I didn’t want to get rid of at my parent’s house and got into my first house car and headed north. I couldn’t head south ’cause I had long hair and didn’t want to cross the Mexican border; I couldn’t go any further west; the east coast was nothing more than big cities to me and so I decided to go to Canada!

So, it was my escape route. I got to Oregon and then I did a stupid thing. Me and a friend ripped a tape deck out of a logging truck and I was arrested the same day and I was put on five-years probation. And in those five years I built my second house-truck that had a lot of problems. I drove it to California again to see my parents and my father and I built my third truck. He really helped me build a house on the back of a truck. I travelled most of my travels in that one.

I had the idiosyncrasy of trying to distinguish myself as a New Age American Gypsy and not a hippy living in a school bus with a bunch of mattresses in the back. That’s not a house-truck, that’s because you’re homeless and you can’t afford to live in an apartment, which you’d prefer to do. I had no desire to live in a house. I had my house; it was just on wheels.

Ivan: Was there anyone doing this before you in America?

Roger: For me, when you think about house trucks you’ve got to go back to the depression. People were living in rigs because they couldn’t afford to live anywhere else.

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While the style of this apartment isn’t for me, it is well done and very cohesive.  I think it best that I don’t say much and just experience it through the images, as the apartment is very visually driven.  Make sure you click the “read more” link to see all the photos.

Name: Chris Nguyen
Location: Houston, Texas
Size: 500 square feet
More info: Here

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Here is good video about how the economy today is making some traditional home owners rethink the McMansion and of course pursuing the Tiny House Movement.  Sitting at a around 425 square feet, this house is decked out with really high end finishing touches.  Basically the owner is taking a traditional home budget and dumping it into a small foot plan for the costs savings and simplified living.

Found this video, its a lil bit old, but it shows Jay Schaffer’s first Tiny House, a spacious 70 square feet!

I found this great website called 43things.com It is basically a website that lets you input your life goals, rearrange them, but what’s more, is that it connects you with others that have the same goals so that you can learn and discuss it with them.  It also connects you with those whom have completed the goal so that they can share how they achieved it.  It’s a simple website, but has amazing implications and is a great source for inspiration for me.  Here is my short list for example:

I have written several posts on how to downsize and eliminate lots of things in your life.  Whether it getting rid of physical things or clearing your day planner for time with yourself, it’s all important.  Today I wanted to share an awesome little tip that I found years ago.  What am I talking about? I am talking about all those club cards that you have to keep on your keychain.  They annoy the heck out of me, the idea that they pretend that they are giving you discounts off your groceries irks me, but the point is they make your keychain huge.

Maybe it’s just me but I try to keep my keychain as small as possible, because you pretty much carry it with you everywhere.  So Just One Club Card is a great website which allows you to combine your club cards into a single business card size card.  I keep this in my wallet and my keychain free of these silly things.

Check out Just One Club Card