in tiny house story by tinyhousemag

Tiny Tack House

A short story of how we came to build our very own Tiny House.

It all started with a meeting at the Apple Store. My husband Chris, while at work, had a chance encounter with a very adventurous lady. She tells him about this idea she has for living small.

Chris was intrigued by this and asked to know more.

Later that day, Chris informed me that he was going to send me a few links and info about the Tiny House Movement.

He said that he was working with Candice at the Apple Store, and she showed him all about the Tiny House. He didn’t go much further into details, but I was curious.

The next day while working on the computer I remembered what he was talking about and decided to do some investigation. I searched Tiny House Movement and was blasted into another world, a much smaller one.

The houses were amazing! So small, sleek and stylish and had all the comforts of home. I’ve lived in my fair share of apartments within the past 10 years, and I know the feeling I get when I come home to them.

You live in the space, but that space really isn’t yours. You always give it back. This has always been a challenging idea for a creative person like myself.

So once I broke down the door dividing me from what I could never have, and actually having the chance to feel at home, lets just say I ran with it.

I began to obsess over the idea of living in my very own tiny house. I would stand at my apartment living room window just thinking how trapped I felt.

To have a tiny house was a perfect blend of owning my own home (free of a 30+ year mortgage ) and having the luxury of moving it where and when I move.

No more jumping around from apartment to apartment, but a real chance to not just have my own home, but to be able to create it from start to end.

I was hooked.

Then the next amazing thing happened. Chris told me that Candice, the lady he was helping, was actually creating her very own tiny house!

I was excited and demanded that I meet her. I wanted to see what it took to create such a house. I would stop over and help out with design ideas, and we would do some creative thinking.

I was so inspired by her drive that it pushed me into really considering doing this myself. We would work right next to each other helping helping each other out as we went.

We even made a few trips down to Olympia to visit Dee Williams and actually see what it’s like to live in a tiny house.

I was beyond excited when I brought up the idea of building our own tiny house to Christopher and even more excited to hear that he was actually considering it.

From that moment it was the start of our Tiny Tack House.

The house took us 7 months to finish, and we had a blast the whole way through.

There were lots of hours spent researching each stage of the house-building process, and a lot of helpful blogs to guide us in the right direction. I’m a 3D Artist so naturally, I wanted

to build my house in 3D to see what it would look like, but then I took it a step further and actually started to build it step by step as if it was an actual home.

I measured everything out in real life size, and it just took off from there.

It took about 4 or 5 designs before we settled with the last plan.

You really have to think about what matters to you.

There is only so much room for personal items and they all need a place to go. Christopher is a photographer so he has a lot of camera gear. However, I only need a computer to do my work.

The computer/entertainment area was necessary for our home. Chris stores most of his gear in the bench/storage/extra bed area, as well as the closet near the kitchen.

The lower section of the cabinet is for the cat litter pan, extra cat litter, and cleaning supplies.

The cats can access this space from the bathroom. In the loft, we decided to go with dormers, just to have that little bit more head room, as well as for clothing storage and extra windows for ventilation.

The house was built with the idea that we could have it completely off grid if we were in an area that didn’t have a water and electric hook up, or on grid when parked in an RV park if need be.

So, because of this, we have a 40-gallon fresh water tank under the kitchen countertop.

The drains feed out under the trailer, but have the option of draining into a grey water tank if parked in RV parks.

We are running on only solar power for all our household uses and really loving it!

People still have a hard time imagining living is such a small space, but to me it’s not small at all.

I still do all the same things I used to.

I cook in the kitchen, shower in the bathroom, watch movies in our living room, and sleep in my bed.

So what’s really that different? Christopher and I have made ourselves a home, and that’s where I want to be!

To continue to follow our story bookmark our blog http://www.chrisandmalissa.com/

by Malissa Tack for the Tiny House Magazine Issue 1