5 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE BUILDING A TINY HOUSE

I took 8 months to plan my tiny house build, before I even bought my trailer or a single tool. This planning and thoughtful reflection process was critical to establishing some of my own project parameters. Believe me, I was itching to finally start building, but looking back I’m SO glad that I took my time and did thoughtful planning before starting.

There are plenty of considerations one should make before choosing to build a tiny house oneself. Below are a few questions I think one should sit with before deciding to build a tiny house.

Photo Cred: Julie Blair

5 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE BUILDING A TINY HOUSE:

1. What does 'home' mean to you?

   Sounds loaded, I know, but it’s important. This is the foundational work that I always go back to. Whether we are trying to recreate fond memories from a childhood home, build the exact opposite, or a little of both, unpacking our relationship to ‘home’ is critical for any personal home build project. In my opinion, this should always be step-one.

2. What’s your vision for my your ideal life in the next 5 years? 10 years?

   After breaking down our personal relationship to home, we can start to re-imagine what our ideal life would look like. THEN we start to see how this lifestyle informs what type of dwelling or tiny house and specifics when it comes to design features. If your ideal life looks like being on the road 24/7, maybe a van-life journey is more relevant for you?

3. What's your realistic timeline and available investment?

   Be honest. This is a toughie. This goes for both time and financial resources. If you don’t have a chunk of funds saved to build the entire tiny house maybe you will have to work and build on weekends - how will that affect your timeline? Will you need to secure outside funding like a personal loan? Honest cost estimating beforehand will set you on a better track.

4. How comfortable are you with risk?

   When it comes to the legality of tiny homes, the reality is…it depends. It’s a grey area, and this all depends on where you live. Are you comfortable going a non-traditional route with DIY home building for the sake of learning a new skill, or does that compromise your personal sense of safety? Is your goal to live on or off-grid? This is a personal one, but again requires honestly with oneself.

5. Who is in your corner to support you?

   ONE MORE TIME for the people in the back. Your community is EVERYTHING. Friends, family, partners, peers…you might be surprised who comes through in support of your project. Take stock in your network and in-kind resources. Don’t abuse relationships for resources, but be honest about who you can call when things get tough.

I hope these questions have been helpful to kickstart your reflection process!

Looking for more resources?

If you want a little more guided help as you consider a potential tiny house project, check out this FEASIBILITY TOOLKIT. This toolkit designed to help you start brainstorming, researching and crunching some numbers to assess the feasibility of pursuing your dream tiny house project!

Photo cred: @mom

BUILDING WITH BOUNDARIES

Photo: Julie Blair

There are SO many lessons that I learned the hard way during my build. Many of those included navigating the physical and emotional toll that truly comes with a DIY tiny house build. For as much as I learned about building and construction, I learned just as much (if not more) about my own limits, capacity, and bandwidth in managing a project of this scope. So please, learn from my lessons in setting better boundaries in building your own tiny home!

5 TIPS FOR BUILDING YOUR TINY HOUSE WITH BOUNDARIES:

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1. BUILD IN BREAKS AND CELEBRATE MILESTONES: This one was hugeeee for me. Building on weekends for 5 years was tiring and tested every inch of my endurance. But one thing I learned early on was to find small ways to celebrate my wins. This usually included a party and bonfire after finishing another milestone (obviously, adapt this within COVID reason now).

Annual birthday parties in my house-in-progress pre-COVID. I miss these days and these Queens!

2. EMBRACE THE PREP DAY: As the saying goes in construction, everything takes 3x as long and costs 3x as much to build. My tiny house build was no exception. If your build is anything like mine, you might be balancing a full-time job during the week, and building only on weekends. If that is the case, do yourself a favor to an allot specific time before any project to gather materials, double check what supplies you have on hand, clean your job site, and make an action plan for your limited time building.

My re-grouping usually starts with snacks. And ends with snacks. It’s mostly snacks.

3. BE CONSCIOUS OF AIR QUALITY: I’ve struggled with chronic migraines since high school. Although I’ve gotten wayyyy better at identifying my triggers (i.e. lack of sleep, diet, and hormones etc.), building a tiny house can still expose you to chemicals, fumes, and lots of dust. As someone who needed to move into my house during the last year of my build, I learned to be hyper-aware of mask wearing while using paints and dusting. As an added measure, I used an air purifier and kept my fan running on days when there was added dust in my small space.

4. BE WILLING TO ASK FOR HELP, IF NEED BE: Coming from this over-achiever, this was one that I had to learn the hard way. Having been fed dozens of advice warranted or not (*ahem* mansplaining), I conditioned myself to keep my head down and avoid asking for help many times. But over the years, I collected a short list of trusted friends I could call on to help on specific projects. So try calling it a “Work Party” and invite help on a day you need that extra push. Pro-tip: Beer and chips are a nice incentive for friends after a good long work day.

My homegirl and fellow builder Lena helping me install my custom door handle.

5. AVOID COMPARING YOUR JOURNEY TO THAT OF OTHERS: One more time for the people in the back! As much as we want to see ourselves or our similar designs in other peoples tiny houses, PLEASE AVOID the trap of comparison. Even with the same framing plans, no two DIY builds are the same. So trust your journey, your process, your timeline and know that your tiny house success is relative to you.

WORK-FROM-HOME

Photo cred: Stacy Keck

2020 shook up a lot, to say the least.

For many, that included shifting to work-from-home. For some, it was a privilege to work remotely from the comfort of home, while for others, maybe a burden working in a small space juggling multiple family responsibilities. Either way, if you’re anything like me, working/ living in a small space is constantly a balancing act and can be challenging. But it’s not impossible, with thoughtful adaptations. Having years of experience living in a tiny home and small spaces, I think I’ve found a few tricks to help adapt to these new circumstances.

Let’s be real. Working from home shouldn’t just be another way to glorify being accessible or productive at all times. I think healthy boundaries are important in any work environment. Sometimes we need to just be in our sweats all day. We’re still living through layers of collective trauma. But if you are living and working in a small apartment, studio, tiny home, RV etc. below are some tips that I’ve found to make the best use of the square footage.

See tips below.

I installed my Ikea multi-functional work/ dining table to fold down flat over my trailer wheel well. Photo cred: Stacy Keck.

5 Tips for Working-From-Home In a Small Space:

1. Headphones: This is particularly relevant if you are sharing a small space with a roommate or partner. Seriously, headphones are a game changer if you haven’t tried this yet. Reminds me of college dorm days.

2. Clutter-free neutral space: As important as it is to have dedicated work spaces, having a neutral landing space that is non-work related is important. That can be a couch/ coffee table, bookshelf, kitchen cook space etc. Even a bedside table that gets cleaned regularly can signal a sense of respect for personal space.

3. Tools at the ready: If you’re anything like me, I usually stay ready with multiple microns, markers, post-its and journals on deck. Find a way to organize all these misc. work tools in a way that is centralized so they don’t end up all over the house. I’m still working on finding my favorite multi-tool caddy solution for this.

4. Natural light: If you have the option, try setting up your workspace to take advantage of natural light. We get enough screen time as it is, let’s do our eyes a favor and lean into natural light when possible. Pro-tip: If you have a window directly behind you, your camera image will look blown out and hard to see since you will be back-lit. If possible, try positioning your desk to have a window adjacent or in front of you instead.

5. Folding tables: If you have the space/ option, tables that can fold flat can be a great option to add extra work/ table space when needed. I intentionally designed all the surfaces in my tiny house to fold flat for just this reason. If you want to make a custom folding table, you can buy the hinges online and top it with a sealed piece of wood. See image below for reference.

I custom made these folding tables using hinges I bought online and birch that I sanded and sealed. Photo cred: Stacy Keck.

BONUS TIP:

Phone alarms: I’ve said this one before, but I keep going back to it! Creating boundaries while working from home can be tough especially if you live in or share a small space. I joke that it's not "Work from Home", it's "Live at Work". Try setting "Start of Business" and "End of Business" alarms on your phone to remind you when it's time to start, turn off, shift, or even just step away from the computer for a minute. Just because we CAN be accessible at all times, doesn't mean we SHOULD be.

What else has helped you navigate working-from-home in a small space?