I thought long and hard about sharing this on The Juggler. I didn’t want our readers to think I was just trying to promote something that I am personally involved in. After a lot of internal debate, I determined that it was worth sharing with the community no matter what the public opinion would be about my motivations. Here goes… “My name is Laura and I am an advocate for the Tiny House Movement.”
Recently, The Tiny House Movement has been gaining ground. Jay Shafer, the designer of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, has been featured in several places including Yahoo News, NPR and Parade Magazine. I had the pleasure of meeting Jay Shafer a couple of years ago and that was when my partner and I started our voyage into the Tiny House universe. We began to build a cabin that is approximately 120 square feet on some land in the mountains of Western North Carolina. You can read all about that process here, if you are so inclined.
More than any sort of self-promotion, I wanted to share this here because I believe that this popular cultural fad could have some fantastic long term benefits for the pagan community. Tiny Houses are eco-friendly by nature. They can be built on a foundation or on wheels if you prefer to travel. Imagine pagan-owned land with a variety of tiny houses built for multiple uses: one story cabins for anyone unable to camp in a tent such as the elderly or disabled; shared spaces for workshops, meetings, music or fellowship; kitchen spaces where volunteers can prepare food for community meals; or even temple spaces to honor the gods. Tiny Houses can be built on a budget. At the same time, they can be built using the latest green building technology. Our house has a metal roof that has a food-grade coating so we can use it for rain catchment in the future. Building the houses can be a community event. When we were ready to build the foundation and raise the walls, we invited our friends to help us. We were blessed with so many friends interested in being a part of our project and having so many extra hands moved the project along quicker. On the flip side, tiny houses can be built with just one or two people with limited construction experience, such as my partner and me. With few exceptions, the majority of the work has been done by just the two of us and it has been both the hardest and most rewarding thing I have done in my life. I know many Pagans are also interested in communal living or intentional communities and purchasing several acres of land as a group and building individual tiny houses is a great way to be able to make a pagan owned intentional community a reality. Tumbleweed Tiny Houses aren’t the only option, of course. There are a lot of options for structures that could be used in a festival, temple or intentional community setting. Yurts are a favorite option and one of the coolest Yurt companies I have seen is Laurel Nest Yurts out of North Carolina. Their Yurtle design is beyond cool. The Earthship movement in New Mexico could be a great project for communities in regions of the country that are best suited to the rammed earth style of building. Cord-wood masonry was made popular by Rob Roy and can be seen at his Earthwood estate in Upstate New York.
I encourage everyone to check out alternative building and how it could be applied to pagan communities. With hammer and nails, we could all be one step closer to our dreams.
I’m glad you shared this. I’ve had the privilege of reading about Laura’s plans for some time now and have been amazed and inspired. You see…my husband and I are downsizing and getting ready for something similar. We’re looking at building a vardo and traveling for a few years and then we’ll see what happens.
On the flip side, I’m working towards building a Tiny (public, Hellenic) Temple. A few more hurdles to jump and it will be a reality.
But Laura is the trailblazer I’m watching for tips and inspiration and it is breath-taking to see someone walk the talk. That’s rarer than should be.
Yuuuuurrrrrttttssss.
Thanks for posting this! I love the staining job you guys did! You have done a LOT of work lately. Wow!
Another advantage to a Tiny is it leaves more room for the woods that are there, and little grottoes with goddess figurines subtly peeking through the verdure. I think a lot of Pagans would be interested in a Tiny if they knew about them.
Thanks Bill and Cara for your very kind words.
To your point, Bill, I have exactly that “lovely little grotto” tucked away not far from the tiny house with my statue of Persephone.
Tiny houses can be great for retreats and festivals. No question about it.
I’m curious about if most folks use them as you seem to be, as a second home, rather than as their one home (and still have to have external places of work as well).
For those of us with businesses that require at least 3 rooms, shop at most once a month so need a room just for food storage, have back to nest kids and elderly parents to care for, etc – size needs are different. Our trade off is that we can work it so we only travel about 40 miles a month.
Frondly, Fern
@Fern – The founder of Tumblweed lives in his 89 square foot house full time. There are some people who do it. We would love to eventually live there full time, but that might be a few years off. That is one of the reasons I think of them for retreats and festivals – I think they would be a great investment for our community. The Tumbleweed brand plans are expensive, but but there are other designers who sell them for less.
I hope to see more pictures – I’m absolutely enchanted with these! Thank you for sharing
Many OBOD Druids now build tiny houses in their backyards for mediation, getting away, and what not.
[...] Africa but also about how I am currently downsizing my life to be able to live off the grid in a 120 square foot house. I was kind of shocked by the responses. Many people were supportive of our mission to help the [...]