Around the time Bill and I decided to build a tiny house, we heard about The Tiny House Conference being held in Charlotte, NC. We signed on as volunteers and drove down to meet Ryan Mitchell, organizer of the conference as well as creator of The Tiny Life blog, author of several tiny house tomes and, most recently, cohost of the Tiny House Chat podcast.
We toured our first tiny houses at the conference, took pages of notes on all sorts of practical considerations we hadn't even been aware of, and got excited alongside other tiny house wannabes. By the time we returned to Virginia, we felt ready to get started. I can't thank Ryan enough for being a big part of that process. Check out some of his tiny house resources below.
An interview with Ryan Mitchell:
What was your introduction to the tiny house movement? One day in 2008, I found myself standing on a curb with my co-workers, holding a box with all the things from my desk and reeling from the sudden announcement our company was closing. Luckily, I was able to find a job quickly, but that feeling of being exposed and vulnerable never really left me. I started looking at my budget and realized housing costs were about half my expenditures every month. I asked myself a crazy question: How could I shrink that? I did some research and discovered tiny houses. After four years of saving money, I began building my own tiny house.
How has your own tiny house build gone? It's been going great, I've moved into my tiny house a while ago and have been enjoying the tiny life! It of course took longer than I thought to build it and it ended up costing a little more than expected, but all in all I'm very happy with it.
What's something you'd do differently? I might have considered purchasing a shell, rather than building from scratch, and I think I would have chosen casement windows over awning windows.
You're hosting your second tiny house conference in Portland this April. What can a prospect tiny houser expect to glean from it? I think people will gain real understanding of the process of building a tiny house. Two big benefits of attending are connecting with others and getting to ask your questions. Not to mention that you get to see a lot of tiny houses of different styles in one place. Nothing beats standing in a tiny house.
Any other new ventures you'd like to mention? I recently launched a podcast called Tiny House Chat. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback, and it's been a lot of fun.
Resources from Ryan Mitchell
The Tiny Life: Features Q&A from Ryan, guest columnists, tiny house ideas and inspirations, practical building advice and more
Books by Ryan: Shockingly Simple Electrical, The New Retirement, Cracking the Code (building codes), Tiny House Floor Plans
Tiny House Conference: April 18-19, 2015, Portland, OR
Ask the Tiny Life: New Q&A video
We toured our first tiny houses at the conference, took pages of notes on all sorts of practical considerations we hadn't even been aware of, and got excited alongside other tiny house wannabes. By the time we returned to Virginia, we felt ready to get started. I can't thank Ryan enough for being a big part of that process. Check out some of his tiny house resources below.
An interview with Ryan Mitchell:
What was your introduction to the tiny house movement? One day in 2008, I found myself standing on a curb with my co-workers, holding a box with all the things from my desk and reeling from the sudden announcement our company was closing. Luckily, I was able to find a job quickly, but that feeling of being exposed and vulnerable never really left me. I started looking at my budget and realized housing costs were about half my expenditures every month. I asked myself a crazy question: How could I shrink that? I did some research and discovered tiny houses. After four years of saving money, I began building my own tiny house.
How has your own tiny house build gone? It's been going great, I've moved into my tiny house a while ago and have been enjoying the tiny life! It of course took longer than I thought to build it and it ended up costing a little more than expected, but all in all I'm very happy with it.
What's something you'd do differently? I might have considered purchasing a shell, rather than building from scratch, and I think I would have chosen casement windows over awning windows.
You're hosting your second tiny house conference in Portland this April. What can a prospect tiny houser expect to glean from it? I think people will gain real understanding of the process of building a tiny house. Two big benefits of attending are connecting with others and getting to ask your questions. Not to mention that you get to see a lot of tiny houses of different styles in one place. Nothing beats standing in a tiny house.
Any other new ventures you'd like to mention? I recently launched a podcast called Tiny House Chat. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback, and it's been a lot of fun.
Resources from Ryan Mitchell
The Tiny Life: Features Q&A from Ryan, guest columnists, tiny house ideas and inspirations, practical building advice and more
Books by Ryan: Shockingly Simple Electrical, The New Retirement, Cracking the Code (building codes), Tiny House Floor Plans
Tiny House Conference: April 18-19, 2015, Portland, OR
Ask the Tiny Life: New Q&A video