Many people are skeptical that tiny homes can work for romantic couples, let alone families, which are still rare in tiny house demographics. While we know intellectually that it’s common for families in other parts of the world to house multiple generations in close quarters, most Americans seem to think it’s pretty out there for…Read more
This post is by Billy Ulmer, author of the Life in a Tiny House ebook. What would your home look like if one of your top priorities was maintaining the feeling of traveling, where an interesting surprise could be waiting around any corner? As I dug around John Labovitz’s blog for clues to why he…Read more
I first saw Chris and Malissa Tack at a PAD Tiny House Basics Workshop, where a rotating slideshow displayed beautiful photos of the tiny home on wheels they designed and built themselves. I remember Malissa calmly chiming in on highly technical building issues, despite describing her pre-tiny house construction experience as having once built a…Read more
The Big Tiny hits bookstores tomorrow – Tuesday, April 22nd! Dee will soon be visiting cities all over the country for readings and events with her inspirational story. Scroll down for the Book Tour Schedule or check it out on The Big Tiny Book Page. She’s also doing a veritable radio blitz tomorrow – and…Read more
This post is by Billy Ulmer, author of the Life in a Tiny House ebook. With 10 years in her 84 square foot house on wheels, Dee is often called a pioneer of the tiny house movement. I think it’s brave enough just to be an early adopter of a new idea, but Dee was one of…Read more
How do you start building a tiny house? Ideally, by building a few other things first. Continuing our series of excerpts from her new memoir, The Big Tiny, Dee Williams shares some of her own tiny house building process: “A few days ago, I spent almost an hour trying to recondition an oscillating fan that I…Read more
Dee Williams has inspired tiny house builders across the world, but where did her own inspiration come from? Find out below, in the first of a series of excerpts we’re sharing from her forthcoming memoir, The Big Tiny, due out April 22! In this excerpt, Dee explains her first exposure to tiny homes: in a…Read more
The tiny house movement has an impressive online presence, and some great websites for people to see houses, share ideas, and connect to others in different states. But the benefits of online communities are also its challenges – they’re diffused across huge distances and loaded with information that may or may not be relevant to…Read more
By Joan Grimm New Year’s is my favorite holiday, so I like to stretch it out for the whole month of January. Reflecting on the path we’ve traveled helps us learn from it. Otherwise a whole year of new experiences and change might all go by unnoticed. And 2013 was a big year in the…Read more
PAD is super excited to announce our partnership with ADX and share what ADX can offer the tiny house community. ADX is a 12,000 square foot space in Portland, Oregon packed with shop facilities, tools, and work and event spaces. Access to the facilities is based on individual memberships or attendance at one-time events hosted…Read more
Dee Williams recently showed Kirsten Dirksen from Faircompanies.com around her little house. They made a great, 13 minute video that covers everything from her water and electrical systems, to how she used her body as a measuring tape for her design, to how she found a parking spot among friends: “The cool thing about…Read more
By Dee Williams Many tiny housers are freaked out by the idea of having to deal with a city or county inspector, and they can’t fathom the courage it would take to walk into a planning office to discuss codes. So they build their little house as best they can: reading several books and…Read more
Last week we posted part one of our interview with the founders of Caravan, America’s first tiny house hotel. We knew we were excited about Caravan because they offer people the rare option to rent a tiny house by the night and see how it feels, and let people see different types of houses side…Read more
Portland Alternative Dwellings is happy to operate out of Portland for many reasons, including that it’s a place where people aren’t afraid to blaze a new trail. So we’re not surprised that Portland now hosts Caravan, America’s first tiny house hotel. Caravan includes three separate tiny houses rentable by the night, and space for two…Read more
A Tiny House PioneerDee Williams built and moved into her first tiny house on wheels in 2004. After a medical emergency led her to the age old realization that life is short, she re-assessed her priorities and decided that her friends, family and community deserved more of her time than her four bedroom house.Although she hadn’t tackled…Read more