The last few months have been pretty huge for me, friends. Part of that was going smaller – downsizing into my new tiny house Jolene, passing off my old house to my nephew – but there was more at work too, the messy personal stuff that happens when you love a lot of great people….Read more
While Dee Williams is downsizing from tiny to tinier, the new owner of her “Kozy Kabin” house is actually upsizing into 84 square feet. Dee’s nephew Jonathan is a recent college graduate and whitewater rafting guide who’s been comfortable living in a tent for months at a time during summer rafting expeditions and on a…Read more
By Dee Williams In February I asked myself the question, “Will I always live in my tiny house?” And the answer was a classic Dee Williams hedge: maybe. I went on to write about why I still love my house — the skylight windows that pull the moon in at night, the cedar planking that…Read more
By Dee Williams I live in an 84 square foot tiny house in my friends’ backyard. Over the last 12+ years in this arrangement, I’ve been gifted with an opportunity to help when I can and (more problematically) learn how to accept help. The latter is harder for me, but both are part and parcel…Read more
By Dee Williams A friend recently sent me an article from The Onion about a beaver who shifted his dam project from that of house and home to esoteric art project. She added a little note that said, “For some reason this made me think of you.” I read the article and not surprisingly, my…Read more
By Dee Williams Someone once wrote an article about my tiny house that described me as a “Sustainable Barbie,” which threw my friends and I into hysterics. We joked about the accessories that would be come along with a Sustainable Barbie: a pop up tiny house, a teeny, tiny roll of duct tape, and a…Read more
By Dee Williams I’ve been writing about gratitude this year, and the upcoming holiday weekend brings me full circle to several folks who have not only offered me their friendship, but have profoundly altered my course by providing inspiration and encouragement when I needed it most. On Memorial Day Weekend 11 years ago, I hosted…Read more
We’re celebrating two things today – Earth Day, and the paperback release of The Big Tiny, Dee Williams’ memoir about building her tiny house on wheels in 2004. In this new excerpt, Dee shares an example of how making thoughtful choices about your building materials can pay off in more ways than one. Having seen…Read more
By Dee Williams Years ago, a friend introduced me to 3D checkers. As a nerd, I loved this new spin on an old game; it demanded re-thinking the old moves, and it demanded a certain rigor and creativity that I loved. Designing a tiny house is no different. Over the past several years, I’ve had…Read more
By Dee Williams I’ve been dreaming about a possible downsize for a while… and especially since I busted my butt falling out of my loft a few years ago. Limping around for six months with my sacrum slowly knitting itself back together, I started wondering what it would be like to live in a smaller…Read more
By Dee Williams I’m home in Olympia now, back from my six week book tour for The Big Tiny. I was absolutely wowed by the whole experience, and I want to share short vignettes of some of my most memorable tour stops over the next couple weeks. The tour took me through so many amazing…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
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