My lovely friend Alexa is wonderful at capturing photos that are as beautiful as life really is! She helped us snag these shots (plus more I'll share soon) of the tiny house recently, and I just love each and every one of them. This is where we live, in a nutshell! 

Tiny House Spotlight

When I came across this gorgeous tiny house I knew I had to share it -- how beautiful is this?? This is The Rook by Wind River Tiny Homes - the same guys that built our home. Check out the beautiful interiors...

I love the unique desk unit, the floating stairs, custom clothes organization area and swing-out stools at the bar. They chose such gorgeous wood for everything. It's so cool to see how creative people are being with tiny homes these days! Sounds like the owner had a big hand in designing the house as well - I'm curious to see how it looks when it's furnished. 

Have you seen any gorgeous tiny homes lately? I'd love to see!

(all photos found at windrivertinyhomes.com)

Can you manage a tiny baby in a tiny home?

One of the first things people asked us about when they found out we were expecting was how on earth we planned on making it work with a baby in our teeny tiny home. We had a lot of little jokes on hand that we used with people like "well we hear they're pretty small at first!" and "we're just going to put her in a drawer!". Truth is, we clearly didn't know exactly how it would turn out! But we had confidence that we could make it work, at least for a little while :). 

Now that it's been almost 10 weeks with our lady, I can confidently say that...we have made it work! And happily. But the unique living situation has certainly presented some challenges as well - some expected, some unexpected. 

For any of you out there considering expanding your family in a tiny house, maybe this pro/cons list will help you wrap your head around what you'll be getting into...

Pros and Cons of having a Newborn in a Tiny Home

Pro - Only the right stuff

This one was big, so it has to go first. I really took time in my research to make sure that we only bought and asked for the right baby supplies. We really only have exactly what we need, and (almost) nothing more! People have been so kind and generous, and because of our space, everyone was really careful to get us only things we really needed (i.e. things on our registry, gift certificates, can't-go-wrong kinda gifts). I've heard a lot of moms report that they were gifted and handed down way more stuff than they even knew what to do with, or that they received too many cutesy gifts and not enough necessities. I love the simplicity of our nicely curated baby stuff.

CON

But still...there's stuff

The other side of this coin is that there still is going to be some stuff...and in a house that was perfectly accommodating just two people for 9 months, there was still a major change when the little one came along! Move over books and purses, come on in diapers and burp cloths... 

PRO and CON

Keeping it clean 

More than ever before, we need to make sure to put everything away at the end of each day. On a daily basis, there's a small explosion of diapers, cloths and dishes, and somehow at the end of each day we manage to wrap it up. It's sometimes unfortunate that due to space, we're forced to be extra tidy (at times you just want to let it go!), but it's of course a pro as well - it feels good to be in a well kept space. 

PRO

Everything is in reach

Hey lazy people (and exhausted mamas) out there, this one is for you! Not going to lie, I kind of love that the sink, couch, bed and changing table (etc. etc.) are within 10 feet of me at any given time. When you're a new mama with a crying baby in your hands, the last thing you need is a few extra walls between you and that diaper/pacifier/toilet/whatever it may be you're looking for. 

PRO

#itswhereyounurse

During those first few weeks especially, you really only have your favorite spots, and you don't need to venture far from those. For me it was nursing spot #1, the bed, and nursing spot #2, the couch. A few times a week I made a guest appearance at nursing spot #3, the deck chair. Most of a larger house would go vastly unused, so why have it?

CON

No laundry

This hasn't been as big of a deal as you might think, but it's not the best. Tiny homes don't often have full sized washers and dryers. We started off with a washer/dryer combo but ended up getting rid of it since it wouldn't run well on our solar energy, and we needed the extra space. Luckily we're only a stones throw from some washers and dryers that we have access to, but I will say that especially if you're minimalists (and therefore probably don't want to own a zillion swaddles and onesies etc.), you will need regular access to laundry.

PRO

The great outdoors

Ahh the burden of walls! I love love love that Rowen's life is beginning in a place where we spend so much time outdoors. Our deck area is our 2nd living space, and we spend so much time there, partially out of necessity! I wouldn't feel nearly as compelled to be outside if I was in a "norm" house, and I'm afraid my exhaustion and overwhelm would have kept me inside for much longer. 

CON

No bathtub

I don't often miss having a full sized bath tub, but in pregnancy and in the first month or two after, I really did! I read a lot about nice sitz baths to help with healing, and I would have liked those. I also did take a couple of baths with Rowen when we were at a friend's house at the beginning and loved those intimate moments with her - if we had a bathtub I know that would be a regular indulgence of ours.

PRO and CON

No nursery

When nesting mode hit me full stride in the 3rd trimester, I was a little bit sad about our lack of space and how I wouldn't have a real nursery room for the babe. But, I think this was all for the best. With a little bit of creativity I was able to make her a cute little "area" that fulfilled my nesting needs, and we spent a heck of a lot less money on the ordeal than we would have in a full size room. 

The way we figured it...children have grown up in much smaller places all over the world! At the end of the day, we feel really lucky to have this beautiful place to call home... I think Rowen likes it too :).

Tiny Living Update

This tiny-living thing is working for me.

It's been about four months since we transitioned into living in a 275-square-foot box-on-wheels. There were a lot more kinks to work out than you might think! We leveled it, then ended up moving it 15 feet over and leveling it again. We figured out how to get the best use of our solar energy, after quite a few evenings of snuggling up by camp lantern and candlelight. We realized that the solar situation we have now can't support the washer/dryer combo we'd purchased, so we moved it out and have been doing our laundry by rolling it down the hill in a wagon. It also can't really support the refrigerator when it's cloudy for 3+ days, so awhile there we lived off campus dining and pantry food. There's been a lot of tweaking and moving and fixing and organizing. Composting and gray water situating. And a lot of thingamabob purchasing (thank you Amazon Prime!).

I can't say it's been without trials but we've had so much fun piecing together this little puzzle of ours. Whether we planned to or not, we have been "nesting" since the day we found out about little figgy. It's been the perfect project to keep us focused on the present, encouraging us to put our energy into our home and ourselves. We're brought closer together each day, by the shared challenges, happy moments, and tight quarters. A productive weekend to us right now means accomplishing a tiny house project or two, and catching up fully on sleep (which makes my pregnant self incredibly happy). In this space that still feels new, we find adventure just by hiking in the nearby hills, watching hummingbirds outside our window, and sitting in our chairs outside the front door watching the deer and owls come out for the evening. We fit so well in this small space, made just for us, like a dreamed up treehouse or childhood fort. It's our teeny tiny home.

I can't wait to continue tracking our tiny home progression with figgy's growth. Found out the gender - got the tiny house wifi situated. Felt the first movements - set up our projector and screen. Maybe next week it'll be: size of a carrot - built the deck!

Thank you, tiny house, for growing with us! I'm so grateful for this season.

The house so far + a few links

We've officially been in our little house on wheels for three weeks, and I've gotta say, it took just about that long to feel settled! Who knew that such a small space would take so much tweaking and altering to feel comfortable. Well, we're just about there, and we're loving it already. It's wonderful knowing exactly where everything is (and having it pretty much within arms reach), and so far we haven't felt inhibited by the small space at all. It's cozy and cute and homey. And I've loved having a space to really make our own. I can't wait to share more with you about the tiny house journey! Enjoy the weekend, friends.


A few interesting things I've found:

I needed this...5 things to restore your faith in humanity.

Wonderful tricks of psychology to help you get along in life.

Man interviews himself 38 years later and makes it into a movie.

This looks pretty darn easy and adorable. 

I've been thinking about grabbing a pair of these for years...who loves 'em?

Great ideas for starting each day stress free. 

5 tips for a more intentional holiday season. 

Words on rethinking productivity.

How the Western diet has derailed evolution. 

Tiny House Interiors

Welcome to our home!  We haven’t had time to breathe lately let alone take lovely photos so I’m incredibly grateful that Wind River captured these great snapshots before the house left Tennessee. I love seeing it as a blank slate. In case you’re curious, right now the house is a little less blank-slate, a little more explosion-of-boxes. But we’re getting there ;).

So, our house. What do you think? So far, we couldn’t be happier with the layout and design.  Wind River did an amazing job making our dreams come true!

Floor Plan

To find our perfect layout, we did loads of research and looked at as many tiny house plans and photos as possible. A few favorites (such as this and this) stuck out to us and helped us narrow down a few priorities:

1. Open layout main room

We preferred the idea of having one big room (the term “big” being used loosely here…) that would be a joint living/eating/everything area, rather than multiple smaller areas.

2. Un-lofted bedroom

Though lofted beds are adorable and very common in tiny homes due to their space saving abilities (and for some of the smallest homes, just plain necessary), we realized quickly that we’d much prefer a more “normal” feeling bed area. Jim is 6’4” and didn’t want to be crashing his head on the ceiling, I didn’t like the idea of getting dressed in a horizontal position (or downstairs), and neither of us thought it would be fun climbing up and down a ladder that often. 

3. Access to outdoor space

One of the main reasons we think we'll be able to handle tiny house living is because we're fortunate enough to live in an area with glorious weather. We knew that to keep us from feeling cramped indoors we wanted many windows, big doors that would open to a usable outdoor space, and a wide window with a bar for us to spend time at enjoying the view.

With these priorities in mind our builders sketched out a layout for us, and after a couple of back-and-forths we had the perfect plan.

Design

Thank you Pinterest! As we all know, Pinterest is a magical way to gather photos and favorites, so we put together a board to help collect our favorite images. In some areas we were specific with our desires (i.e. I wanted white walls, dark floors and a bar in front of a wide window, Jim wanted copper pipes in the bathroom) and in some we were able to lean on the aesthetic of our builders which we trusted completely (we love the shingle detail on a small part of the exterior and the porthole type window they came up with!).  

Materials

We were hoping for natural, recycled, local, enduring. Wind River made it clear up front that they care deeply about using the best materials possible, so we trusted them completely with sourcing every piece.

On Wednesday we spent our first night in the home, and as we walked up to it I looked up at the sky and saw a huge shooting star. I think it means good luck :).