Tumbleweed Tiny House Workshop

On June 21st, I grudgingly woke up to my alarm–it was a Saturday after all–and drove down to Dedham for Tumbleweed’s Tiny House Workshop.  I was riding a growing wave of excitement and momentum related to my plans to build a tiny house thanks to conversations with a friend who had just finished building his and meetings with the Somerville Arts Council about the BIG Tiny House Festival.

I sat in the back of the room the first day, wanting the chance to observe my fellow attendees as much as the workshop itself.  As we went around the room, I paid close attention to the demographics of the group.  We were a diverse gathering, from high school students to retirees with backgrounds as varied as theater, green energy, construction, teaching, solar, and law.  But in the end, there was a common thread: most people who think about building a tiny house are coming to the beginning of a new life phase.

The most highly represented at the conference were those about to retiree (although part of that may have been the economic investment it takes to go to a two day conference).  But there were also recent graduates from high school and universities as well as parents whose children were about to leave the nest.  What this variety created was a wonderful combination of reasons for building:

1.) Simplicity – The less space you have, the less stuff you can have.  This can be quite appealing in our modern age of overabundance and overspending.  By paring down the things you own, you pay more attention and attach more meaning to what you have.

2.) Financial considerations – Tiny houses aren’t cheap when compared to traditional RVs, but they are cheap compared to the 40 – 50 year mortgages you can expect to pay for a huge family home.  An important part of coming to a new life stage is reevaluating your finances, where you spend money, where you can save it, and how much you actually need.

3.) Environmental concerns – Going tiny decreases your literal footprint, but also your environmental one.  Some people focused in on this and made it their driving force: to lessen their impact and live off the grid.  To others, it was a nice side effect.

The workshop itself focused on planning rather than building, there were no tiny houses, power tools, or stacks of wood onsite.  Instead there was a thick book of powerpoint slides with advice on everything from how to play nice with inspectors to which kind of insulation to get.  From the Nature’s Head composting toilet to Onduvilla Roofing Tile, Induction stove tops to the Wonderwash crank washing machine, we walked away not just with a general sense of what we might use, but specific products to look into and stories from people who use them.

Most importantly, though, we got to sit in a room full of over one hundred people who are also interested in this strange new way of living.  This wasn’t just a chance to network, it was a chance to find solidarity, to share stories, and to reassure ourselves that maybe we’re not so crazy after all.  Or, at the very least, we aren’t alone in our insanity.