As a social science nerd, it's no big surprise that I find dwellings fascinating. People's relationships with each other, the environment around them and themselves are all shaped to some extent by their houses and vice versa.

I love visiting other people's houses to see how they live, and I would get a serious attack of the yearns as a kid driving by clapped out old farming houses and sheds no longer in use. Wanting to explore. Find hidden treasures, old bottles, relics and objects which, in their state of un-use had lost their meaning.

I love houses on wheels, and houses in tents, and houses built to survive an Antarctic winter.

I love discovering new spaces so much I've lived in seven different houses in the last ten years of living in Brisbane, not counting the flat that was my home during six months spent in Amsterdam. 

But the dwellings I like most - and I have to pause here to acknowledge the very real element of trendiness that goes with them (thanks Portlandia)- are tiny houses.

via GIPHY



I've had a folder of bookmarks named 'tiny houses' that has survived the death of three laptops. Tiny houses appeal to my hope that I have a hidden talent at building things (but without being overwhelmingly huge). And if that wasn't enough to get me addicted, I think the smallness of a house, as long as it is surrounded by enough outdoor living space, invites the inhabitant to live outside more often. And I'm Australian, I like living outside. 

It's a bit of a dream of mine to buy a small block of land with nothing on it, take a bunch of books and camping gear and just hang out there and try to build one of the tiny house projects that you can find templates for all over the web (even if it's not particularly feasible it is a great motivator to save money!). 

So I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite tiny house resources and blogs so you can have your own daydream about a tiny house on a tiny block too! Most of them are made on trailer or campervan bases because why not use something already existing? and also it gets around zoning laws.

One of the fun ones I really enjoy is by a super handy dude called Square Inch. His YouTube channel has twelve videos on how he made his tiny house, with some very intricate details like how to fix your windows so water doesn't get in. One of my friends used to watch make-up tutorials to relax after a hard day knocking out her PhD. I watch tiny house how-tos. I like to think it's less weird than watching Grand Designs because I'm totally learning about the minutiae of how houses are constructed, which I'm certain will at some point in my life be useful (if I could afford the tools and workshop carpentry would be at the top of my list of hobbies), and I also have some hope of owning one within my lifetime and without selling all of my organs and blood or becoming a high priest of bitcoin or something.




Moving on...

I love the website Instructables. It seems like a respository of human wisdom and ingenuity. There are instructions for just about anything you could think of there (and many things you couldn't). And there is, of course a Tiny, tiny house instructables tutorial (one tiny wasn't enough it seems). 

The Tiny Life has a super comprehensive checklist and strategic planner on their website for those seriously thinking about tiny houses, as well as heaps of e-books for every step of the way, and tiny house topics, such as Top 5 Biggest Barriers to the Tiny House Movement, and the Fallacy of a Cheap Tiny House.

They are cheaper than house-houses though! Which, basically is the point isn't it? Less resources, less wasted space, less money. Macy built hers for $11,500 USD (close to $16,000 Australian), which is an astonishingly affordable price if you think that the average Brisbane wage is around $52,000 (according to 2010-2011ABS data). That's between 2-3 years' rent for me!

But these are all in the ole America, you say? Well, that's okay, that's where it seems to have all started, but the tiny house buzz is making its way to Australia. Keep an eye on the Tiny Houses Australia Facebook page for updates on the Aussie movement, or read about it here on the Herald Sun.

Fred's Tiny Houses is the only Australian tiny house company I've seen so far, but I'm sure many people are trying their hands at making them - a friend's partner was having a go in his backyard for a while. Fred also runs workshops and tours around his tiny house in Victoria.
Fred's tiny house has one of my favourite Aussie design things: corrugated steel
Know of any other companies in Aus making them? Have intense feelings about tiny houses that you are shamecited about and have to tell the world? Let me know in the comments! Every time you leave a blog without commenting, a tiny house dies!