How many design decisions can you spot in this photo? – Photo by Tammy Strobel

Recently at a restaurant, my partner Tammy had a difficult time deciding what she wanted to order from the menu. Her difficulty in making a choice reminded me of all of the choices that went into building and designing the tiny house. As renters, Tammy and I had always chosen the part of town we wanted to live in and let our feelings help us decide which apartment felt right. Once in the rented apartment we accepted the building as it was. We added creature comforts to fit our aesthetics and our preferences but we never had to consider detail of the infrastructure.

When designing the tiny house we were overwhelmed with choices that we had never considered before. What we focused on seemed to expand, and soon we had to ask:

• Where do we place electrical outlets and light switches?
• What fuel do we use for heating, and cooking?
• What type, style, and material do we want for our flooring, counters, door handles, and light fixtures?

Tammy quickly abandoned me. It was hard enough for her to decide what she wanted to eat in a restaurant much less deciding what furnishings would be permanently installed in our tiny home; and so it became my job to narrow down the options.

I enjoyed the challenge of design, but with the thousands of decisions that lay before me, I knew I needed help to strategize. I needed to decide how I would decide. “The Paradox of Choice” by Barry Schwartz was a great intro to this topic and helped me understand Tammy’s decision paralysis. Jonah Lehrer’s book “How we decide” gave some me some fantastic insight and tools to use in making my decisions on tiny house furnishings. Both books cite research that finds:

• The logical portion of our brain can quickly become overwhelmed once the variables (choices) exceed about seven.
• We should encourage reliance on instinctual emotions for decision making (this mechanism can handle millions of variables)
• It’s important to understand decision weaknesses. These emotional blind spots include things like loss aversion and normative social influence.

To simplify my choices I tried to listen to my instincts and look for examples while keeping in mind my logical needs and budget. Each area of the house had different needs so I tried to consider each area as a separate project instead of, for example, trying to find a lighting type that would be a compromise fit for everything. Also, I tried to relax a bit since perfect is the enemy of good. As humans, we adapt quickly to our surroundings and soon rarely notice the details of our routine environment. Further, nothing is permanent. If I really hated something or wanted to improve it, I could save some money and replace it the future.

I no longer take home furnishing details for granted. Next time you are in your home, a public building, or staring at tiny house examples, try to notice a few details. For instance, maybe consider which door handles were chosen and why. After going through the process of choosing tools and materials for the tiny house I can now appreciate the small details I find in other homes. I now pay attention to how things work and try to imagine the designer’s rationale. It’s a fun challenge, but Tammy still thinks I’m crazy.

Last spring my 7 year old Macbook Pro was increasingly showing signs of age. The hard drive was failing, the processor was struggling to manage new software updates, and things kept breaking. I’d done my best to keep my favorite tool running. I overhauled the computer when it needed repairs using the wonderful sites Powerbookmedic.com and Ifixt.com for tools, parts, and instructional guides. I upgraded the RAM and the hard drive but this only delayed the inevitable. It was time to let this faithful companion go. I adopted my partner’s 6 year old Macbook (after she upgraded) and I kept this hardware alive with a similar strategy. Unfortunately this computer was also near its end and this Fall I decided it was time to upgrade. I don’t take upgrading lightly, but I had run out of options and I needed a new computing tool.

A lot had changed since my last upgrade. Last time, I replaced my Dell desktop PC with a smaller and lighter Apple laptop for portability. This time, even smaller and lighter touch screen “tablets” are being to dominate the market. Hardware specifications are great to reference but with so many choices it really came down to what I needed. My computer had taken on a new roles as a work tool, a communication tool, and an entertainment device. As such I needed multiple ways to interact with the device. Of course I could have purchased several devices to fill these needs, but as a simple living advocate, I value multipurpose tools that can do many things well. I really loved the simplicity of the touch screen interface but most of these tablet-computers were designed for entertainment and lacked the computing power and file management required for professional work. Based on this desire to have both of these features I decided to purchase a Microsoft Surface Pro.

Switching from a Mac back to a PC, much to the ire of friends. ;)

The Surface Pro is a bit of a new medium being a hybrid between a tablet and an ultrabook laptop. For reference, the hardware specifications on the Surface Pro are nearly identical to Apple’s MacBook Air. I won’t list “specs” here, instead I find it more interesting to hear how someone feels while using it. A lot of the Surface Pro reviews have been lackluster mainly because, as a reviewer at the Guardian artfully put it, “…powerful, but too forward thinking.”  As folks have been using this new medium, and as the young software infrastructure improves, there seems to be a change in sentiment. Below is one of my favorite reviews describing this shift in perspective:

The windows 8.1 interface is a new one and it takes a bit of getting used to…but like this fellow, I find myself loving it more and more as I learn to use it. I really dig touch gestures and all of the ways I can interact with the device. I can touch, type, mouse-click, and use a stylus.

I wanted a tablet experience for my new computer after having so much fun with iPads and my iPhone. I loved the intuitive interaction of using my fingers and reading digital magazines on a tablet. However, I realized I still needed a computer because the iPad doesn’t have a mouse. Not having a mouse doesn’t seem like a big deal until you need to accomplish fine/precise tasks like editing text documents, and correcting errors on website forms. Keyboard arrows can only go so far in this area. Also the iPad is a bit limited when it comes to organizing files and computer processing power (editing videos or running apps/programs simultaneously). The Surface Pro handles both of these concerns very well and I love the split screen feature where I can view two or three programs at once.

The Microsoft doesn’t have a huge app store yet, however it is growing as a young platform, and it makes up for it with access to legacy windows programs. Anything that can run on a full windows desktop can also be run on this device. Also, since I already have an iPhone, I have access to many of the fun and creative apps that I would normally feel iPad jealousy over.

The new version of this computer (the Surface Pro 2) has addressed the main concerns of limited battery life, limited storage, and kickstand angle. It is indeed a bit heavy to hold in one hand at 2 lbs but I compensate for this by using a workstation stand I built and by cradling it with my legs and knees up when sitting. I find it amazing that just a 1/2 pound difference between the iPad and Surface Pro can make this big of a difference in hand fatigue. It is important to note however that in that 1/2 pound difference, this computer has the power of a full laptop and so it is a bit unfair to compare it to an iPad except to reference a relative “tablet feel.”

Although I love the genius idea of the magnetic keyboard “type-cover” I have held off mainly because of the price. Also, I’d love it if this keyboard had Bluetooth so that it could be detached and used wirelessly with my workstation stand. Microsoft does have a fun minimalist accessory for this problem right now. But, like I said before, it is pricey, especially when I purchased a Logitech wireless keyboard with touch pad mouse for only $29 or about 15% of the price of the Microsoft accessories above combined to accomplish the same task. I tend to not use laptops on my lap because of the bad ergonomics so a disconnected keyboard wasn’t a sacrifice for me.

The biggest perk that makes this tablet/computer stand out to me is number of ways I can interact with it. I find myself seamlessly alternating between touch-gestures, typing, and using the mouse without consciously realizing the transition. If you are curious to see these interactions I recorded a 5 minute screen-cast demonstration of the Surface Pro that you can view.

It seems funny as I write this but the stylus is another natural feature that I didn’t know I was missing until I had it. The stylus makes it easy to hand write notes in meetings, edit documents, and my biggest favorite: signing documents. One hassle I had in the past was trying to sign documents from an emailed file. In the past I would have to print out the form, sign it with an ink pen, scan it, transfer the scanned file back to my computer, and finally email it back to the sender. I tried signing with my mouse on a PC or using my finger with an iPad but it always came out looking like I was a kindergarten student first learning how to write. Now I can simply open the document, precisely sign it with my “pressure sensitive” stylus, and send it back instantly. Yes, Macs have a similar feature in the Preview app of scanning an image of a signature but it’s buried under several menus. The stylus makes it easy and it has opened up my imagination as to what else I could use my computer for like drawing.

I’ve been using my Surface Pro for about 4 months now and I love it. I highly recommend this computer to anyone looking to invest in a new computer. This new tool fit wells with the constraints of the tiny house and I find it replacing even more tasks than I had intended. Let me know if you have questions and I’d be happy to answer them.

As a relatively tall human (6’1’’) I’ve struggled with using tools designed for others of average height. One primary example was the ergonomics of my computer workstation. Computers have gotten smaller and more portable over time which has been wonderful for adapting the computers to tiny living spaces, but hunching over a laptop all day was a pain in the neck. I tried all sorts of marketed solutions, yet, these solutions were designed for smaller humans and never quite fit me. I loved the laptop size and portability for our tiny house but the problem was always that the keyboard and the monitor screen were connected so that either my hands or my neck were uncomfortable. My hands needed to be low and my screen needed to be high to meet my gaze.

Recently, I retired my seven year-old MacBook Pro computer. As such, I decided I had a new opportunity to address my old keyboard/screen problem. I purchased a new Microsoft Surface Pro computer which is a tablet, touch-screen, laptop hybrid where the keyboard is removable. I loved the concept of this new multipurpose computer but I hated the idea of hunching over an even smaller device at my desk or in my lap. Even if I had a separate wireless keyboard at my hands I needed a way to put my screen up high.

“Necessity is the mother of invention.” – Richard Franck

To solve this surprisingly complex problem of a pain-free, tiny house workstation, I had to distil my most basic needs and wants. This computer workstation had to be:

• Adjustable
• Stable, durable, and inexpensive
• Modular, storable, and easy to use

Most of the ergonomic products on the market were expensive, business oriented, and had to be permanently mounted for stability. My partner, Tammy, solved this problem elegantly by using the bookcase in the tiny house as a standing workstation. Unfortunately, the bookshelves are not at the correct height for me. Even if we had made our book shelves adjustable for my height, I like to alternate between a sitting and standing workstation. Also, I use my computer for more than work. If I wanted to read a recipe from my computer while I was cooking in the kitchen, or watching a movie in bed, I wanted to be able to do so hands free. I realized I needed a mobile stand with a mount for the tablet computer.

Since part of the tiny house DIY ethos is to simplify, it didn’t make sense for me to engineer this tool from scratch. I decided to search for a motley hodgepodge of items that I could assemble together. The result of my inventing process was:

• A wireless keyboard/mouse
• A metal chemistry ring-stand
• And a plastic tablet mount for car headrests (designed for child use in the back seat)

For approximately $75, I now I have a stable, pain-free, workstation that can move around the tiny house. This little workstation adjusts to my height (standing, sitting, or laying down), and can easily be disassembled for storage. Living deliberately with a DIY ethos has helped me assemble my life to meet my physical and emotional needs. I believe all humans are capable of clever ideas. It’s the implementation of those ideas and inventing them into reality that is the challenging part. With a little practice using the Tiny House DIY ethos you too can tailor your life and reduce the discomfort of having to use tools made for the status quo.

In an age of experts and specialization most of us surrender to the complexity of a new problem and pay to have a professional repair the issue for us. However, there is something about living small and striving for simplicity that has changed my perspective and given me a sense of empowerment. Experts call this improved “self-efficacy”, which means, you have greater confidence in your ability to understand problems. When I run into a problem now I try simplify it and make it easier to understand the parts that make up the whole. Recently I have noticed that many tiny house dwellers share a similar do-it-yourself (DIY) ethos. Some people go so far as to build their own homes without any construction experience. In this article I want to share a recent DIY success I had and describe the limits I see to the DIY ethos.

I will be the first to admit that I use complex technology that I don’t fully understand daily. I do prefer tools that I understand for obvious reasons, if it breaks I can fix it. Recently, I had a tragedy occur to one of my favorite tools. I broke the glass touch-screen of my iPhone. After getting over my feelings of clumsy ineptitude I realized I could learn how to repair my phone. After all, the glass is only one part and parts can be replaced so how difficult could it be?

Even only twenty years ago it would have been difficult to accomplish a similar task because of the lack of information. What tools are needed for repair? Where do you order these tools and parts for the repair? How do you perform the repair? Experts were experts because they had more information than others on a topic. With the advent of the internet information age, combined with the altruistic nature of other people documenting their knowledge in blog posts and YouTube videos, anyone can address their ignorance. With the help of DIY websites called ifixit.com and powerbookmedic.com I was able to order used parts and tools and learn how to fix my own device. Further, I used my new skill and tools to repair my teenage cousin’s phone and teach her what I learned.

The success of my DIY project was fun to share with my cousin, however, it begs one big caveat: What are the limits to DIY projects? When learning a new skill I try to imagine the risks of a mistake. If I damage my iPhone during the repair, I can correct it with minimal consequence. However, if I repair the brakes on my car and the repair fails, it may be fatal. You can certainly learn how to perform complex tasks with greater risk, but I would advise getting an experienced teacher to help check your work and lower your risk of harm.

My simple and smaller living philosophy doesn’t mean I have to grow every bit of food or repair every tool that breaks. It means I enjoy living deliberately. By becoming smarter about my ignorance I can help others and obtain more meaning from my contributions to my community. In this way I can worry less about my personal value being tied to my financial spending power. I believe my greatest contribution to society is not the money that I spend but how I spend my time.

I wanted to give everyone an update regarding two fun tiny house projects I’ve seen recently.

Small is Beautiful is a tiny house film documentary that is conducting a fundraising campaign. Check out the trailer below and be sure to visit the YouTube Channel for more film vignettes of tiny housers.

Small is Beautiful – A Tiny House Film – Pozible from Jeremy Beasley on Vimeo.

Also, our friend Andrew Odom at Tiny Revolution is launching another ebook called “How to decorate your tiny house.” I’ve read through this book and there are some fun ideas of how to incorporate style and functionality into tiny spaces. Just reading the ebook is enough to inspire all sorts of creative multipurpose solutions. You can find out more about the ebook by clicking the image to the left.

The joy of living in a tiny house has given me the freedom to experiment with voluntary simplicity. Ironically, voluntary simplicity isn’t as simple as it sounds. The challenge of reducing possessions and becoming more aware of how your everyday choices align with your values is fun, but it’s also a lot of work.

My partner and I first discovered the idea of voluntary simplicity by watching a YouTube video featuring Dee Williams and her tiny house, in January 2008. We instantly fell in love with Dee as a person and it was more than her cute house and tiny square footage that inspired us. Dee’s philosophy on life seemed to challenge common traditions and technology in a way that made us more aware of our consumption and what we took for granted.

One great example of this was Dee’s choice to live without a refrigerator. This idea seemed mad yet engaging at the same time. How could anyone live without an appliance that was more common than a television?  However, when we looked in our refrigerator we found only alcohol, condiments of uncertain freshness, and milk for coffee. Did we really require a refrigerator for these things?

In addition, we always seemed to be frustrated with our refrigerator. These refrigeration frustrations included:

• Too much noise for quiet loving writers
• Too much cost for holding forgotten food ($10/month in electricity)
• Too much mess with accumulated weird odors and mystery stains shortly after cleaning

Before designing our tiny house we wanted to be sure we could live safely without a refrigerator, like Dee, so we unplugged our giant appliance and practiced in our apartment in Portland, Oregon. Since we lived in a city, we could outsource our refrigeration to grocers and pick up fresh food several times per week. During this period we realized that most of our diet did not require refrigeration. Living without a refrigerator also reminded us to not waste food.

After we moved to California, however, the new climate extremes made living without a refrigerator difficult. In Portland, Oregon the temperatures were rarely extreme. We used an ice box during warm summer days and the rest of the year we stored our perishable foods in the cooler outdoor temperatures. During our time in Northern California the winter temps were commonly freezing and the summer temps were greater than 90 degrees F. Further, living in a rural area in California, with trips to the grocer less frequent, we had greater need of refrigeration. We resisted adapting to our new climate for a while but recently realized that our life quality would be greatly improved with a refrigerator.

I did some research and purchased a small Danby refrigerator that would fit into our cupboard. The Danby has been wonderful. It is quiet, energy efficient, and it seems to be just the right size for holding cold beer, some milk, a few leftovers, and perishable summer vegetables. The joy of this experiment has been that I take fewer luxuries for granted and I have greater gratitude for simple pleasures. Now when I drink a cold beer on a hot summer day, I savor the experience and feel happier for what I have in my life.

The 12×12 project under contruction at the Queens Botanical Garden in NYC – Image from the12x12project.tumblr.com

Head’s up North East readers! A group of artists and organizations is joining with the World Policy Institute and author William Powers to bring the 12 x 12 project to life at the Queens Botanical Garden in New York City. If you are nearby, RSVP for an admission ticket and to get more info on this wonderful‪ tiny house built in the middle of New York City!

Cover of William Power’s book – image from New World Library Publishing.

About the project from the World Policy Institute website above: “The installation is a simple, modular space that houses panels containing text and questions from the Twelve by Twelve book. These panels will vary, allowing the project to grow and evolve. Participants including the public, invited groups, and artists will engage with the question: “What’s your 12×12?” to spark new thinking around what smart consumption means for each person.”

The history of the project is further described on the World Policy Institute side as stemming from “…author and WPI Senior Fellow, William Powers, who was inspired by the powerful story of a North Carolina pediatrician who gave up a luxurious home to live off the grid in a 12′ x 12′ house and permaculture farm. Powers, who spent a season living in the tiny house, chronicled his stay in the 2010 award-winning, national “green living” bestseller, now in its fifth printing: Twelve by Twelve: A One Room Cabin, Off the Grid & Beyond the American Dream.”

Tiny houses are a beautiful symbol of home. Whether home to you means a simple place of peace or the planet Earth as a whole, I think this project offers a wonderful philosophical perspective to consider.

Cheers, Logan.

Elaina the cool cat blocks my workstation relief

During the summer months in Portland, Oregon, air-conditioning was unnecessary. The temperature was typically around 80 degrees Fahrenheit (F) and rarely felt hot. The wool insulation in the tiny house combined with a fan to suck in the cool evening air was all that was required to stay within a tolerable temperature. However, now that the tiny house has moved south to the Central California Valley, the summer heat has been intense. We moved to Red Bluff, CA during the first week of May and quickly experienced high temps above 95 degrees F. In early June, one day exceeded 113 degrees F.

I quickly realized after a few days in our new climate that we needed to adapt. Our tiny house has a wonderful feeling of space with 10 windows, however, a sunny day can rapidly turn this benefit into a green-house effect. Further exacerbating the problem was the tiny house parking spot. In Red Bluff, CA the tiny house is parked directly in the sun and on a black asphalt driveway. To cool the house, I started drawing the window shades after mid morning to reflect sunlight. Also, to reduce solar gain in the loft, I mounted a nylon sun fabric to the outside of our skylight. Although, blocking sunlight and using a fan to circulate the air reduced the interior temp about 10 degrees F, this wasn’t quite enough to get the house down to a comfortable temp.

Exterior view of AC

To meet our immediate need and to save the cats from another day of misery, I purchased a small window air-conditioner with good reviews. The model I purchased was a 5,000 BTU, 500 Watt, Frigidaire unit. Thankfully, this air-conditioner was inexpensive ($118) and easy to install with the provided insulating foam and a few added “L” brackets. The opening for my tiny house window is only about 18” wide but the air-conditioner with insulating foam fit easily. The unit is very stable with the “L” brackets and conserves space by protruding only about 5 inches beyond the exterior siding and less than 1 inch beyond the interior wall.

Initially, I was concerned that the energy consumption with this new appliance would skyrocket. After using the unit nearly constantly for about two months I’m happy to report that our electricity cost merely doubled from about $6/month to $11/month. In comparison, the central air conditioning and attic fan in my mother-in-law’s 2,500 sq ft home costs about $300/month to run. This cost is so prohibitive that my mother-in-law keeps her central air off. We have invited her to come over to the tiny house to cool down periodically. For example, during that 113 degree F day I mentioned earlier, we all hung out in the tiny house and relished the comfortable 70 degree F interior temp.

In summary, after six seasons in the tiny house spanning three distinct climates, I’ve learned how to adapt. Below are a few tips I’ve learned that can help keep a tiny house cool in the summer heat:

• Trees are wonderful for blocking the sun and reducing the wind, so incorporate them into your parking space planning.
• If possible, park on grass surfaces during the summer. Black asphalt surfaces can dramatically increase the heat.
• Sun screen fabric is a great addition to the house and has the added benefit of greater privacy.
• Tiny houses are easy to efficiently heat and cool so don’t worry about the added $5-10/month additional cost in maintaining a comfortable temperature.

Dang, our power billed doubled to $11! ;)