About ME
I am an artist, a thinker and a minimalist at heart… I love being out in the sunshine… I love animals of nearly every kind, at least the furry ones, I am trying to be a gardener… I believe people are good at the core but are also capable of very bad things when they aren’t intentional about their actions… I love my family, my passions and my life… I am just me 
My Story:
Since I was a tiny girl I always wanted to build my own place that had everything I wanted in it, nothing more nothing less. My own personal ‘fort’. In the house I grew up in there was a space on the side of the deck where my folks built a dog kennel. It was sort of tucked back and thus was a sweet little hiding spot. I used to go out and hang a hammock in the kennel and hang out with the dog all the time. It was my favorite place to be, partly I’m sure because our German Shepard spent time there too… he and I were BFF’s. The thing about it was that I could only hang out there when the weather was nice. So I started thinking that I wanted to build an enclosed fort there. I actually started saving money for it when I was around 5-6 years old. I remember pricing out plywood and knowing that it would take me a LONG time to save up enough.
I started drawing up plans hoping mom and dad would see how passionate about it I was and feel sorry for me and eventually give in and just buy it for me . The thing is I wanted it to symbolize my favorite thing at that point in my life. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t come up with a logical way to shape a plywood house into the shape of a dog… they were too tall, how would I enter without adding a really expensive elevator??
. The thing is I wanted it to symbolize my favorite thing at that point in my life. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t come up with a logical way to shape a plywood house into the shape of a dog… they were too tall, how would I enter without adding a really expensive elevator??My next best animal was a rabbit, they were much easier to imagine converting to a fort for my small noggin. So I drew up plans for a rabbit shaped structure that would sit in the dog kennel area (approximately 8x15ish feet). I drew it up a hundred different ways and I remember my dad helping and thinking it was cool… at least encouraging me… it wasn’t cool enough to buy for him, but cool still.
That plan never worked out, I had to stay a resident at my folk’s place for another 10-12 years , I was bummed!
, I was bummed!I got pretty distracted from those plans by going to school but I always stayed passionate about building and design. I ended up going to school to be an architect. I am, right now in my internship period, I recently started taking my exams to get my license and while studying I realized just how much I DON’T know. Not only in terms of what is on the exams but I don’t have a ton of ‘real world’ experience with a lot of the products and sciences I shamelessly promote. I want to build this tiny house in an effort to learn ACTUAL construction as well as to give me a baseline for understanding pros and cons for various building systems such as solar power, radiant heat, alternative sewage management etc. I want to document the construction process but also make a record of actual pros and cons of various systems as they function. In theory, I know a lot about these things, in reality I don’t. This is the main reason I am building this.
My Beliefs:
I very much believe that form follows function. Everything in a design should have a reason, a purpose. Good design can seamlessly integrate a plethora of systems and make it look natural. It can take various pieces and add them up to make a greater ‘whole’. I have no doubt there will be a lot of mistakes made from me on this house experiment but I will learn, that IS the ultimate point. In the mean time I get to not only learn about building, I get to learn about myself.
I will miss some things that I find lacking in my tiny house I’m sure (or maybe learn to appreciate them better) and I will realize some things I thought were ‘needs’ are really just wants. Either way I am going to strip my whole world back to what I consider the bare minimum for me to be happy. NOT the bare minimum for what I need to ‘exist’, there will be a lot of ‘excess’, but there are certain luxuries I don’t want to give up (like a shower with shoulder-room, a desk to work on, a chair for reading, an area to do my art work comfortably etc.), these wants will be in my tiny house. There will be a lot that some deem as ‘needs’ that will not be though, like a spare bedroom, granite counters, a septic system to name a few. I want to prove to myself and to others that it is okay to challenge your own views of what you NEED and what you WANT.
Some say that this living situation won’t work for them, they have kids, or they ‘x’ or they ‘y’. And that may very well be true. But I want people to see that this is a valid direction to head, I may be more extreme about it than necessary but there will be lots of usable aspects for everyone to at least think about. The point overall about building environments is to have as little impact as possible on our ecosystem, in my opinion. Something that is a little closer to this WILL work for everyone. The thing about design is that it is fitting of the end user, or should be. You may not be able to build your home on the bed of a trailer and haul it into the woods at the end of its daily use to be used as a cabin but you CAN build a 600 s.f. house rather than a 2,600 s.f. house… You do not have to be this ‘extreme’ about re-evaluating your life but you CAN re-evaluate some things, you may be surprised at what you come up with, I have been.
Why Now:
Right now I am in a situation of paying someone else’s mortgage (rent), I hate that. There are actually LOTS of benefits to paying rent over a taking out a mortgage, I have learned that over the years. Certainly paying rent is better than buying a house you can’t afford, at high interest rates, low downs and long terms… I would MUCH rather rent than that but, I still hate renting.
There are also benefits in renting when you can ‘test’ out certain neighborhoods and see if you would actually like to put roots down there. You get to try out various layouts and figure out what you like best… I have enjoyed doing all of those things, I hate renting though, I don’t want to rent any longer.
Another, maybe lofty goal is to be able to travel around and learn how to build earth-ships in a couple years. It would be awesome to have a home I could take with me, off the grid and learn to take things to even the next step! That is a lofty dream, and I have a bit to cover first before going there… but still a partial reason I want to build my tiny home.
Why Tiny Works for Me:
Tiny works with me because I like simple. I don’t have a ton of ‘stuff’, I don’t want a ton of ‘stuff’. I don’t have extended family or kids to shelter. I am single and don’t plan on starting a family for a few years at least. I could afford to put visitors up in a hotel with the money I saved from not paying rent. My needs are simple. A simple house will be perfect for me.
I feel weird posting pictures of my life but I will do it anyway This is me:
-
- Building my house with style ;-)
-
- Some ice cream.
-
- my new brown hair…. at work.
-
- Hawaii
-
- Dad and I, the other half of this build on New Years!
-
- I love dog. Random dog at the brew fest.
-
- My amazingly supportive cousin Sage, we are going to build out own plantation some day :)
-
- My 28th birthday, I like to pretend my boss threw me a big party but really it was just a fun party… not ‘for’ me. :)
-
- Patio time
-
- OLD work photo :)
-
- newer but still old work photo
-
- Minimotives work photo, by Christopher Smith of TINY: A Story About Living Small :)
hi there! I just found your blog google searching for my blog (clotheslinetinyhomes.com) and we are building a tiny house too – and on a gooseneck trailer! and we also have a little dog…. anyway, I’ll keep checking in on you. keep up the good work! so cool to find there are so many other people building tiny houses!
- Carrie in Prescott, AZ
Hi Carrie!
Awesome to see someone else using a goose-neck! I will definitely be following your project! Thanks for dropping a line best wishes on your project I’m looking forward to following ya! (I’m going to add you under my ‘tinyhousers’ link if you’re not cool with that please let me know
thanks for adding us to your blog Macy! it’s so fun to see other people’s projects! I’ll definitely be following your progress!
Hey Macy, I found you through tinyrevolution and just spent an hour catching up. Fantastic documentation of this project so far, I should have been taking notes. I’ve got an old 5th wheel in Texas just begging for a tiny house… thanks for the inspiration to get on that. I’m sure your project/home will turn out great, especially with your attention to detail and that awesome dad you have. Until then, we will all just have to live vicariously through you, because most of us are still in the orange, blue or green portion of our projects. Red is a definitely a good thing in this case! I would love to help you out with some additional 3D renderings if you’re at all interested, it would be my pleasure to do them for you. Just shoot me an email.
Thank you Kevin! It’s so surreal for you to write me that (and so cool!). It made me realize, just now, I AM in the red here, I am actually going… I’ve read so many tiny house project blogs front to back before starting my own and now you’re reading my blog. Crazy! Thank you for the note! I hope you can get building soon too, I’m going to check out your site and add you to my blog links as well, please let me know if you’d like to be removed.
. I’m curious, what software do you use to render?
Also some 3D rendering would be awesome
Thanks again Kevin!
Sorry it took so long to get back, looooong day and I hate commenting through my phone. That would be Plan 3D that I use for my renderings, it runs $17 for one month access or $36… I think for a year’s access. I needed something that truly represented my plans and future concepts the best way possible… and was in my budget so it’s definitely a great program. Add me away! I would be proud to be affiliated with anyone following their dream. Just shoot me an email through Cozy so I can send you some preliminary renderings. Also, let me know if anything has changed from the sketches pleeeez. Trust me, I understand how projects evolve constantly. Perhaps Tobi wants to start a family and you need more room? One truly never knows…
[...] Macy, “tiny house builders/owners” is a bit wordy) links. She has a great page about WHY living in a tiny house is so attractive to her but I think those reasons go for a number of people [...]
awesome! I wanted to build myself a tiny house too! good luck!
green with envy in Canada that you have land to build on….my dream is to build a tiny house in the city but can’t afford land….defeats the whole purpose of trying to leave within a budget when the land costs more than the house…. so right now i live vicariously through all those that are so blessed to be able to have the adventure…..May, are you looking for donations for the project? wasn’t sure what the ‘donate’ link on the side was for…. talk to you soon! Bless you!
Well thank you, I’m glad you are enjoying the blog! It is so inspiring to hear that ‘someone’ (other than dad) is interested in this stuff. It is SO cool to me
. I don’t actually have the land though, I still have no idea where I will end up parking this thing… I am a city girl so I hope to find a good situation where I can be downtown too… “If you build it they will come…” right? I am very fortunate in the mean time to have a great set of parents who I live near to… they have given me pretty much free reign to build at their place and in their shop! (huge convenience!)
As far as the donations, of course! Who isn’t looking for donations!
Actually that was put up there because of the suggestions of several friends. I have a pretty tight budget on this project and I figured I would totally donate to some of the blogs I have followed intensely if they had that option, so I threw that on there. Do I expect to get any donations? no… though it is a goal of mine to make one dollar from this blog, but that’s just a silly goal really… The real point of the blog is to be a resource and source of inspiration for other people with the same interests such as yourself! I am so glad you found my blog and that you like it! Thanks for the note!! Best wishes!
I’m probably as old as your dad and just encouraged my son to buy a mini Fiat. Trying to teach my kids about the importance of their legacy. If our City could implement a tiny village, I would be all in and I admire you and all who are doing this, it’s why i am green with envy because if I wanted to take on such and endeavor, I would have to live out of town on an acreage which would mean that i would have to buy a car when that would be the last thing i need right now (:
Sometime we are forced to weigh in the good with the bad (:
i asked about donation because i would love to help you if even in a small way to encourage others to “help our neighbours” even if at this time we ourselves cannot do what you are doing, i think to help you would be a great encouragement to others. I would love to help you if even in a small way.
I can’t wait to see what your new place will look like.
Bless you!
Ingrid-
I can’t explain to you how much you just made my day! It is SO cool that other people out there are interested in the same things I am and value the importance of the same ideals I believe in. I definitely think there is room for improvement with city codes when it comes to this sort of lifestyle, it is a major reason I got into building design as a career. I have always felt that way but through starting this project I have found an immense amount of support from people like you who propel me so much further to be that change. This will most likely not be the easiest project but I feel purposeful through this project.
You have also, single-handily caused me to achieve my financial goals with this website with your very generous donation, thank you so much!
Thank you so much for connecting with me, I wish you all the best!
And you as well. Spread your good fortune (not just financial but do something for others) and hopefully other will contribute to not just your project but others as well. This is what a community is supposed to be like. God bless you. (:
Just started following you. Found you on the clotheslinetinyhomes blog. Good work! Looking good.
Thanks Lisa! I am not nearly as quick as those two but I am glad you like what you found! Thanks for the comment
.
Marcy, I love your site. i am only in the dreaming phase myself, but love to look at all the site of those who are actually building their tiny dream homes.
I wanted to be an architect when i was in High School. life took me on other paths but I still dream of designing houses . I have several that I have been building in my head for years. I really like the idea of living small and sustainable. I am approaching the retirement years now. I long to travel and have purchased a 1967 trailer and have been working on making it a tiny home that can travel around in.
I am now thinking maybe I should aim for a bigger tiny house that I can put down some roots in as well.
Keep up the good work and don’t worry about how long it takes. It will all be worth it when you get done, rushing it would only make the journey less enjoyable.
Thank you Suzanne. That’s so nice to hear!
HI there, just found your blog and i really liked your blog and happy to follow you!! You’re pretty beautiful and “Awesome”..hugs and love!! God Bless you
Well thank you Aadi, I’m glad you enjoy it!
fantastic blog Macy, thnak you!
Thank you Chris- I’m glad you enjoy it!
Hi Macy, I am excited to see another one of use using a gooseneck. I am at the start of my plans. Currently my trailer is at my parents house in Idaho. I am over in Washington about five hours away so unless I can bring it here it will take me some time.I will be tearing down and RV and rebuilding my house.
I will be following you and looking forward to seeing it finished. Thank you for the blog and all the great information.
Hi Vanessa-
I am SO counting you as another Idaho Tiny House! We need all the help we can get!
You make the 7th I know of in this state! I have added you to my tinyhousers list, I hope you don’t mind, I’m looking forward to following along! Thanks for dropping a note, good luck with your build!
Well, I don’t have a tiny house that I am building, but I really admire those that do just that…but I got rid of a big house and moved to a small condominium, just big enough for me…no mortgage, very low utilities, and I am pretty free of stuff too!
Way to go Jane! That is the idea ultimately! What a proud feeling, right? I am glad you found my blog and left a comment, it’s nice to know who’s interested, best wishes!
Macy
ok – sadly, I don’t have time to read it all yet….but, I’ll be back. I love that you are building a tiny house! THAT IS SO COOL!!!!!!! so I will be back…I am so excited to have found your blog!
Hi Lulu! I’m glad you like it! Thanks for the comment!