Hi, we are Macy, James, Hazel, Miles, and the dog version is Denver (AKA ‘D’, Denny, Ando and more… he answers to anything really…). We met in architectural school, but didn’t know each other, we were a year apart. Macy went on to do life including building a tiny house. James went on to do life including perfecting his crafts. James was leading a work function several years later. It ended in a happy hour. Before we knew it we were caught up in conversation and life planning. Then it all started unfolding. Now it just seems to keep going!
After one years of dating (to the day) we welcomed our dog Denver into the tiny home, shortly after James moved in. Then Hazel came 9 months later. Followed shortly by Miles. Now our family is complete and we are taking on the world together in our own way.
Macy
is a stubborn advocate of anything she’s interested in. Right now includes ‘right sized’ housing, child education, animal welfare, tractors and her family.
James
is a techy savant who would never boast about his own accomplishments but he’s far ahead of his time when it comes to all things tech. He’s also a licensed architect but mostly tinkers with the online business he started – custombrandshop.com. In a word, he’s a tinkerer. A successful one!
Hazel
is a very independent and opinionated girl. She’s a smart, savvy, extroverted, confident, crafty individual and also pretty much the bravest person I know! She’s into drama, crochet, purple and orange (nearly 10! at the time of this writing)
Miles
is a comedian and a daredevil. His favorite thing is to be goofy and make people laugh and he won’t stop until he gets a giggle! I think he would like to live in the matrix because he’s harnessing his powers of using technology for good. (8 at the time of this writing)
Denver
is the dog that is ever grateful to just go along. He’s the handsome one of the bunch – a blue great dane. He’s a goof ball who just aims to please and hits the mark all the time! Favorite hobbies include sleeping, drooling and long pets at the beach. (10 at time of passing (5/10/23 :()
The House:
Macy designed the 196 s.f tiny house in 2011, and started construction before dating James in 2012 (Photos of the build process here). James didn’t run away at the idea of dating a ‘tiny house person’ and instead picked up a hammer and helped! (You can see photos of the original and renovation here) Our home is built atop of a 24′ gooseneck trailer. The back patio sits on a 5′ extension (beaver-tail). Later it was turned into our children’s’ bedroom bringing the final home to 232 s.f. It was built for just under $13,000 (including the addition, original total was $11,416). It has functioned as a testing ground for lots of ‘green technologies’ like a composting toilet and radiant heat floor. We have lived full time in the home since June 2013 until we downsized again in 2017 to another self built micro house designed for travel.
The Travel Trailer:
Our next adventure was rebuilding a 1966 Aloha Travel Trailer (you can see the whole process in photos here). What we thought it would be a simple flip ended up being a total rebuild! (Final photos here). With that came the opportunity to customize it to us perfectly. We wanted something we could live off grid indefinitely if needed so we could take a National Park tour with the kiddos – because ‘why not’!? We’ve learned that living starts now, there are a million reasons to put something off and not as many reasons to move them to ‘now’. We like to handle the important stuff now. This felt important.
13 months and 40,000 miles later we landed ourselves back in Idaho with a whole new perspective in life.
We’ve officially made it to our goal, living a whole year on the road! These are some of our favorite experiences!
We aren’t done exploring by a long shot so we’ll just keep on going. This has been one of the most transformative years of our life. We’re glad we stood in the face of our fears and took the leap anyway!
We’ve got at least a few more weeks before we get back to Boise to handle a bit of real life stuff for a while but then we are taking the show on the road to Alaska!We took a tour of the Balcony House today with the kids, they were really excited to climb the 32 foot ladder in but Miles had a total melt down at the end. I ended up having to climb up 140 vertical feet (ladders and foot holes carved into the rock face) with a totally screaming and flailing toddler. It doesn’t always go as planned, we should have been a little earlier and got tickets for an earlier tour. That close to nap time we knew a meltdown could happen, and it did. We still had fun seeing theruins up close on opening day of tours! (Yeah, again for good timing!)We hit the sweet spot with this park I guess… they had just opened everything for spring this week, but weren?t charging for anything, including camping, till next weekWe’ve officially made it to our goal, living a whole year on the road! These are some of our favorite experiences!
We aren’t done exploring by a long shot so we’ll just keep on going. This has been one of the most transformative years of our life. We’re glad we stood in the face of our fears and took the leap anyway!
We’ve got at least a few more weeks before we get back to Boise to handle a bit of real life stuff for a while but then we are taking the show on the road to Alaska!We’ve officially made it to our goal, living a whole year on the road! These are some of our favorite experiences!
We aren’t done exploring by a long shot so we’ll just keep on going. This has been one of the most transformative years of our life. We’re glad we stood in the face of our fears and took the leap anyway!
We’ve got at least a few more weeks before we get back to Boise to handle a bit of real life stuff for a while but then we are taking the show on the road to Alaska!Hazel and I can now say we’ve summited the highest dune in North America! It’s a little more impressive to say as a 4 year old… James and Miles stayed back.
It took a couple hours, I was ready to turn back about halfway. Hazel wouldn’t have it! She wanted to see what was on the other side. At a point we were both crawling but the slide down on the most versatile piece of clothing ever (rain coat) made it worth it! If you’re curious what the view was over the top it’s the forth picture.
#findyourpark #homebuiltcamper #colorado #sanddunes #homeiswhereyouparkit #kidshiking #hikingadventures #hikingkidsSaying goodbye to the Grand Canyon, pictures don?t even do it justiceWe’ve officially made it to our goal, living a whole year on the road! These are some of our favorite experiences!
We aren’t done exploring by a long shot so we’ll just keep on going. This has been one of the most transformative years of our life. We’re glad we stood in the face of our fears and took the leap anyway!
We’ve got at least a few more weeks before we get back to Boise to handle a bit of real life stuff for a while but then we are taking the show on the road to Alaska!Spring has sprung in Death Valley, we hit the timing just right I think in this National Park.
#findyourpark #homeiswhereyouparkit #diycamper #tinyhouse #epicroadtrip #rovamagazine #gogogo
Spring has sprung in Death Valley, we hit the timing just right I think in this National Park.
#findyourpark #homeiswhereyouparkit #diycamper #tinyhouse #epicroadtrip #rovamagazine #gogogoMy new goal is to make this happen once a day.We went to the Smithsonian today! Little Beastie got to go too!We’ve officially made it to our goal, living a whole year on the road! These are some of our favorite experiences!
We aren’t done exploring by a long shot so we’ll just keep on going. This has been one of the most transformative years of our life. We’re glad we stood in the face of our fears and took the leap anyway!
We’ve got at least a few more weeks before we get back to Boise to handle a bit of real life stuff for a while but then we are taking the show on the road to Alaska!We’ve officially made it to our goal, living a whole year on the road! These are some of our favorite experiences!
We aren’t done exploring by a long shot so we’ll just keep on going. This has been one of the most transformative years of our life. We’re glad we stood in the face of our fears and took the leap anyway!
We’ve got at least a few more weeks before we get back to Boise to handle a bit of real life stuff for a while but then we are taking the show on the road to Alaska!As individuals I think the sequoias we’re more impressive but as a Forrest, nothing beats the readwoods, absolutely prehistoric!This plce hs been a blastLittle explorersWe didn’t actually make it to Goblin Valley state park but we boondocking outside of it. James caught the same crud the kids have been dealing with, which we think stemmed from some eggs… Which were purchased in Colorado. There has been a recall that we found. The kids both seem to be better, hoping James feel better soon. In the mean time we opted to find a place with hookups for showers and cleaning so we went on to Capital Reef National Park.Best seat in the house (on dad’s shoulders)#BeachdogWe’ve officially made it to our goal, living a whole year on the road! These are some of our favorite experiences!
We aren’t done exploring by a long shot so we’ll just keep on going. This has been one of the most transformative years of our life. We’re glad we stood in the face of our fears and took the leap anyway!
We’ve got at least a few more weeks before we get back to Boise to handle a bit of real life stuff for a while but then we are taking the show on the road to Alaska!A couple more from our hike down with the hoodoos! The rangers at Bryce are top notch, we really liked the ranger programs here! #findyourpark #homeiswhereyouparkit #juniorranger #hoodooThe kids sure like their hiking trails! Just after taking this (which was actually just a short walk between our campsite and the visitor center) we were told a bear was spotted in the same spot earlier that morning and also there have been recent sightings if a cougar. We kept a shorter distance between the kids and us from then on 🙂Pokey, pokey! 😉
Our Newest Adventure:
We came back to a town that felt very foreign to us. After seeing the most beautiful places in the country we knew that we had outgrown the town that we grew up in and decided to find a new home base. Or maybe that town outgrew us and we wanted to get back to the basics. We found what I think was a very good deal on a property that inspired us, so we scooped it up. We’ve been living back in our tiny home tucked away on the Palouse, completely off grid since 2019.
About the site:
I started blogging my adventure simply because a goal of mine was to blog. I honestly never expected anyone but maybe my mother to read my site, and even that was a stretch. Eight years later and millions of views, I have had the unbelievable experience of being called inspirational. That stuff goes right to your head you know! So I keep blogging. Life changes. People have babies. Houses get modified. We save money. Travels happen. We buy property – debt free! We build, we learn, we grow!
And so we go!
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