One of my wishes is to really grow the community of folks who read this blog. I mentioned in my last post I have been making changes to the blog behind the scenes, gradually. A suggestion that I received the other day from my faculty advisor and another student was to add a page called “How do I?” or something to that effect to my blog. Now this can take many routes!
I have a background as a reference librarian and a legal one at that. I miss helping people learn skills that can help them be better researchers or critical thinkers or just helping them find information that at one time may have seemed elusive.
Ideas I’ve come up including the following:
- tiny house resources
- “how do I find zoning or building codes for my area?” (goes along with the tiny house resources, already in progress!)
- find tiny house plans for free or at very little cost?
- how do I find salvaged materials with which to construct my tiny house?
- find out if a charity I want to donate to or get involved with is strategic and responsible with its resources?
- what are ways that I can reduce my ecological footprint?
- are there any ways I can learn to stretch my budget even further?
- where can I find scholarships to apply to so my debt burden isn’t so high?
I know people read my blog for various reasons, so I’d really like your input on things you would like to learn more about, etc.
I’m also going to start adding book reviews, and the first one will be on Rob Greenfield’s book, Dude Making A Difference, which I finished in two days and the only reason it took me that long was because I had to go to work! All I can say is, he is such an inspiring, positive guy and I really want to be a better human being after reading his book.
Please drop me a comment below and let me know what kinds of posts you would enjoy reading or what might be some helpful “How do I?” pages.
Thanks as always for reading!
Chasing Simple Dreams 
May I suggest two more subjects to your list?
1) Finding happiness in simple living. This will goes along with your goal of reducing carbon footprint.
“At the end of life, what really matters is not what we bought, but what we built; not what we got, but what we shared; not our competence, but our character; and not our success, but our significance. Live a life that matters. Live a life of love.”
“From Success to Significance” by Lloyd Reeb
2) Animal caring through volunteering. Another one of your excellent attributes.
Awww, you are so sweet! And I could definitely talk about volunteering with animals – I did it for three years before I turned it into a full time job at an animal sanctuary! I love that quote with your first suggestion, btw. And the suggestion is an awesome one – they both are – thank you!!
I would like to see a list of places you can buy tiny houses by state and overall cost. Tulsa is only about an hour away from where I live and they have a company there: Tulsa Custom Buildings. http://tinyhousetulsa.com/
The homes seem pricey, but I am not an expert.
I think tiny houses can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want them to be. I might even take a shed and convert it into something that is four-season, insulate it, etc. It would be great to start putting a directory like that together – thanks for the suggestion! I will see if someone has done something like that!
This is a great great idea. I did just find a website that has a directory which I will link to, but I imagine it’s hard to maintain it so I can definitely expand on it on my webpage. https://www.shoptinyhouses.com/pages/tiny-home-builder (Plus it’s being maintained by a business, whereas I won’t have the same motivation as that page might.) I’m going to also reach out to some of the bigger blogs once I get my directory going and see if they will link to it.
What can you find about communities that let people have multiple (perhaps tiny) homes on a parcel of land, with maybe a central dining area? My college friends and I often talk about living like that when we get older…there’d be people to check up on each other nearby but you’d have your own living space. Most places won’t let you have multiple dwellings on one parcel of land though. I don’t think. Actually I don’t know.
And I just bought the Dude book.
Oh I’m so glad you got that book! (I was lucky to get mine from the library. But I know New Society Publishers were running a half off sale through today so I hope you got in on that!) I would love to know what you think of it. I found myself marking so many pages so I would come back and write down some of his best quotes. He really does show that life is a matter of perspective.
I will look into that issue of multiple homes on a plot of land. My thinking is that it would be the zoning codes of each town or municipality that would determine it. I personally think having something like that, like a little compound of sorts, is awesome. I know there was one setup like that back in Wilmington, MA where I lived when I was married.
I like the idea of community while still maintaining your independence. 🙂
Hi Terri! I love the new look of the blog! I always love learning more about tiny houses. The laws here in CA are so restrictive. It would be interesting to me to know how other communities that allow tiny houses worked through the system. With the October fires devastating Sonoma and Napa counties the county has eased up on alternative dwellings for 2 years because there is a lack of available rental properties. The median price of housing is $639K and rising … insanity!
Having built big from the ground up and having lived tiny for 4 years, I encourage everyone to start small and learn the skills on a smaller scale. I like your idea of building out a shed. We have a couple shipping containers (for arborist equipment) and a shed. We got an 8′ x 20′ wood shed with comp shingled roof and three windows free from a client that no longer wanted it on his property. We did have to pay to have it legally hauled as we did not have a truck and trailer that would handle it at the time. You too may find someone wanting to get rid of a shed.
I highly recommended the podcast Radical Personal Finance … love anything discussing entrepreneurship and business and Joshua discusses both subjects intelligently and very well researched.
Darris, I love seeing your name pop up in my comments again!! You know, I never even thought of that before – that someone might want to get rid of a shed!! And I have been thirsting for new podcasts to listen to – thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely add that to my Stitcher favorites.
You know what is interesting – when you do searches to see which states are among the top ones to live in with tiny houses, California comes up, believe it or not. I’ve also heard that if you are building something from scratch, build around the windows you can find because they are so expensive to purchase. If i do end up building it myself, I will definitely want to use as many reclaimed materials as I can get my hands on.