The Story of Our Tiny House

For Mardi Gras, my entire extended family went to stay with my in Pas Christian, Mississippi. They had a really charming home including the cutest of guest houses in their back yard. I remember thinking, “How amazing that they have this guest house! They get to like host friends and stuff! And it’s like they have an estate! So cool!” Or however I thought back then. I was 11.

Two very young (thirteen-year-old) versions of Jonathan and me were in the process of becoming best friends. We were both in Paul Beavers’ 8th grade social studies class, where we watched a PBS series about several families who were trying out 19th century-style homesteading for several months. One of our first long and serious conversations involved talking about wanting to homestead and build a cabin someday. It just resonated with both of us deeply as being this distinct American tradition, owning land and working it to make a simple living.

 Jonathan and me, now two years or so into our relationship, would pour over tumbleweedhouses.com and talk about getting married young and traveling the country in a tumbleweed house. Then we saw their price tag and we were like, “Nah.” (Now that we’re older and have taken this thing head on, we recognize those prices are relatively reasonable).

For our first year of marriage, we lived in a 20 meter apartment and loved it. Two stove eyes, a toaster oven, a mini-fridge sans freezer, and a bed on the floor and we were in heaven. We both were convinced that was all the space a human needed, and that’s still how we feel.

We met a fantastic French couple, Arnaud and Brigitte Dufourcq. They probably have no idea how profound an impression they made on us, but they demonstrated such radical hospitality towards us, our friends, and family, as we navigated the new strangeness of living overseas.  Jonathan and I talked about it then, how one of our life goals was to be able to welcome others the way they had welcomed us.

Miraculously, we found our home the first day we were house hunting in Nashville. When it popped up on zillow I was 100% smitten right away. We got a tour, and put an offer on it. It was months later before we closed, but we still can’t believe we found it. It is still our dream home, despite its modesty and all its imperfections.

We welcomed our first son into our family! Our small house started feeling a little smaller, and we started thinking about ways to expand while still staying on our property.

We made the crazy decision to build a tiny house! It was a much crazier, harder experience than we could have imagined, but has been so worth it. 

After 8 months of construction, countless headaches, permits, and  inspections later, our tiny house was finished. We hosted our first guests in February 2016.