Its always good to reflect…
April 27, 2012
Beginning a journey to live more simply…
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Built By Friends: Evan & Gabby's Tiny House 
Comments on: "Its always good to reflect…" (14)
You guys did a wonderful job building your home.
Many Blessings,
T.
I loved seeing the build from start to finish. So inspiring. Thank you for sharing!
What a wonderful little house!
Bravo!!!
Congratulations on building your Tiny House and realizing your dream. I am inspired by you and your beautiful little home! Thank you for sharing your journey! Wishing you much happiness always!
I agree with Joyce and Lori but felt need to type it out anyway – Inspirational and Thank you and Best Wishes!!!
A wonderful testament to the importance of being in relationships with a loving community. I’ve enjoyed your blog over this past year and half and will miss watching you ”build”. Good fortune in your new academic endeavors.
What a great recap on the whole project. Your blog has been so inspiring to my husband and I that we decided to create a blog about our tiny house build (www.biglaketinyhouse.wordpress.com). I especially appreciate all the research you did on products and materials! It has saved me a lot of time. If something is Gabby approved then it’s good enough for me! 🙂
Hi Erin and Pete, thanks for the kind message. It’s encouraging to know that other folks are able to use some of things things we learned along the way for projects of their own. Looks like you guys are well on your way to adding to this body of collective knowledge as well. We are excited to follow your story, thanks for taking the time to document your experience!
One of the things we appreciate most about paring down and pursuing this more simple lifestyle is that it allows us to pursue a career path that we are passionate about. Working in and for the out-of-doors has never -and perhaps will never- financially compensated very well. Our tiny house is a major step in allowing us to stay in a field we believe in. Keep at it, there are ways to stay connected to the things you love and believe in if you are tenacious, brave and open to new ways of thinking about and living a full life!
Best to you both,
Evan & Gabby
I love the video Evan & Gabby! I’m so proud of you guys and am honored to call you friends. Happy Adventures! -Tracy
Congratulations on your move in and onward.
I remain very interested in using sheep’s wool for insulating the tiny trailer house I am working on. How has it worked for you thus far? I am especially interested in your choice of using no vapour barrier and its effects or no effects.
Thanks
Kate
Hi Kate,
Thanks for getting in touch. We get this question a lot. To be honest, since we are not experienced home builders, we are not knowledgeable about the effects of not using a vapor barrier. We simply chose not to have a sheet of plastic film covering the interior of our home under the pine. While we did use plastic house-wrap on the exterior of the plywood for weather protection (to prolong the life of the plywood sheeting) we wanted to minimize plastic on the interior of our home.
So far we have not noticed any mold, mildew or other ill-effects on our interior pine. Crossing our fingers that our personal choice not to use a vapor barrier will not have a huge impact on the life of our home. Regardless, we are happy with our choice. And- SUPER happy with our choice to insulate with Natural Wool!
Thanks for your question,
Evan & Gabby
Great tour guys! Love the house and kitty!
I’m curious about the composting toilet. How has it worked for you so far? My wife and I are going to be building this coming spring and what to do with waste is a big concern.
Thanks!
Ben
Ben,
You and your wife are not alone in your concerns! Gabby and I certainly spent a lot of time thinking about this and about the realistic solutions during the dreaming/planning phase of our tiny house build.
We wanted to take this opportunity -simplifying our lives, using natural building materials, etc- to really make an effort to minimize our impacts. The thought of being able to stop putting our waste into the water waste system was very attractive to us. The thought of our poo sitting in a plastic tub in our home was not.
We (Gabby mostly, she was the one who headed up a lot of ‘our’ research efforts) spent a lot of time on the web seeking stories of people’s experience with composting toilets, and explored various types and models. We looked at the many solutions used in the nautical and RVing worlds, checked out home-made models, incinerating models (So Cool, but scary!), and commercial models.
We ended up choosing to go with the Biolet 10 Standard based on what we felt was its simple design and use.
It does come with a bit of learning curve. We read of another tiny-houser’s experience with the same model. She had to really play with the temp/fan setting to balance drying things out too much inside vs. dealing with an environment that was too moist/wet inside and battling narsty leaks. We ended up going through the exact same experience. No fun, but a learning opportunity.
We are still going through our learning curve with our composting toilet, but I’ll tell you this: It works. Really, really well. We are thrilled with it! It really is magic how well it works. We do not have any foul odors in our little home, and it is very clean.
We recommend going this route if you are willing to go the distance.
Thanks for getting in touch. Best of luck with your project!
Best,
Evan & Gabby