Tiny Houses

In America, homes are big. Not just in overall size, but also in layout. They are open-plan, with room to move furniture around and arrange in different ways. I currently live in a lovely apartment like that. My son can get up a reasonable speed on his scooter between the sitting room and my bedroom.

In Ireland, houses are much smaller, and the spaces inside are also smaller because they cost a lot to heat. So there are lots of doors leading into chilly hallways. And snug rooms with furniture clustered around the fireplace or big solid-fuel Aga cooker.

And while I love the space in American homes, I also miss the snugness of Irish homes. My last apartment in Ireland was a bedsit, short for bed-sitting room. We'd call it an efficiency here. I had a small living space with a tiny kitchen and even smaller bathroom. And I loved it. I liked watching TV from bed because that was the only piece of furniture in front of the TV. I loved my single armchair in the bay window and reading there and looking out the window over the city. I loved not having too much kitchen to clean. I was less keen on having to be careful in the shower not to knock stuff over. But there were few drawbacks to the space, which was so personal.

So I just adore Tumbleweed Tiny Houses. I think my favorite is the Weebee. Not only are they elegant and beautifully designed, but they are relatively cheap to build, easy to heat, and you can even put them on wheels and bring them with you.

This summer, Jay Shafer is doing workshops in major cities around the country, showing people how to design and build their own tiny houses. I'm going to the DC one. When I do buy my own home I will have room in the yard to park a tiny house. And visitors will be welcome. And in 10 years when the teenage music gets too loud in my house, perhaps I too will escape to the sanctuary of my tiny house under the tree.