I want to be sure that you all don’t miss the story that I wrote for Tiny House Listings regarding the ecological tiny house building program in Peterborough.
Too, they have in the last couple of days announced a number of the new programs for 2015.
We are so very fortunate to have such a great program in Ontario! I hope a few of you will be there this year. Let me now what you think.
Photo: Courtesy of Chris Magwood
I am on a role, let me warn you. A little something that you don’t know about me, until now perhaps… that I am a private ranter. My friends, I think, can attest to this. There are so many things that bug me. They are: laziness, people who make the same mistakes over and over again without learning, rude behaviour, thieves, apathy, cruelty to animals, racists, sexists and so on and so on. These are things that privately set me off.
Here though, at Tiny House Ontario, I really do try not to let this strongly opinionated part of my personality overwhelm you all. I think there are enough negative things that people hear about in their day to day lives and this is not really the place. You know, one thing that I really like about the tiny house movement is that largely it is filled with optimism and it offers light at the end of the tunnel for a lot of people. I think this is why it is so appealing to so many people.
Fortunately for me, this is what I really love to concentrate on too. If you have read my blog before then you will have a very clear idea as to what really interests me. For those of you who are just now joining me, the topics you can expect to see on my blog are: easy and inexpensive environmentally conscious projects, off grid ideas, the beauty of nature, art, music, links to history, stories of hope-change-interest, interesting people who are leaders to our movement, building codes, where to build and live in a tiny house in Canada, all things tiny house and of course Tiny House Ontario. Recently, too I have also discussed my health… which is not a topic that I enjoy writing about, but which I do in order to keep those in the know, up to date on my progress in this department.
Today, again… two days in a row… there is another issue that I have to discuss. I take on this topic at the risk of alienating people. It is not just a very sensitive subject. I want you to understand that my annoyance with this should not be mistaken for a terrible apathy about those who are really in need. Nor should people who have genuine interest and in going tiny think this applies to them, in fact I was one of those people once. What I mean to target really is the laziness of the Want-Wants – who want your money for doing nothing.
The Want-Wants in terms of the tiny house movement are a breed of people who are relatively new to this movement. They are people who have just learned about the movement and who see the light and want what we have without doing one single bit of work to get there. They simply make a page asking for funding and then post requests on every tiny house Facebook page that they are able to Google. This is the extent of the work they do.
Sometimes the pages of these Want-Wants have hard luck stories, sometimes not. Sometimes they have well written requests, sometimes not. Sometimes they are even fraudsters who post a wonderful “tiny house community” idea and try to get people to join for a fee… BUT… Those who actually do know about bylaws, zoning and building codes, and struggle to get tiny houses legitimized, know that this is something that they will never have researched and will never be able to be seen to fruition because they don’t have the money or connections that it takes to lobby for change. No matter, the shape that these people take, they have one thing in common. They all want-want-want-want you, to give them your money.
I feel now is a good time to qualify, that I DO NOT include legitimate tiny house funding proposals as Want-Wants. Lots of requests for funding are great and I while I don’t have a lot of money (not even enough to complete my own house), I have donated to many of these fund raisers myself. As a matter of fact, there is a small one called The Hovel (on my Facebook page) that I just donated to. Other great and legitimate funding requests that I remember off the top of my head, came when a tiny house that was nearly built burned down. Another was a little girl who was building with her dad and he was suddenly killed in an accident. Another came from a girl named Jessica who researched for a long time, saved 5K towards her dream and was looking for and got matching funding. There are a lot of great and worthwhile tiny house funding projects and I certainly do not want to include these in my very pointed annoyance toward the Want-Wants of the world.
Who I mean to include in this are people who hear about tiny houses, want-want-want-want a tiny house and do NOT A LICK of work. No research, no planning, no clear idea of how they can live in a tiny house, no idea where they will live in the house if if becomes a reality and certainly no started project or even a 2×4 in place. Who I mean are those who simply post a request for money because they want-want-want-want what we have.
The thing is that as a relatively well known tiny houser, I get quite some number of requests about this. The Want-Wants post to my wall and write to me privately. Also my readers often ask about them including not just those who are asking for funding on sites specifically designed for this, but also about ones that are on their own website that look “legitimate”. The question is, do they really deserve your money just because they want it? So, I decided instead of replying to each of these individually, I would instead explain the Want-Wants, post this link back to them, and hope that they understand what it is, exactly that I am driving at.
Which is, to the Want-Wants: we grow tired of people who don’t do a thing for themselves, asking for hand outs.
And for those of you who are donating, please beware the Want-Wants!
Can we fund everyone who does not do a thing for themselves?
In Bavaria there lived a King named Ludwig II who was a dreamer, a patron of the arts and a builder of palaces. He reigned only shortly from 10 March 1864 – 13 June 1886 until he died. His death is considered to be a great mystery and some believe he was killed for spending all the royal coffers in just over twenty two years of rule.
That he was raised in castles and palaces and the family already owned many, many was not enough for King Ludwig. He built, many magnificent and wonderful castles and palaces during his reign: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, Herrenchiemsee, A Royal Apartment at the Rezidenze Palace, and before he died he also had THREE others in the works, Falkenstein, Graswangtal, and the Chinese summer palace. I suggest that you google to see these structures, if you are not familiar with them. I have been fortunate enough to tour many of them and I can assure you that no expense was spared and they are absolutely beautiful monuments. Today they are tourist destinations that will remain for centuries.
Ludwig also built a tiny house called Konigshaus am Schachen and this palace is the most little known of all the structures that he built. Ludwig’s “tiny house” is only 2300m square. About a half acre spread out on different levels. Just three times the size of an every day North American McMansion. When compared to his other palaces, this palace would certainly be tiny. But, you know, I don’t think this is tiny. Do you think it is?
Then, why (you may be asking yourself) am I sharing this house and this story with my tiny house readers?
Well, now for the rant.
We live in a society where most people suffer with what my husband and I refer to as King Ludwig Syndrome. The idea that people can have their cake and eat it too. The idea that you can say something and just because you said it means that others must believe it. That in your own little Kingdom that when the emperor gets new clothes that we, who so happen to live in your Kingdom too, should all somehow pretend that we all see fine clothes and not a birthday suit.
Frankly the idea that anyone, including King Ludwig, can build a GIANT HOME, a moderate home or even a small home, and call it tiny is preposterous. That you can call your house tiny, just because it is smaller than your other or former house is, simply, not correct.
I am tackling this subject because recently I have noticed on many, many tiny house threads that people want to call their 1200 square foot, 900, square foot, 700 square foot, 500 square foot homes (or not yet built homes) a tiny house. Simply put, they are not. They are moderate and they are small and they are hopefully perfectly right sized for you and your family… but again, this does not make them tiny.
The generally agreed on numbers and terminology are as follows. A tiny house is a house that is UNDER 400 square feet. A small house is under 800 square feet and a moderate home is under 1200 square feet. Simple.
Now for the tough part. These sizes do not mean anything more than being a descriptive term with a certain figure attached. Clearly to a family of four a house that is 500 square feet will not feel like a big house. Fact: that house will feel very tiny, but technically it is still a small house and not a tiny one. You see the house size description is not intended to encompass your family, it is just a descriptive term for the house.
With all that said, tiny housers are NOT trying to say that everyone needs to live in a house that is less than 400 square feet. It is a movement that suggests that people need to right size their home. That is all. Don’t pay for, or use more than you need.
I have said this before, but I feel the need to reiterate today. It is not a competition to see who can live with the least. Clearly homeless people win this. The Tiny House movement is about living with the least amount that you can, and still be comfortable. We tiny housers are NOT suggesting that every family needs only 100 square feet. We are simply suggesting that if you live with less space that the quality of your life will improve.
I think that by anyone’s standards, I can say and we will all agree that King Ludwig’s threshold for the minimum was set unreasonably high. Tiny is not for everyone, but you know what? Right sized is!
Please don’t be a King Ludwig or to make us believe that you are wearing a fine suit while you are standing in your underwear.
Not tiny
Jay Austin’s Illegal Tiny House is, a new 10 minute video which is very much worth the watch.
I am sure you will all agree.
My great Grandmother’s kitchen
I have been working on my family tree and going through old albums. I came across this photo of my great grandmother “Ma” in her kitchen. This is a room she spent a lot of time in.
The reason that I am sharing the photo is because I wanted to show the readers what a real kitchen of a real person looked like in 1958. This is the kitchen were she canned all the food that she, her husband and their ELEVEN children would need. As a matter of fact, she has so many children that her own children has some children of their own before her last little ones were born. Some, like my grandmother, moved her family in with Ma’s.
Every single thing that they ate came from their farm and the garden. Every vegetable that they would eat in the winter was prepared right there in that kitchen. She had to can everything that would not keep. Green beans, beets, tomatoes, asparagus, leeks, cucumbers, peaches, pears, apples, plums… everything from veg to preserves was all canned.
I am not sure if you see what I am driving at? Did you notice in the photo that there was not a little bit of counter top in that kitchen? No storage either? The food was kept in the cellar and that little shelf above the stove was for every day dishes and cutlery. It was also for keeping things warm, for those who were late. All food prep and eating were done on the same table, covered in oil cloth, all the cooking was done there on the stove unless in the middle of summer when the stove was moved out into the back kitchen. All the food prep would have to be put away and everything wiped before the table could be set and people could eat. It was not unusual for there to be 30 people eating in this kitchen.
I will think about this photo the next time I start thinking the 6 feet of counter at THO is small. Clearly this tiny houser has things pretty good.
I don’t mean to glorify those days. I know that times were hard and that there was so much work to be done. Poor Ma never stopped working! Her hands were like leather on bones. Truthfully, I think Ma must have been pretty happy by the time 1958 came around and they were sufficiently recovered from the great depression that times were easier and she could buy a jar of pickles instead of making everything.
The question is, do you think you could go without cupboards and countertops in your house?
Tiny House Ontario 