What is bioregional building? Steven Martyn got in touch with me when he released his latest book called The Roundhouse, which is all about bioregional building. It’s essentially the idea of finding all of your building materials within a 100 mile radius of where you’re building the house and it has a lot of interesting benefits and effects. Steven, a very philosophical and wonderful guest, has a lot of interesting ideas about living on this earth and I’m happy to share them with you.

Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/241

In This Episode:

• What is bioregional building and the hundred-mile house?
• Building with creativity and fun
• Not minimalist: anti-consumerist
• How to get building experience without building your own house
• Geomancy and your constantly moving home
• Humanure compost system

This week's sponsor: Tiny House Considerations

Tiny House Considerations is an 8-week interactive course to plan your tiny house with Ethan Waldman and Lina Menard as your guides. Includes:

• Weekly Lessons and Assignments
• Weekly Live Zoom Q&A Sessions with Two Pro Instructors
• Comprehensive Templates
• An Amazing Community

Learn more and register: https://www.thetinyhouse.net/thc

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The Bushes are a tiny house couple with an extraordinary back story. Over the first two years of living tiny, they were able to pay off $125,000 in debt. In this interview, Marek and Ko will share the strategies they used to get out of debt, how they continue to live intentionally, and how their Youtube channel has changed their lives.

In This Episode:

• How easy is it to get into debt and how did the Bushes decide to gain financial freedom?
• The steps that make up the Dave Ramsey method
• Obtaining financing for the tiny house – be persistent!
• How living tiny helps the Bushes live thoughtfully
• Balancing all of the side hustles: what worked best and the importance of self-care
• Repay debt on your own time and set your own intensity level
• The progress of the YouTube channel and their favorite videos
• About the Tiny House
• Being married in the tiny house and the reservations they had about living tiny

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Kari Gale sold everything she owned, booked a one-way ticket to Spain, walked the Camino de Santiago. Upon her return, Kari built an amazing tiny house on wheels that has some features that have made it a very popular YouTube video tour on Living Big in a Tiny House. In this conversation with we talk about the special features of Kari's house, and the journey that brought her to tiny living. So, what's it like to sell everything you own? Kari shows us how her journey helped inspire her tiny house lifestyle and how we can all apply lessons from her travels to our own lives.

In This Episode:

• 6'3″ in a tiny house? How Kari designed her house to accommodate her height.​
• Kari assisted her contractor with the build
• The tiny house allows Kari to enjoy her life around people she loves
• Walking the Camino de Santiago in 2013 and the inspiration for her first book
• The relief of letting go, another walk on the Camino de Santiago, and living in Iona
• Slow down and let yourself experience everything

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Today my guest is Lloyd Kahn, and if you don’t recognize the name, you’ve probably seen one of his books. Lloyd published the seminal book, Shelters in 1973, documenting alternative housing ideas not limited to but including tiny houses, well before the current modern movement.

Lloyd has a lifelong fascination with shelter, and this conversation, we trace the steps of how an insurance broker in San Francisco built his own home and slowly transitioned to publishing internationally about Geodesic Domes, Tiny Houses, Mobile Houses, Driftwood Shelters and more. DIY building. While many thousands of the homes that Lloyd has documented over the years are small or tiny, he’s got a healthy amount of skepticism about the tiny home movement.

In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about Lloyds books, his original influences of the counter culture of the 1960’s, and how the concept of shelter has changed over the years.

In This Episode:

• How did Lloyd’s fascination with shelter begin?
• Why Lloyd’s 1973 book Shelter is the most important of his work
• Why Lloyd decided to pull his Dome Books off the shelves even though they were selling
• Why Lloyd says that Builders of the Pacific Coast is Lloyds favorite book
• Lloyd tells the story of meeting and building with Derek ‘Deek’ Diedricksen
• Why Dome homes have fallen out of favor (and Lloyd is more than okay with that!)
• How Lloyd got into publishing in the first place
• What is causing the current fascination with tiny houses?
• Lloyds advice for first-time DIY home builders
• Lloyds two favorite houses of all times
• Lloyd’s take on aging well (He’s 83!)
• Lloyds new book coming soon: The Half Acre Homestead (it sounds amazing!)

Lloyd Kahn is the former shelter editor of The Whole Earth Catalog and editor-in-chief of Shelter Publications. He has published a series of books on building including Shelter and Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter. 

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 What really happens when you commit to a minimalist lifestyle? Matt Paxton has a uniquely interesting minimalist lifestyle with his wife and 7 children. Matt uses his fantastic storytelling skills to talk about the effects of minimalism on a family, how to continue being minimalist, and the effects of minimalism on the rest of your life.

Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/240

In This Episode:

• Minimalism and parenting
• Tiny living for a large family
• When it's too difficult to part with things
• How to try minimalism before committing
• The psychology behind hoarding
• How minimalism can affect relationships

This Week's Sponsor: Tiny House Summit All Access Pass

Thank you so much to everyone who attended the 2022 Tiny House Summit! You can still catch the Summit content if you purchase the All Access Pass. You’ll get lifetime access to all 20 sessions, plus some exclusive bonus content. I’m offering $50 off of the All Access pass for podcast listeners. Go to TinyHouseSummit.co and use the coupon code THLP at checkout to get $50 off the All Access Pass. 

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I found out about this week’s guest because she released a hilarious music video about romance in the tiny house loft, inspired by her own tiny house. Annie Corbett is a musician and in this conversation, she tells me how going tiny affected her music, what makes her tiny house unique, and how five years of tiny living have been for her.

Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/239

In This Episode:

• A successful tiny living strategy
• Specialist, not minimalist
• Recording an album in a tiny house
• How to prep the tiny house for a move
• Trying on different tiny houses

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• Immerse yourself in a weekend of strategies and tips to help navigate every aspect of planning, building, and living tiny.
• Taught by 30 leading experts.
• Get 100% FREE access November 4-6, and join your fellow tiny housers worldwide!

Watch it now at: https://tinyhousesummit.co

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 Why would an entrepreneur who has raised millions of dollars through crowdfunding live in a van? Vanlife doesn’t seem common amongst the startup and tech crowd, yet Rob Rast is living this alternative lifestyle while successfully running his e-mobility business. In this interview, we cover how living in the van brings Rob closer to his work with electronic bikes and skateboards, plus how those devices can get you around in an eco-friendly way.
 
Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/237

In This Episode:

• How Rob’s business led him to the vanlife
• Using e-bikes to enhance the tiny house lifestyle
• The future of e-mobility products
• Important design considerations for mobile entrepreneurs
• Why you should NOT store your bike on the back of your van

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There are some great tiny house builders out there, but there are also some unscrupulous builders who are cutting corners and putting the tiny house dwellers that buy from them in potentially unsafe situations. Jenifer Levini goes in depth about what the codes and certifications mean, why they are important, and how you can determine whether a house was built to these standards.

Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/236.

In This Episode:

• What your contract should cover
• Why codes are important
• Don’t skip these safety features
• How to research your builder
• Red flags to watch out for

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 What is sustainability? Amanda Gunawan is an architect who is dedicated to sustainable development, inspired by Japanese culture. In this episode, Amanda tells us about her perspective on sustainability and how architects can build spaces that last through their design choices. Although she does not design tiny homes, there is a lot of crossover in ideas with the tiny house movement that we can learn from and incorporate into tiny house design.

Full show notes and images at thetinyhouse.net/235

In This Episode:

• Amanda’s design philosophy
• Wabi-sabi and sustainability
• Minimalism and designing spaces that evolve
• Designing for mental health

This week's sponsor: Tiny House Summit

The Tiny House Summit is an online, completely free event happening the weekend of November 4th. The Summit includes 30 expert speakers, many of which are some of my favorite past podcast guests. Each speaker talks to me in a 30-minute, laser-focused session to help you plan, build and live tiny. While the event is completely free over the weekend of November 4th, you do need to register in order to attend. Make sure to head over to TinyHouseSummit.co to register! 

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Support the show

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Want to say 'thank you' for the show? Buy me a coffee!