Search Results for: tiny house

Living Small. How The Tiny House Movement Found Me.

By Brad Beckstrom AKA The Frug.

Sometimes it just takes a few pioneers to get a movement started. These early adopters often do things in the extreme, they set benchmarks. For example, last week I met Dee Williams. Dee spoke at WDS in Portland Oregon about selling her three-bedroom home and building an 84 square ft. tiny house.

She spoke about her discovery of the tiny house movement. In her presentation, Dee didn’t spend a lot of time on architecture or zoning. It was really about her 10 year journey towards a leaner lifestyle. It was more about how living in a tiny home helped her spend more time in the community, get to know her neighbors, and learn how to build something. It wasn’t just a house she was building, it turned into a small business called Portland Alternative Dwellings and later a book The Big Tiny.

The Appeal of a Tiny Home

There’s something deeply appealing to me about smaller dwellings. Maybe it’s Dee’s eight dollar electric bill or zero property taxes. But, more likely, it’s just a simplified lifestyle. See the thing is, I don’t live in a tiny house. We have a rug in our family room that’s bigger than 84 square feet.

If you read this blog, you’ll know that I’m on a quest to simplify my life and get rid of excess stuff. In this quest, the Tiny House Movement found me. Simple, modern, prefabricated houses started popping up in Dwell Magazine years ago. Then I read about a project at Auburn University where students were challenged to design homes that could be built for $20,000. [Read more…] about Living Small. How The Tiny House Movement Found Me.

Trending Minimalist. Looking for less.

07/15 by The Frug Leave a Comment

By Brad Beckstrom

Tiny houses, bring em on. Tiny house on the beach, even better, less lawn care. Less yard work, absolutely. In fact, tiny everything, that would be perfect.

Spent several hours last weekend pulling huge weeds in 95° heat. I like to take a stoic approach to work around the house. I should be thankful to have a yard, some people have no weeds to pull. I’m fortunate to have the rain and subtropical heat that helped create these epic tree-like weeds. Some people’s yards, somewhere, are burning up, literally, droughts, forest fires. So yeah, bring those weeds on, glad to have them. If I get too hot, there is a ton of stuff to do inside as well.

Years of Work

In fact, there is easily a couple of years of work waiting for me in the house. Closets, drawers, the basement and garage to clean out. You see, I am trending minimalist. I’m defining this as “moving in the general direction towards less” less clutter, less stuff. The thinking behind minimalism is freeing your life of stuff and possessions to focus on whats important.

Maximist
[Read more…] about Trending Minimalist. Looking for less.

The $300 Vacation Home

12/14 by The Frug Leave a Comment

Shack Builder Is Part of a Movement.

By Brad Beckstrom

Derek Diedricksen, or “Deek” for short, doesn’t fit the mold of someone who would be sought out to lecture at MIT. He’s not a famous physicist or a Nobel Laureate.

He builds tiny houses which he likes to call “relax shacks.” His yard is filled with these shacks in various stages of development. He also collects all types of salvage, often from the side of the road and trash dumps, to give his his small structures a one-of-a-kind appearance.

Looking at his backyard you might think, ”I’m glad this guy’s not my neighbor.” As a turns out, the neighbors love what he does and even let him build some structures on their land as well. In fact, people come from all over to purchase these shacks as fast as he can build them.

Shelter as Art

The Lunar Lander

If you look closely, you’ll see that each one of these shacks is really a piece of art. A piece of art you can sleep in. Deek spends a lot of time creating these structures in wild pen and ink drawings and then brings them to life using innovative, low-cost building techniques.

The results of his efforts become summer cabins, artist studios, home offices, lakeside retreats. Deek has years worth of designs he hasn’t built yet. He’s been doing some very cool hands-on, relax-shacks workshops up and down the East Coast. At this workshop, a small group (limited to 20 attendees) can actually bring one of his designs to life. He teaches people how to use hand tools, framing techniques, window repair, and salvage construction.

Burning Man or MIT

The Secret to Running The Business of You.

01/20 by The Frug Leave a Comment

By Brad Beckstrom

“Have a small nut; that’s the key to life.”
Graham Parker.

What’s an aging rock ‘n roller to do, the once big recording contracts, the limos, seven-figure tour revenue all start to trickle away? Graham Parker, a British punk rock pioneer, knows exactly what to do: enjoy life, have a great time, and keep making music. Graham’s quote “Have a small nut; that’s the key to life” sums up one of the core principles of financial independence. The small nut he’s referring to is not assets, but monthly expenses. Rock stars, athletes, entrepreneurs, everyday folks all hit the same wall. We hear these stories all the time, from the extreme, like Mike Tyson blowing through $400 million and ending up homeless, to the highflying salesperson that overextended themselves, justifying their current expenses on future income fantasies, only to be chop blocked at the knees by a corporate reorg or downsizing.

Professional athletes know this story all too well. The average career in the NFL is about four years. In major league baseball, it’s a little over five years. Knowing this, it seems crazy when you see young athletes, blowing their entire signing bonus, borrowing against it before they even get a check. The secret is to do the opposite, save the entire bonus along with any windfalls, and keep your monthly expenses to a minimum. [Read more…] about The Secret to Running The Business of You.

How to Talk Yourself Out of a Boat or RV Purchase, Every Time You Get That Itch.

05/19 by The Frug 2 Comments

It’s springtime here in Virginia which means my mind often wanders to adventure. We live close to the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. When the weather gets nice, I’m often thinking about how it would be cool to own a boat or an RV, get the family out, and have some fun. As a kid I remember some great times out on my parents’ boat on the Chesapeake Bay.

If you spend some time following blogs or YouTube channels, you’re bound to run across lots of folks having grand adventures sailing around the world or traveling cross country in RVs.

Weekend Warriors vs. Modern Nomads

There are generally two types of folks here: Those modern nomads who have chosen to live on a boat or in an RV full-time and those who are enthusiasts who make these large purchases for recreational purposes. Since the second group is vastly larger, that’s who I’m talking about today.

So, if you actually live full-time on a boat or in an RV you’ve already achieved a high degree of minimalism and don’t need these tips. Unless of course you’re thinking about buying a house to have a home base for your RV or boat, then please read on.

[Read more…]

The Home Swap. A grand experiment in international travel.

01/17 by The Frug Leave a Comment

By Brad Beckstrom

The proposition I made to my wife was pretty simple: “If you could spend two weeks in Europe every summer, would you be interested?” Of course I got an enthusiastic “yes”, until I brought up home exchange. Home exchange is just what it sounds like. It’s a website with over 65,000 homes in 150 countries. You list your home on home exchange, include all the countries you’d like to visit, and wait for opportunities to appear in your inbox to swap homes in places like Spain, and Italy, Brazil, and all over the world.

It’s vastly different than Airbnb as you are not paying a stranger to stay in their home. With Home Exchange, you are simply staying in their home while they stay in yours: a true exchange. The network is large enough to match up eager travelers from around the world who want to visit your town. Larger homes tend to attract like-minded families, while tiny apartments attract singles and couples. What they have in common is a sense of adventure and openness to meeting new people and trying new things.

As I started to browse through some homes along the Amalfi coast in Italy, or the Le Marais neighborhood in Paris, I started to realize our home is just not ready to attract the type of visitors we would like to exchange homes with for a two week trip. At this point, I am no more near ready to do this than I would be to start renting a room out on Airbnb. There is so much to do before I would even post some photos or create a profile. Sure, our house is in a great neighborhood less than 4 miles from DC, but it’s a big step to make it ready for some long-term visitors.

That is, unless I look at this as an opportunity. The great thing about the opportunity is at the end of the project, my reward is two weeks abroad. Not just this year, but nearly every year. That’s something worth working towards. It’s also a grand experiment in the sharing economy. So far we have truly enjoyed our experiences using Airbnb and saved tons of money using UBER and Lyft all over the world.

I was a bit discouraged when I started looking at some beautiful spotless homes in Italy and France, but then I looked up some US properties, even some in our neighborhood. I could spot the familiar clutter that didn’t seem to deter these folks from listing their homes. If we can just get our home somewhere between good and great that would be a start. I’ve always been adept with frequent flyer miles but found that hotels drain them too quickly, especially after you’ve coughed up enough miles for 4 transatlantic tickets. Doing a once a year home swap would be a perfect solution. Adding 14 nights of free accommodations to free airfare can really put some punch behind your travel plans. The great thing is we don’t have to accept any offers for a home swap if we aren’t interested. [Read more…] about The Home Swap. A grand experiment in international travel.