Seattle Tiny Homes Press Release
“Honey, I Shrunk the House – by 1,377 Percent”
A local Seattle-area family has just built a new home that’s only 159 square feet. They’re part of a national movement toward smaller, more sustainable housing that is taking root in the Pacific Northwest.
Seattle, WA, February 16, 2012 — This week, thousands will converge in Century Link Field for the Seattle Home Show (February 18-26, 2012) to browse the latest trends in building the American dream. However, they’ll likely miss one of the fastest-growing trends: living in tiny homes that are sustainable, flexible, and often mobile.
To learn more about tiny homes, you need to venture a few blocks north to a gathering of fewer than 100 people: the Tumbleweed Tiny House Workshop held the same time (February 25-26, 2012) at the Pioneer Square Courtyard Marriott.
One Seattle-area resident planning to be there is Sharon Read, with a tiny home in tow. She’s just built a new home that is only 159 square feet – 1,377% less than her family’s current dwelling. With classic Craftsman styling, beautiful cedar siding, and lots of windows to let in light, the tiny home has a kitchen, a “great” room, an office, a bathroom with a tub/shower, and even a washer and dryer. The home also features two sleeping lofts that have room for two queen size beds and storage.
The home’s foundation? A sturdy 22-foot steel trailer, meaning the home is portable and can be positioned anywhere.
While Read and her family hope to live in the tiny house as much as possible, the home is also the show model for Seattle Tiny Homes, a company Read founded to build high-quality, custom tiny homes – both portable and stationary – that can be used as primary residences, vacation homes, guest cottages, auxiliary housing for elderly relatives or college students, or an office or studio.
Read and Seattle Tiny Homes are part of a growing movement of tiny home advocates that is spreading across North America – and taking root in the Pacific Northwest. Spearheaded by Jay Shafer, called the guru of the tiny homes and author of The Small House Book (learn more at www.tumbleweedhouses.com), the movement touts the freedom and flexibility that tiny homes offer – plus the “green” advantage of a greatly reduced environmental impact.
The public is welcome at the Tumbleweed Tiny House Seminar. To register, visit www.tumbleweedhouses.com/workshops/seattle/. Classes will be taught by Dee Williams, a tiny house pioneer and co-owner of Portland Alternative Dwellings (learn more at www.portlandalternativedwellings.com).
Read’s new tiny home – all 159 square feet – will be on display and open for viewing during the seminar. For exact times and location, contact Sharon Read of Seattle Tiny Homes at:
(425) 445-3675
sharon@seattletinyhomes.com
www.seattletinyhomes.com
Just wanted to point out it’s impossible for a new house, even a tiny one, to be more than 100% smaller than the old house. If the old house was 1590 square feet, and the new house is 159 square feet, the new house is 90% smaller than the old house, or 10% its size.
You can’t shrink something by 1,377 percent unless you’re going well below zero.
Good point, thanks for letting me know. -Kent
Always a genius dying to show everyone how smart they are.
LOL; my math is so bad I didn’t even catch that. I just vaguely realized the number looked funny…
Which Tumbleweed model is this? My boyfriend is 6″1′ and the other models he think would be too small for us, but this looks to be a perfect size.
Hi Michelle, this is not a Tumbleweed model it is a design by Seattle Tiny Homes http://seattletinyhomes.com/
Thanks!
So close! Alas, no travel money. Would love to see interior photos of those Seattle Tiny Homes, hope the website updates soon. I really like the look of those dormers placed above door and windows and the small window neatly placed between. This might be my new favourite. Definitely prefer a side door.
You could always hire a truck to move your tiny home. I think they’re less practical for constant travel, but for someone who relocates every few months or years, they’d be the ticket.
Pepper while her design is nice is not on par by far with the other 3 real experts in the photo.
I don’t know, it depends on where your particular “par” is, I guess. 😉
I like it.
And there is room for all four of the ‘experts’, and the options their different perspectives and treatments can offer us, the potential ‘tiny home’ buyer…
It’s good to laud Jay (he is, after all, the iconic figure who brought this ‘movement’ to motion), but I would think there is room for other designers/builders to be appreciated for what they bring to the table, too.
If Pepper can offer a more reasonably-priced model (in exchange, of course, for the more upscale features Jay’s might employ), that’s reasonably well-built without having to be an inch-for-inch Craftsman-style replica, there are many of us on a shoestring budget out here who don’t see her approach as ‘less than’ so much as DIFFERENT and economical.
I think we ALL appreciate quality.
But many of us have to sacrifice those gilded options in favor of something more rustic, perhaps. And Pepper offering THAT (apologies if my term ‘rustic’ comes off sounding poorly! I mean no offense), a more basic alternative, in no way implies her homes are inferior or cheap, just sans a lot of yummy ‘extras’ and ‘upgrades’.
😉
I love the curb appeal, and will be interested when they update their site with interior photos.
Looks better than most trailer mounted buildings. Get rid of the wheels & tail lites, double the size, and you got a good looking weekend place.
Wish I could close my eyes and click my heels together and *zip!* be THERE, during this week of the Seattle Home Show, and a fly-on-the-wall (with my lil trusty iPod for taking notes and photos!) at the Tumbleweed Tiny House Workshop…
Someone needs to attend and report back here with all the details (!) this weekend for those of us who are stuck ‘across the miles’…
I have been looking at RV’s and manufactured home options as I know I’m going to be going tiny house in the future. After looking at the several different general options, I’ve decided I want a me-built tiny house. I don’t like plastic wood or the other materials found in most manufactured homes and RV’s; I do, however, love the interior feel of the tiny houses; warm, real and homey. If tiny homes ever become an all out a la carte business, I think metal homes and RV’s will fade away. All anyone really needs to decide is whether they want a tiny home that does or does not require a license to move. Once those dimensions have been decided, the world of choices opens wide and one’s imagination can take over.
As a fellow builder of tiny houses on trailers, I am excited to see the innovation and beauty of the work done by seattletinyhomes and tumbleweed.
Now all we need are local zoning laws to become more flexible so these adorable homes can be located in more places.