Washington

Garage Conversion into Tiny Home

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Andrea Lippke from the New York Times writes an article about a Seattle women named Michelle de la Vega who takes on the conversion of a 250 square foot garage into a tiny home after a divorce. To save money she takes on the job as the contractor and with lots of reclaimed materials converts this old garage into a beautiful home.

“At that time I was coming out of the ashes,” she said, “and knew I needed to come up with a good survival strategy for starting over as a single person.”

Read Converting a Seattle Garage Into a Tiny Home at the New York Times website.
Photos: Ira Lippke for The New York Times

Michelle de la Vega, a visual and performance artist, turned her garage into a 250-square-foot house for $32,000.

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Tour Dee’s Little Home

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On April 17 & 18th, Dee will be participating in a home tour in Olympia Washington.  She’ll have her little house open to the public, so this is a great opportunity to see a Tumbleweed-inspired little house.  It’s also just the sort of house that Portland Alternative Dwellings could build for you. The … Read more

Cadillac of Homeless Shelters

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My name is Paul Elkins. I live in Stanwood Washington USA with my lovely wife Mary and our two dogs. In my spare time I play in my shop creating a host of toys and things that roll, mostly. They all start as and idea that gets transfered to paper. I’ve been doing this idea hatching thing since I was a kid. I recieving my first serious sketch pad on Christmas morning when I was 8 years old.

My original intent was to design and construct a simple, light weight, water tight insulated box on wheels geared for the northwest climate that an urban street person could reside in (with all the comforts of home of course) and have an area to display and sell handmade wares.

Wayno is demonstrating the proper way to push the shelter. All 225 pounds of it, empty.

Many homeless people are actually more creative than you might think, and not all want to beg or go rummage around in trash cans all day for a living. Homeless people have pride too! Also, this I think would make a better connection with the public.

So, what started as something that was suppose to be simple and cheap, well, let’s say I got a bit carried away…

What we have here is the Cadillac of homeless shelters…

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Tales of a Tiny Homestead

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What began as a tug at the edge of our subconscious some years ago is finally starting to turn into a reality for us. While considering our options for life, and wondering why the heck we had to work full time at jobs that we hate for the next 30+ years, we started thinking that there had to be something different. And different, indeed there was!

While poking around online we happened to come across Jay Shafer’s Tumbleweed Tiny House website and the light came on in our heads! We would build a tiny house! A palace on wheels! We’d already rented out our home in the city and moved to the country in an RV, so why not build a small home, we didn’t need the space anymore, and wild horses couldn’t drag us back to city living.

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Small Cottage for Sale in Seattle Area

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Jes Brown was doing some research for low cost homes in the Seattle area and came upon this listing. I thought you might enjoy seeing what is out there too. Move in ready-this cozy free standing cottage offers new carpets, paint, updated kitchen with maple cabinets and new tile backsplash. … Read more

Walla Walla Bungalow for Sale

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Chelsey from Walla Walla, Washington contacted me about a small house she had spotted for sale in her home town. Having lived in that area for two years during my college days and communicating with Chelsey, we discovered that we both had graduated from Walla Walla University located in College … Read more