by Lorna Kellogg
I’ve been based out of Martha’s Vineyard since March 2011 with occasional trips to Boulder, CO and Sebastopol, CA where I’ve built tiny homes off and on for 25 years. See Lorna’s house that she sold a few years back in Sebastopol here.
I recently built a tiny house in Boulder to temporarily store everything I was able to salvage after the flood. (I had my Boulder home rented and almost all my possessions stored in the basement). Seeing the huge piles of “stuff” my neighbors and I all had on the streets after the flood waters receded gave me a whole new appreciation for tiny homes and tiny house living. The only things I was sad about losing were a few first edition books signed by friends who are writers. Virtually nothing else gave me a second thought.
Now that I’m home on the Vineyard I’ve been clutter clearing like mad and having second thoughts about buying the 1800 square foot house I’ve been thinking about buying. My son and I have such simple needs for a home environment, a sense of refuge, quiet and clean.
In the meantime I’m building tiny homes here by request and I have the new tiny house in Boulder listed for sale. When I think about the first tiny house wave that came with the Santa Barbara population boom in the mid-1970’s (everyone there was building tiny homes in their gardens to accommodate transplanted friends who couldn’t find housing) it seems like a million years ago. The sophistication of Jay’s homes, building on trailers for complete portability and the increasing popularity of living full time in tiny homes makes me happy. It’s all any of us ever wanted isn’t it, a room of one’s own?
