Simple Home, Simple Shelter - Tiny House Blog

Simple Home, Simple Shelter

van life

Over the years as I’ve blogged about tiny homes, my preference for the type of structure continues to change. In the 15 years since the Tiny House Blog was started, I have also moved into a different phase and age in my own life.

I was 49 when I started the Tiny House Blog and now I am 64. My dream, when I started the blog, was to have a small log cabin in the woods. Today with the changes in the world and the uncertainty of life, I now think that something mobile seems more appropriate.

A simple shelter that is comfortable to live in but also with the ability to relocate.

The pull for me is now toward a shelter that can be easily relocated. Light enough to tow or haul to another location. Yet, I know my wife and I both need reasonable space to move and live.

These are structures I am drawn to today:

The advantage of a yurt or wall tent is the size of the living space.

The disadvantage is you need a permanent location to build a platform that also could be disassembled easily and moved to another location if necessary.

Heating and insulation are also a concern when living in a canvas structure.

The advantage of a lightweight tiny house such as a vardo, RV, or van is the ease of mobility. As long as you have a towing vehicle and fuel to run it you are able to easily move to another location.

The disadvantage is the lack of much living space. We experienced van life with a Class B van for 10 years and discovered it was so small that you mainly slept in it and did most of the cooking and living outdoors.

To live this way you really need to relocate your home to warmer climates and be a true nomad and follow the seasons. This of course is not for everyone especially as you get older.

I’m curious about your thoughts on tiny house living, what is working for you? What are your plans and dreams?

Vardo Living

Yurt Living

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Jim - July 1, 2022 Reply

Kent-my wife and I built a vardo, restored a canned ham, had a van. But we’ve found the overall cheapest way to live small is to buy a small house (we’ve had houses from 400 sq ft to our cuttent 720 sq ft) in a small town not too far from cool recreational areas. You have your small house AND land AND utilities. We’ve paid anywhere from $17,500 to $53,000. Usally cheaper than building a tiny house then trying to find land and then hooking up some kind of utilities. It is getting harder to find houses in that price range, but Kansas, Nebraska, parts of Texas and a few other states still have small homes at reasonable prices.

    Kent Griswold - July 1, 2022 Reply

    Jim, you are the second person to comment on this suggestion. I need to research this more and publish a post on it. Housing of any size is at extreme highs right now, but I’m sure everything will reset at some point in the future. Thanks for responding and your suggestion.

Miriam Kearney - July 1, 2022 Reply

Like you, as I get older (I’m now 74) my ‘dreams’ have changed. I’ve always wanted to build my own house and settled for renovating older homes and then thought maybe I could build my own tiny house. Not being able to do that immediately, I settled for moving to a small urban cottage in a small city. Living where I do, there are few opportunities to find a place to put a tiny house. So I too have been looking at RVs etc. I have an offspring who is single and 48 and open to the idea (sort of) and we have been talking.

    Kent Griswold - July 1, 2022 Reply

    Miriam, you figured out a great solution and I should look into doing a post suggesting this option. Thank you and I hope you can find a solution for your offspring.

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