This is my neighbor.  We haven’t met yet but I intend to introduce myself and become best friends with them based solely on their ability to make me contemplate the words “Totes.  Adorbs.”  I totes doubt that I’m using that correctly but you can’t help what pops into your head, can you?  I picture the people inside listening to NPR and playing Yahtzee and reading big books snuggled under Hudson Bay blankets.  And when the big book gets boring, they look out the picture windows for like hours at a time.  And then they nap.

Mike and Liam took this picture for me as they floated by in the fishing boat because they love me and they want me to be happy.  And they knew that the sight of this little gem would make me gasp.  Most of the time, it’s the small gestures more than the expensive gifts that make me feel loved.

People in general tend to get all happy at the sight of an adorable tiny dwelling with everything just so.  Home builders keep telling us that the American Dream is all about more square footage –  but then why do we have fantasies about moving into an Ikea vignette?  You’re laughing because it’s true.  You want to snuggle into your Ektorp sofa and watch Brian Williams at 5:30 with a warm cup of cocoa from the nearby Akurum kitchen while your children make abstract art sitting on floor pillows at the communal coffee table with art supplies that live neatly containerized on your Billy shelves. Can’t you just smell the meatballs?

I lived in a big house once;  and then I found my father-in-law paralyzed in the upstairs hallway because he couldn’t find the bathroom.  That is not comforting, people.

We all like to be cozy.   And we don’t like to get lost on the way to the bathroom.

Sarah Susanka, of The Not So Big House fame, says one of the biggest mistakes in home building is the soaring vaulted-ceiling entry;  we think it will impress but it really just makes us feel exposed and unprotected.  Like a bunny searching for cover at a lion convention.  Instead, we need a gradual introduction to our spaces, where you can put on your cardigan and tie your tennies and prepare to relax.  We need to feel supported and comforted when we come home, not exposed.  A tiny house doesn’t burden you with things you don’t need or want, it doesn’t bombard you with spaces that don’t feed you or comfort you.  In this way, a tiny house can be more meaningful than the one you’re supposed to want……just like the small gesture can be more meaningful than the expensive gift.  Like taking a picture of a tiny cabin for your wife.  He could’ve just told me about it but, instead, he stopped the boat, got his phone out of its waterproof hiding place, and snapped a picture.  All so that I could be happy.

So I offer you a variety of tiny homes that will wrap you up in a tiny hug where you can be free of your stuff and eat meatballs and have kids who make abstract art.

If you’d like to vacation in a tiny home, check out the cuties in this USA Today article sent to me by my friend and fellow Cabin Crusher, Kris (thanks, Kris!).  http://usat.ly/YSUsKN

 

From Small House Style.

 

From Chamelion Interiors.

 

From Design Milk.

 

From Hemnet.se.

 

From Cathy (Kate) Johnson.

 

From Chamelion Interiors.

 

From Yahoo: 11 Tiny Houses We Love.

 

From Seaside.fl.

 

From Chameleon Interiors.

 

Do you recognize this one?  You may remember it from a Target print ad many years ago, and you tore it out and put it in a folder because we didn’t have Pinterest back then, and you wanted to remember to live in it someday.

Which one suits you best?  Let me know, and make sure to send me your forwarding address.