Alaska Wagoner 0:00

It's definitely more of an ordeal than people think. You know, like, you can move it but like my house is 30,000 pounds so you know the tile cracked in my kitchen last time. Your house isn't gonna fall apart or anything, but it's definitely more of an ordeal.

Ethan Waldman 0:15

Welcome to the Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast, the show where you learn how to plan, build and live the tiny lifestyle. I'm your host, Ethan Waldman, and this is episode 204 with Alaska Wagoner. What does a realtor think of tiny houses? And what's a tiny house concierge? Today I speak with Alaska Wagoner who shares her experience buying a pre owned tiny house, dealing with winter plumbing issues galore, finding parking, and more. I hope you stick around.

But before we get started, did you know that I personally send a tiny house newsletter every week on Tuesdays? It's called Tiny Tuesdays and it's a weekly email with tiny house news, interviews, photos and resources. It's free to subscribe and I even share sneak peeks of things that are coming up, ask for feedback about upcoming podcast guests and more. It's really the best place to keep a pulse on what I'm doing in the tiny house space and also stay informed of what's going on in the tiny house movement. To sign up, go to thetinyhouse.net/newsletter, where you can sign up for the Tiny Tuesday's newsletter. And of course you can unsubscribe at any time. I will never send you spam. And if you ever don't want to receive emails, it's easy to unsubscribe. So again, that's thetinyhouse.net/newsletter. Thanks and I hope you enjoy next week's Tiny Tuesday's newsletter

Alright, I am here with Alaska Wagoner. Alaska is a writer, Realtor, and tiny homeowner from Colorado! She is the founder of The Tiny House Concierge, a company that offers consultation services for people looking to "rethink their housing and rewrite their lives." She is also a bi-monthly columnist for Tiny House Expedition and is currently gearing up to emcee this month's Tiny Fest San Diego. If you'd like to connect with her, she is best found on her website, Instagram, or the new Tiny House Concierge YouTube channel. Alaska Wagoner, welcome to the show.

Alaska Wagoner 2:28

Hi, thank you so much. I appreciate you having me on.

Ethan Waldman 2:32

Yeah, yeah. Good to have you on. So I guess my first question is, what what is the tiny house concierge?

Alaska Wagoner 2:40

A tiny house concierge is an answer to a problem that I saw happening in the tiny house world. I saw a lot of people really excited about tiny houses, and they would go out and try to pursue it. And then they would immediately get wrapped up in this giant ball of questions. And you do not know what to do next. It was kind of like buying a house. And it's also kind of not like buying a house. And so since I have a background in real estate, I hold a real estate license. And I've spent the last, you know a little while figuring all this out for myself and going tiny, I realized I was kind of in the perfect position to combine my areas of expertise, and help people make sense of it. So when you think of like a hotel concierge, you know, you're in a new place, you're excited. And you just kind of need some direction about how to get going. You you go to the concierge desk and somebody is like, "Tell me about your life. And I'm going to help direct you toward a good time."

Ethan Waldman 3:41

Very nice, very nice. So you're kind of the tiny house generalist who can answer just kind of answer questions with inside knowledge.

Alaska Wagoner 3:51

Absolutely, yeah.

Ethan Waldman 3:53

So I was hoping we can kind of rewind all the way back to you know, before you were living tiny what, what was the thing that made you decide to go for it?

Alaska Wagoner 4:03

You know, I was I was living a life that was very unsustainable, in every possible way. It was financially unsustainable, it was emotionally unsustainable, it was ecologically unsustainable. And I felt very, I felt very trapped. I felt like I had to choose, you know, between time and money. I didn't understand this time money conundrum. I felt like if I had a job where I had enough time, I wouldn't have the money to do the things that I wanted and found valuable. And if I pursued a job that may be paid a lot more I wouldn't have the time. And this kind of led to a very intense deep dive of my life. I did a lot of personal research myself about different kinds of lifestyles and and ultimately, how much the life I envisioned cost. Because in my head I was like, "This is a $30 million life." But when I started actually like doing the math and looking at different ways of approaching that life, I realized that if I was willing to rethink things a little bit, I could live that life that I desired on much less money with much less of a carbon footprint. And in a way that gave me a lot more emotional bandwidth as well.

Ethan Waldman 5:18

Yeah, like that that's that feels very similar to kind of my own tiny journey or the reasoning behind choosing to go tiny. When you realize that there's a paradox between that time and money situation. And it's kind of like, I feel like tiny houses are this kind of like, secret magic portal out of that. Out of that conundrum.

Unknown Speaker 5:42

Yes, yes, they are. In fact, I refer to Tiny House magic all the time, with that exact reason. They 100% are a magic portal.

Ethan Waldman 5:51

Nice. What are what's an example or two of tiny house magic in your life?

Unknown Speaker 5:57

Yeah, well, my, my favorite example happened shortly after I moved into the house. I bought my house furnished. And I realized that I had a window fan that was extremely dirty. That came with the house and I put it outside to throw away. I know, that's horrible. But I didn't know how to take it apart. I didn't know how to clean it. It was too dirty to donate, like, you know, and and then I had this moment where I realized like, wait a minute, I'm actually not drowning in rent anymore. I'm actually not stressed out. And I have this moment where it's like, I think I actually can clean this fan. So I cleaned it turned out it was a $50 fan. And then I realized, wow, it's $50 I don't have to spend at work. That gives me even less stress, and even more emotional bandwidth to tackle the next project, which might be even bigger and even more expensive, which would give me even more bandwidth. And I realized I was like, wow, we've suddenly reversed the spiral. Like, instead of a life that was getting bigger, and more expensive and more out of my control. A tiny house just taken it and shifted it the other way. So now my life is less expensive, easier, more fun, and I have more skills.

Ethan Waldman 7:08

I love that. Yeah. What were - you mentioned that you you bought your tiny house furnished? So I'm I'm does that mean that you that somebody else lived in your tiny house before you bought it?

Unknown Speaker 7:21

Yes. So I my house was built by Mint Tiny Homes in British Columbia, Canada. Love, love, love my builder. And I just got really lucky, I found somebody who had purchased that home and they decided to go into van life and, and downsize again. And so they were selling this house. And, you know, I probably should have done like a little bit more research. But I got really lucky and house has been great. And yeah, I feel I feel very blessed that it was nice to be able to walk into a house and have someone be able to explain to me, you know, "Oh, these are the quirks or this is what you have to know and you know, be able to see it." As opposed to having to go through the building process. I wasn't in a position to handle that at the time. So yeah, I I bought it secondhand, and that was a really good fit for me.

Ethan Waldman 8:13

That's awesome. Is there? Is there anything about it that you change?

Alaska Wagoner 8:16

People ask me that? Very little, very little. I think if I were to move in with somebody, another closet would be good. I don't understand what would happen to person B's clothes. Other than that, oh, not really. Honestly, I'm I'm pretty happy in here.

Ethan Waldman 8:42

That's awesome. Yeah, tiny house for one versus a tiny house for two are two they're not that far apart. But there are some, you know, some things, some design things and then if you're thinking about more than two, then you're in a whole nother design.

Unknown Speaker 8:59

That's a whole nother thing. I've thought about that I was like if I ever got a cat like I would have to get rid of my Costco closet. So I would need to rethink my life again, you know, for the litter box to go in. So I would either need to rethink my life or rethink, you know, who I'm bringing into it.

Ethan Waldman 9:13

But what's, what's your Costco closet?

Unknown Speaker 9:16

Oh my gosh, I I have a stair in my stairs that's really deep. The stairs kind of curve around so I've got one stair that's about two feet deep. And that's where I hide my bulk brownies and my my Costco stuff because I was like I will not move into a tiny house and then be forced to buy everything and like you know, two tablespoon packets and drive myself crazy. So the Costco thing was a big source of anxiety. That's probably my biggest source of anxiety and going tiny I didn't worry about like the shoes or anything like I worried about the Costco and it it's worked out except paper towels. The paper towels I keep in the trunk of my car. I can't figure Costco paper towels out. But I probably shouldn't be using paper towels anyways. So maybe that's just incentive.

Ethan Waldman 10:03

Yeah, I was gonna say just just get a bunch of bunch of rags from Costco, and then just wash them, reuse them. There you go. Does your tiny house of laundry?

Alaska Wagoner 10:15

Yes. Yes, I do have a stackable washer and dryer.

Ethan Waldman 10:18

That's, that is something that really helps enable the reusable towel system.

Alaska Wagoner 10:24

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Ethan Waldman 10:28

So as a real estate professional, are you involved with helping others buy and sell tiny homes?

Unknown Speaker 10:37

Well tiny homes are interesting. Right now, like 99% of tiny homes are not affixed to land. They are considered personal property at this point in time, which means that my real estate license doesn't cover helping people buy and sell or sell property.

Ethan Waldman 10:52

Aha.

Alaska Wagoner 10:53

Where my real estate license is handy is that you're still buying a house. So when people go out of the loan, they tend to forget things like, oh, I need to get a home inspection. Or, oh, I need to, you know, make sure that the person selling me the house actually owns it, and that the paperwork is in alignment. And, you know, I want to buy land, what what's involved in buying land, you know, what things do I have to consider what is zoning? And so usually, people will come to me just just kind of with the big ball of questions, some of which are tiny house related, some of which are real estate related. And I'm kind of a translator between thosetwo fields.

Ethan Waldman 11:37

Yeah, that's, that's really helpful. And I hadn't realized or you I actually not allowed to help someone buy or sell a tiny house like personal property in that way? Or is it just not? Is it frowned upon?

Alaska Wagoner 11:51

There are people out there trying to do that, who have real estate licenses and are going after that. I'm not, I'm not comfortable doing it directly, like directly helping someone with a sale. And I also don't feel like that where I'm called, the further along I go in this, I'm realizing that, you know, I'm, I'm called to housing, insofar as I think it's a very direct route will be it, you know, is one of our biggest for most of us. It's our biggest expense.

Ethan Waldman 12:24

Yeah.

Alaska Wagoner 12:24

So that's our biggest opportunity to change the direction and shape our lives. And so I'm interested in real estate and I'm glad that I know and I use it a lot. But it's largely in pursuit of well being and lifestyle and sustainability. Like that's where my interest in housing is coming from. So no, I don't directly help people buy and sell tiny houses. But I will help them understand you know, theprocess.

Ethan Waldman 12:52

Got it. Got it. Very nice. Where you live in Colorado and your tiny house. Do you live in a community? Do you live on rented land? Tell us about your your parking.

Alaska Wagoner 13:03

I live I live on rented land right now.

Ethan Waldman 13:06

Okay.

Alaska Wagoner 13:07

Yeah, I've lived in RV parks before as well. And, and they've been great. I yeah, I don't know. I'm really enjoying where I'm at right now. And we'll kind of have to see what the future holds. I think at some point, I would like to own the land under the tiny house. But yeah, that might be a little ways off. We're gonna see. See how things shake out.

Ethan Waldman 13:30

Yeah, that's something that I've I've definitely found is like, even though it's a movable house, there's like a lot of things that need to get hooked up and attached and done in order to park it somewhere. And after, you know, even moving it once or twice, I'm, I'm kind of of the like, I don't want to do that again, I would like to own the land under it.

Alaska Wagoner 13:49

It is definitely more of an ordeal than people think. You know, like you can move it but like my house is 30,000 pounds. So you know the tile cracked and I did last time I when I took it from Texas to Colorado so your house isn't gonna fall apart or anything but it's definitely more of an ordeal than people think.

Ethan Waldman 14:08

Yeah. Do you have done some kind of longer distance moves then?

Alaska Wagoner 14:13

I've done one. So my house like I said was, was born in Canada. And it first home was was Austin, Texas. And then I moved it from Texas to Colorado. I've done one.

Ethan Waldman 14:26

And did you go to see it in person when you were when you were considering buying it?

Alaska Wagoner 14:31

I did and that was actually the first time I'd ever been inside a tiny house. I looked into tiny houses. And I actually wasn't intending to buy a tiny house. I was intending to buy a regular house and that that plan just kept falling through and then I saw this tiny house for sale and I was just like, this overwhelming feeling of that is my house and Yeah, I I called the owners I was like, "You don't understand this is my house like I'm in the car. I'm halfway to Texas." Like, they probably thought I was a little nuts. But fortunately they went with it.

Ethan Waldman 15:12

Wow.

Alaska Wagoner 15:13

Yeah. So I walked in the house and and just looked at it and I was like, "Okay, I think I could do this." And I sat on the couch, the couch was comfortable. And I was like, "I'm in."

Ethan Waldman 15:23

You went through the whole process of like, his tiny house living right for me in like, a drive?

Alaska Wagoner 15:29

Pretty much. I had researched it briefly

Ethan Waldman 15:34

Wow

Alaska Wagoner 15:34

during my deep dive a few years earlier. So I, at that time, I'd looked into van life, RV life, living overseas and, and working remotely. I'd looked into all kinds of living situations. But yeah, I was I was just at a time in my life where I kind of quit everything. You know, I I quit my job. I walked away from my new business. I ended my marriage, I put my stuff in storage. I moved to Alaska. I've moved to three other states. You know, since then, and yeah, I was just at a place where I didn't have anything. You know, I didn't have a partner. I didn't have a career path. I didn't have a plan. I didn't have you know, it was it was really starting over from scratch. And I think that that made it a little bit easier for me to do something like, step into tiny house living on the fly for sure.

Ethan Waldman 16:25

Yeah. Wow. So it sounds like you'd really shed a lot of your of your life. And you kind of started with the tiny house that that almost like the starting fresh but the tiny house was the first thing.

Alaska Wagoner 16:36

Yeah, when when I was done, I was done. You know, I I'm one of those rip the Band-Aid off people. When it comes to pain and suffering I would just rather like basic get through it. Let's go. And you know, at a tiny house wasn't necessarily the plan, but it could not have worked out better. I'm so grateful for this little magic castle.

Ethan Waldman 17:02

Nice. So So on your YouTube channel. There are a couple of different videos called Tiny House Meltdown and Tiny House Meltdown 2. Without giving too much away. What What were these tiny house meltdowns?

Alaska Wagoner 17:18

Yeah, well, okay, so tiny houses, tiny house living is it's a little bit of a learning curve in some ways. And I feel like I've had maybe more of a learning curve than most mostly because of just freak random things. You know, there was a blizzard when I was in Texas, that broke a main water line in the city of Austin and I was without water for 14 days that, you know, I've had frozen pipes and I've had hoses that were you know, nothing to do with the builder. But just to do with like accessory pieces. And yeah, you know, and just my own inexperience you know, I I left on vacation and didn't think about the fact that my water heater is run on propane. All I was thinking of is like my stove runs on propane, I'm not going to be cooking, I'll replace the propane when I get back. And I broke my water heater, because the cycle couldn't run. Keep it warm. So anyway, I wanted to make sure that you know cuz I love posting the pretty pictures on Instagram and whatnot. And I wanted to make sure that I was balancing that with information you know about about the things that maybe don't go right so that people don't get this idea that this lifestyle is easy and perfect. And all you have to do is buy a tiny house and it'll all be okay and magically work out. You know, I I say that the pretty pictures are how a tiny house always feels to me. But I wanted to kind of take that one step further and be like, "Hey, you know what, sometimes it's not good. And when it's not good, I have a melt down and I film it for YouTube." Because that's, you know, my, my best stab at getting the news out there.

Ethan Waldman 19:09

Yeah, and so it seems like some of these problems are many of them related to plumbing and water which is which is a challenge and you're in Colorado so certainly experience some freezing temperatures. You know, what have you done to kind of mitigate or how did how actually how do you get your water into the house and back out?

Alaska Wagoner 19:28

Well, I do I have a heated hose right now.

Ethan Waldman 19:31

Okay.

Alaska Wagoner 19:32

And so during during the summer I have a regular hose, right now I have a heated hose. Although I had one heated hose brand new sprung a leak, same brand. Another heated hose just stopped working. At this point I'm I'm not even willing to have them replaced that even under warranty because I don't want to create trash. You know, I'm throwing 150 feet of product away this month. And I'm not willing to do that. So I got on the forums that I've had some people teach me how to do kind of a DIY version and, and that's what we'll be tackling next. So we'll see how that goes.

Ethan Waldman 20:09

Nice. So a DIY DIY heated hose.

Alaska Wagoner 20:12

Yeah, yeah. Regular hose with a heat cable.

Ethan Waldman 20:16

And then it looks like inside the house. You've got a Berkey Water Filter.

Alaska Wagoner 20:22

I do I love my Berkey.

Ethan Waldman 20:25

Is that just because you don't want to drink the the hose water?

Alaska Wagoner 20:28

Yeah, I'm I'm pretty into clean living. So I don't I don't clean with chemicals in the tiny house. I heavily filter all of my water. Friday organic. You know, it's, it's not that I'll never eat Taco Bell or have a Red Bull. But yeah, by and large I try to leave late live pretty low toxin.

Ethan Waldman 20:50

Yeah.

Alaska Wagoner 20:51

My sister had major autoimmune issues. And that was kind of the the catalyst for changing the way that I live and, and that's actually one of the things that my tiny house is built around. Is, is health, writing, and adventure.

Ethan Waldman 21:05

Yeah.

Alaska Wagoner 21:05

So when I put when I put money into something in my house, or I put time into something in my house, I try to have a hit those three categories. Yeah, and

Ethan Waldman 21:13

it looks like the kitchen is is big and very functional that the beautiful rangehood and just like a decent amount of counter space and a big sink and everything.

Alaska Wagoner 21:23

Yeah, definitely. It you know, I'm somebody who really likes to cook and and that was another you know, less less of a concern than the Costco but but definitely a concern was, "Am I going to be able to cook in a tiny house kitchen?"

Ethan Waldman 21:37

Yep.

Alaska Wagoner 21:37

And it's changed the way that I you know, I will skip certain ingredients or substitute things so I don't have to buy more spices or whatever. Or I'll make something a one pot meal that maybe not intended to be a one pot meal. So it's changed the way that I cook but it has not at all stifled my cooking. I just as a challenge I cooked a full Thanksgiving dinner from scratch last year and wrote an article about like that process and that that was hilarious. That was fun. Much more doable than I would have thought I thought I was going to run into a lot more problems but worked out okay.

Ethan Waldman 22:14

Yeah, I guess Did you did you kind of stripped down? How did you make Thanksgiving a one pot meal?

Alaska Wagoner 22:20

Oh, that that was not a one pot meal. That was I have a pie on the stairs and I've got like yeah, stuffing sitting on the couch for just a second. Well, I you know? Yeah. It was a little dramatic. I made it I made like a little cornish game hen. It was, it was.

Ethan Waldman 22:38

Oh, okay. What are the what are the dimensions of your house? Is it I can't quite tell from the pictures. Is it wider than eight six? Or is it standard? standard width?

Alaska Wagoner 22:50

It's standard width. Yeah, I'm at 26 feet long, eight and a half feet wide.

Ethan Waldman 22:54

Nice. Well, you've got that that l couch that is such a crucial thing to have.

Alaska Wagoner 23:02

It really is. That is absolutely one of my favorite features of the house. Not just because it's comfortable. And not just because it has storage. But because either direction I sit on it. I have a long view. So if I sit the short way, you know facing the short wall

Ethan Waldman 23:20

Yeah,

Alaska Wagoner 23:21

I'm actually looking out my doors which are glass. So I can look straight through and out to the outside. And if I sit the other way on the couch, I look down the length of my tiny house which is honestly nice. I look that way more than I look outside because I it just my house brings me so much happiness I stare at it. So yeah, yeah. Couch position is important

Ethan Waldman 23:45

Yeah, for sure. And it's a great design. Which is is your house one of the one of the models that that Mint Tiny House Company currently sells? Like do you know which which Mint house it is?

Alaska Wagoner 23:58

Yeah, it's the Napa addition and then it was customized a bit by the original owner. I did call them okay and I said, "Hey if I ever want another one of these you know like as a rental property or or something to you know park in another state go back and forth Kennedy like could you build me that exact house?" And and they said that they could so if anybody needs this house it's available.

Ethan Waldman 24:23

How do you heat How do you heat in the winter in Colorado?

Alaska Wagoner 24:28

I have electric heat but I also have my stove and my water heater are both propane.

Ethan Waldman 24:35

Okay.

Alaska Wagoner 24:35

And I'm glad that you brought a heat because like that is a game changer, having two sources of heat. That has probably in like the year and a half I've had my tiny house saved me four times. You know where, you know, either the electrical, we were in a bunch of storms. I didn't have electrical for a couple weeks. But I was able to heat you know, water on the stove and Hot food and, and things like that. And then I've also had, you know, ran out of propane or whatever, but at least I have. So if anybody is remotely thinking that they might move to a cold climate, or if somebody just wants to increase the resale, like resale ability of their house two sources of heat, I think is key.

Ethan Waldman 25:23

Yeah, that's, that's interesting to think about the resale ability of a tiny house, I feel like that's something that someone who has a background in real estate would definitely think about. Are there some other features or things that you you advise people to think about when they're thinking like, "Hey, I, maybe I'll sell this tiny house down the road," but what are some other features that you recommend?

Alaska Wagoner 25:44

Yeah, certifications are going to be your friend. I know, not always, you know, not all insurance companies, or RV parks or whatever, asking for certifications. At this point, I think the more we step toward legality, the more of a role those are going to play. So understanding what your certification options are, and picking one that's appropriate, is the building. And this kind of goes with the heat thing, but building for multiple climate, you know, tiny houses move. So sometimes I'll see inexperienced builders build for the climate they're physically in, or I'll see, you know, customers, people buying tiny houses, to ask for it to be built to the climate they're currently in. But then they're like, Oh, my house moves, though, a year later, they're moving across the country, now they've got a whole different thing. Or they want to sell their house, they found a buyer, the buyers, three stays away. Now the buyer has different ventilation concerns, or, you know, different temperature burns or whatever. So, you know, maybe they have solar only, but now they move to Seattle, like now what do you do? So there are different things you can do. But building to multiple climates, helpful certifications are helpful. And those would be the two main ones I would bring up.

Ethan Waldman 27:01

Nice. Yeah, that's one of my favorite things to do at Tiny House festivals is and I don't do this to like, people's personal tiny houses. But, you know, there's always a lot of builders there with spec tiny houses. I instead of walking in, I immediately, like crawl down on the ground and look underneath. Because you can learn a lot about what they've thought about in terms of climate and, and water. You know, when I see, you know, like, for example, at the Georgia Tiny House festival, I saw a lot of tiny houses that had plumbing underneath the house, like p-traps, plumbing lines just out there hanging out underneath the house. And that can tell you a lot about whether the house is designed to move or not or is designed to never be in a cold climate.

Alaska Wagoner 27:52

Absolutely. Wow. I've never done that climbed under the house. I mean, I've climbed into mine, but I haven't climbed under anybody. I'm gonna start doing that now.

Ethan Waldman 27:59

You don't have to actually climb under but just like you know, just pop your head under and see see what's going on under there.

Alaska Wagoner 28:06

Love it. Yes.

Ethan Waldman 28:08

Well, speaking of tiny house festivals, it sounds like you are heading to one soon. And by the time this episode airs, it probably will have already passed. So how was tiny fest? San Diego.

Alaska Wagoner 28:24

TinyFest San Diego, TinyFest California was great. Yes, I had so much. I'm so excited!

Ethan Waldman 28:34

We're talking at the beginning of March. Yeah. Yeah. So you're going to emcee TinyFest, San Diego?

Alaska Wagoner 28:39

I am. I am I am so honored. I've Wow. It's it's gonna be very cool. I have a lot of people that are gonna be there that I've met virtually. And I'm so excited to meet them in real life. And yeah, just get out. You know, I, my tiny journey happened largely during the pandemic. So I'm excited to kind of get get more out there. And yeah, yeah, get some energy going.

Ethan Waldman 29:09

How long have you been in your house now?

Alaska Wagoner 29:12

I bought it at the end of like, October 2020. And I've been the first six, seven months where I was kind of going back and forth. So I'd be there for like a weekend and then I'd be gone for three weeks. And then I'd be back for a week. And so it was the back and forth for a while. And that was partially because I was dealing with some family stuff and partially because I didn't know since I was starting over from scratch. I didn't know where I was going to live or, or anything like that. So that took some time to kind of figure out where I was going to park it and and how and then I found a an awesome spot in Colorado and I love to see so I was like Okay, deal done. Let's go. Awesome. All right.

Ethan Waldman 30:00

So what's your what's your home mountain?

Alaska Wagoner 30:04

El Dora is the one that's closest to my house. That's about 45 minutes away. So that's there, but Copper Mountains not too far. I'm, I'm hoping to ski when I'm in California. We're gonna we're gonna see if I can pull that off. But yeah, being nice. Same word.

Ethan Waldman 30:24

Nice. Yes, me too. That's why I live in Vermont. Yeah, yeah, very good. Very good skiing here, too. So where, where in or outside of your tiny house? Do you store your your ski gear?

Alaska Wagoner 30:38

Right now in my car? I would like a better solution for that. I don't. I don't know. I like the idea of having a place to like, display my skis. You know?

Ethan Waldman 30:51

Yeah.

Alaska Wagoner 30:52

Because that my life is so focused on a few things that bring me joy. Like, yeah, I almost like the idea of working into the decor somehow, like having him like up on the wall or something.

Ethan Waldman 31:02

Yeah, yeah.

Alaska Wagoner 31:03

Maybe not year round, but at least during the season, you know, so I can just kind of grab and grab and go. Right, right. I haven't figured that out yet. So the meantime, in my car, in the car, alright.

Ethan Waldman 31:17

Yeah. I've always, I've always thought that it would be cool to find, you know, an old set of like, ski roof racks from a car, you know, the kind that's like a mouth that like clamps down on the skis. And just mount them on the side of your house and just have like, your skis just on a rack, just right on the side of the house.

Alaska Wagoner 31:37

That's genius. If I do that, I'll put a little plaque that just says Ethan Waldman, you know, ski, tiny house. That's great.

Ethan Waldman 31:48

Yeah. The problem for us is that we have too many pairs of skis, I would need a lot of racks.

Alaska Wagoner 31:54

Yeah. Then then you'd be that that tiny house? Maybe you can make like a little fence? Yeah. Like a little like, yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Ethan Waldman 32:07

Well, one thing that I like to ask all my guests is, you know, what's two or three resources. This could be, you know, books that you've read, or YouTube channels, or people that kind of have helped you on your tiny house journey that that you'd like to share with our listeners?

Alaska Wagoner 32:22

Or, okay. I would say the biggest. Like, what I noticed, like catalyst maybe for helping me to really evaluate my life and economize it and, and kind of go for it was a blog called Mr. Money Mustache. Ah, and he's a, he's a Colorado tech dude, who was really into early retirement and efficient living. And he comes at it from a very, like, techy numbers kind of place. But I love that he's done the math on so many crazy things. And he literally covers everything from like, you know, raising children to going on vacation to grocery shopping and lives a really great life on very little money and resources. And I definitely got a lot of inspiration there. Instagram has been a big source of, of inspiration and help. I know that at This Tiny Journey is has been one of my my tiny house friends. And she's really done a lot to help me hold it all together, emotionally. And, you know, welcome me to the community and and that's been nice. That's been really great. Yeah, she's a single mom. She's raising raising her daughter in a tiny house and totally killing it. And, yeah, so I would say, Yeah, Mr. Money Mustache for math wise. And then, at This Tiny Journey emotionally has helped me hold it all together.

Ethan Waldman 33:56

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much. Alaska Wagoner, this is so fun to have you on the show. And good luck at the festivals. I wish. I wish I could be at one of them there. There hasn't been one like, in the northeast, like within driving distance for me for a couple of years. But I'm hoping that there'll be something soon to go to.

Alaska Wagoner 34:16

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, well, thank you so much for having me on. This was this was really, really fun. And I'm happy, happy to meet you. And I definitely hope to cross paths someday at a festival.

Ethan Waldman 34:30

Thank you so much to Alaska Wagoner for being a guest on the show today. You can find the show notes, including a complete transcript and lots of photos of Alaska's tiny house at thetinyhouse.net/204. Again, that's thetinyhouse.net/204. Well, that's all for this week. I'm your host, Ethan Waldman. And I'll be back next week with another episode of the Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai