Alexis Stephens 0:00

No, it hasn't been an issue for us. And in our many years of living tiny there's one RV park that turned us away like three years ago in Portland of all places, which is one of the the most tiny friendly places now.

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 177 with Alexis Stephens and Christian Parson of Tiny House Expedition. Alexis and Christian are returning to the show. They were actually Episode 12. And so much has happened since they've last been on. For one thing, they have actually been staying put in their tiny house for the last two years. And they are about to publish a new book, The Beginner's Guide to Tiny houses. In this interview, we will catch up, learn about the new book and other projects that they're working on, and also talk about some of the exciting things that have been happening on the legalization front in 2021 for the tiny house movement. This is a really wide ranging interview. Their bio says that they are like encyclopedias, and I can't agree more. They're like friendly, personable encyclopedias who know just about everything about the tiny house movement and what's happening. So definitely 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.

All right, I am here with Alexis Stevens and Christian Parson of Tiny House Expedition. Alexis and Christian transitioned into their DIY tiny home in 2015 and their lives have become enriched in every way possible, leading to an adventure of a lifetime. Through their extensive experience researching and documenting the tiny living movement, they've practically become tiny house encyclopedias. Their true passion is connecting people with the resources, inspiration, and connections they need to pursue their tiny home dreams. Alexis and Christian, welcome to the show.

Alexis Stephens 3:03

Hello.

Christian Parsons 3:04

Hey, how's it going?

Alexis Stephens 3:05

Thanks for having us.

Ethan Waldman 3:06

Great. You're welcome, and welcome back to the show. You were Episode 12.

Alexis Stephens 3:12

Wow.

Ethan Waldman 3:13

And now we're into the 170s I think, oh, so always love to have return guests, because it means you're still doing what you're doing in helping people and kind of live in the tiny dream.

Alexis Stephens 3:28

Yeah, thanks. I, it's so crazy how many episodes you've done, which I love that so much, because some of our favorite tiny people end up on your show.

Ethan Waldman 3:38

Oh, thank you. Well, I think many of them were your suggestions at one point, or the other. So always keep them coming. And now, I want to kind of catch up because we we have a lot to talk about. We have your new book, your shuttlebus, which you just dropped out me while we were while we were talking before we started recording. But I just want to kind of start because you know, Episode 12 that would put us into I think that was probably the late spring or early summer of 18. So maybe could you catch could you catch us all off on what you've been up to? Since then in your tiny house life?

Christian Parsons 4:21

Not much.

Alexis Stephens 4:23

Like so much. Yeah, wow 2018 was a really big year. We are traveling like crazy with the tiny house back then. And I guess now, fall of 2019 we decided to try out home basing with our tiny house in Central Oregon, which we fell in love with and kept finding ourselves coming back are looking for opportunities to come back and so we said, "Well, maybe we should try this out." And it's been fantastic and we've had a really great run in a backyard. Family backyard, which has been lovely. And so our idea was okay, you know, we love traveling, we love experiencing the movement up close and personal. But what's a way to do that that's maybe less gas mileage?

Ethan Waldman 5:17

Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 5:18

So it gives us a, you know, a little bit more feeling of roots. You know, after being nomads for four and a half years, we were really desiring to have a little bit more connection with a single place. And so now we travel about three months out of the year. First with our Honda Element, which returned into a camper, or I should say, Christian turned into a camper.

Christian Parsons 5:37

Yeah. Yeah. So that was, yeah, so we turned our Honda Element into a camper. And we drove it for three months. And it was a little tight because it was us two and our puppy dog. And it was it was pretty tight. So

Alexis Stephens 5:52

With all the camera gear like Tetris. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 5:53

yeah. So randomly, one day when we were walking through our neighborhood, I noticed the shuttle bus was parked up up the street, at our neighbor's house and asked him about it, and then totally forgot about it, you know? And six months later, I decided to ask them if they'd be into selling it. And sure enough, they would. They were and then we bought it. And now we are proud owners of a, like a 23 foot 24 foot shuttlebus 2000. Was it 2003? Yeah.

Alexis Stephens 6:30

And it's, it's rustically functional.

Unknown Speaker 6:34

Okay, basically no seats in the whole thing. So it's pretty much you know, ripped out. But we're able to make it make it work for us while we're traveling.

Alexis Stephens 6:46

Yeah, but we have plans to fully convert it and make it comfy and cozy home away from home slash mobile studio.

Ethan Waldman 6:54

So it's slowly happening. Like I said.

Sweet. So this is like a shuttle bus like you take at the airport.

Unknown Speaker 7:02

Yeah, it's actually a Central Oregon, one of their city buses from here. So it actually didn't. Didn't come from far away.

Unknown Speaker 7:10

Yeah.Yeah. shuttling plays people across town. Yeah.

Ethan Waldman 7:15

All right. Well, that's, that's I'm smiling because there aren't very many people for whom going to a shuttle bus would be a gas mileage upgrade.

Christian Parsons 7:29

Double I get double what I used to.

Alexis Stephens 7:32

It's not fantastic, but it's better than the tiny house.

Ethan Waldman 7:39

Plus, when I when I interviewed you, Christian about moving your tiny house, I think for the revised Tiny House Decisions. You were telling you basically were like, yeah, towing the tiny house. I'm basically like checking the mirrors all the time, basically white knuckling it, like, wherever you're going. And so now maybe you can be a little bit more relaxed while you drive.

Oh, yeah, totally. Yeah, I definitely drive like a grandpa. When I'm in this thing. It's like, yeah, it's like driving a cat big Cadillac. So it's just slow. And yeah, it's it's a lot easier.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, so so home basing? I like that. Was that an original term? Or if you heard that in the tiny house movement before?

Alexis Stephens 8:28

Good question. I'll own it. Yeah.

Christian Parsons 8:31

She comes up with stuff a lot.

Ethan Waldman 8:32

Yeah, I like it home basing copyrighted, Tiny House Engage tradition? 2021. So you kind of mentioned that you were looking for more of a home base and feeling connection to to one place? What are some? Is there anything that that you were kind of surprised by or that you you weren't expecting about being in one place? That that you're either pleasantly surprised about? Or like I kind of miss being on the road all the time?

Unknown Speaker 9:02

Good question. We do get the travel. It's sometimes, but I just love discovering new places in our town. I really enjoyed exploring and in ways that maybe when we, when we travel with the tiny house, you know, we'd get a taste of a place but we didn't really get the in depth stuff. I've just find there's, there's so much to learn about this place and people to meet and having friends that you don't have to say goodbye to all the time. It's kind of nice to know we're so fortunate in the Nomad community to have so many great friends but you don't get to see him that often. Right, right. That's been a pleasant thing is to call up a new friend and say, "Hey, you want to meet next Friday?" And they're like, "Yeah, I'm in this town actually still with you."

Ethan Waldman 9:56

Yeah, I live here.

Alexis Stephens 9:58

What about you, Christian?

Ethan Waldman 10:00

Yeah, I I like being able to know more, find out more about the town, you know, just be being able to explore some of the restaurants and bars and things like that more. I mean, it's been hard this past year, but but that's slowly happening now. So yeah, so and, you know, to be able to get on the bike and bike or one of our bicycles and ride around and explore that way, too, is is really great.

Alexis Stephens 10:35

But probably the best bit I mean, friends are probably the best, but besides friends, we live really close to a ski resort. So we snowboard all winter long.

Ethan Waldman 10:46

Yeah. Oh, nice.

Alexis Stephens 10:49

It's pretty dope.

Ethan Waldman 10:51

That sounds great. That sounds great. And I've heard there are some good mountains there in Central Oregon.

Christian Parsons 10:56

Yeah totally.

Alexis Stephens 10:57

Yeah, come on down.

Ethan Waldman 10:58

Yeah. Well, I mean, there's pretty good skiing here in Vermont. So it's hard to leave. But it's one of the reasons that I live here.

Alexis Stephens 11:12

Yeah.

Ethan Waldman 11:12

So one thing that I that I've been curious about, and you're the perfect people to ask, is, you know, your tiny house as well as mine were were built before Appendix Q before, where there was really much legal regulations. And now the legalization his efforts around the country are, you know, kind of honing in on, "Okay, your tiny house has to be built to a standard and maybe certified in order to be legally resided in." How has that has that affected your ability to find partnerworld? did that affect your ability to find parking? And has it been an issue at all?

Unknown Speaker 11:51

You know, it hasn't been an issue for us. And our many years of living tiny, there's one RV park that turned us away, like three years ago in Portland, of all places, which is one of the the most tiny friendly places now.

Ethan Waldman 12:06

Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 12:07

And we ended up going to a park down the street. It's one of those things like if we were certified, we would have appealed it. But we didn't. But beyond that, you know, I think we just are very open and honest with potential hosts, like we have this great family that hosts us now. And, you know, we tell them, you know, what our situation is, if there's a gray zone, you know, that we need to inform the neighbors and what the potential risk are. And you know, if they're comfortable with that, and, and I think that's gonna go a long way. For us, personally, you know, down the road, we might actually be able to get a permit for our tiny house in the not too distant future, which is kind of crazy. We'll see.

Ethan Waldman 12:54

That's fantastic. Yeah. Is that something that's developing in Oregon?

Alexis Stephens 12:59

Yes, there's there's a lot of action in Oregon, but we may be hoping to get some property. And in the county, you can permit an RV for like six months, days at a time.

Ethan Waldman 13:15

Okay.

Unknown Speaker 13:16

We're still investigating this, so far haven't found that you can't just renew after the six months is up. And I'm not seeing any requirements besides the registration. So still investigating.

Christian Parsons 13:29

Yeah.

Ethan Waldman 13:30

Nice, nice. Well, that that is the dream to have some property. I guess. If you have to move, you could move into the shuttle bus for the other six months. And then and then back.

Christian Parsons 13:39

A work around!

Ethan Waldman 13:43

Yes, there's always a workaround? Well, the the I would say the thing that kind of tipped me over to like inviting you back on the show. Not that I wouldn't have wanted you back on the show before because as much has happened is just your is your new book, which is called The Beginner's Guide to Tiny Houses. What you need to know about 400 square foot living. Tell me the story of this book. How did this How did this happen?

Alexis Stephens 14:16

Good question. We have very fortunately got contacted by the publisher, I think at the end of last year, and the way this publisher works, they do a lot of data research about what people are interested in. And then they look for people who can write about it, which is great. And a benefit for us as they often work with a lot of first time authors is they're looking for subject matter experts. Right? I guess we can humbly call ourselves that.

Ethan Waldman 14:49

I confirm you don't even have to be humble.

Alexis Stephens 14:53

Thank you so much. So that was that was the how I got going and they had a general outline in mind, and we made suggestions of editing that and things, things that cut and then dedicated a pretty good chunk of actually only an eight week chunk of the winter, writing the book was a pretty quick turnaround.

Ethan Waldman 15:15

That's Yeah, that is impressively fast, too. Talk to the publisher and write something and then be, I've kind of received a digital copy as a preview. I've gotten to see it and I'm really excited about it. When will this be something that that our listeners can go out? And you know, buy at their local bookstore?

Unknown Speaker 15:39

Great question. So August 31. It goes on sale on Amazon get a hardcopy or a paper copy. The Kindle edition is now available. And then soon after that, it should be hitting bookstores. So yeah, so stay tuned. You know, please, go preorder a book.

Ethan Waldman 15:59

So you can pre order it now.

Christian Parsons 16:00

Yep. And reserve your copy.

Ethan Waldman 16:02

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. So who is the kind of intended audience for the book? Well, it

Alexis Stephens 16:11

really is meant for the for the beginner, someone who's considering tiny living as curious about whether it could be a good fit for them or not. They're the ideal person. But I have to say, we've been really delighted this week, some of our early reviews are coming in, we've had I think, three or four people who already live tiny, who read the book. And one lady said, "You know, I read this book to see what what I miss basically, are there things that I didn't know much about?" And she said, "Yeah, actually, I learned a lot of new things in this book." So that was really fantastic. And so I love that people who aren't beginners can get something out of it. Because we don't just explore movable tiny houses. We explore stationary tiny houses. I get into some legal stuff and downsizing tips and and Lord knows I think even if you live tiny, like always be downsizing.

Ethan Waldman 17:11

Yeah. downsizing? For sure. So I yeah, that's it. It is. I agree with the reviews. I enjoyed looking through it, and I'm excited for you. I think that it's gonna help people out.

Alexis Stephens 17:29

Yeah, thanks.

Christian Parsons 17:30

That's the goal.

Alexis Stephens 17:32

Well, I'll tell you the hardest part of the book for us was figuring out the questionnaire. And chapter two is basically like a long form. Quiz forever. Oh, so tough. It's tiny living right for you. Like, okay, what are the questions, the appropriate questions to ask? Yeah, you want me to get to the essential because you don't want to be you want to be super inclusive? Because tiny livings right? for everybody, all kinds of people. There's different forms of tiny living. There's different ways of getting there. So that was a real head scratcher.

Ethan Waldman 18:10

Yeah, well, no, it's it's it's really cool. I've been I didn't take it before our interview. But now I kind of want to to see if tiny living is right for me. I it's cool, because like, the way you do it, is that you've got this pretty lengthy quiz. What is it like 20 questions 25 questions. And then your answers are worth points. And like the basically like the lower your score is the more tiny you are the more ideally tiny you are,

basically Yeah, yeah, we and we thought about that, too. It was about point system on it. Yeah, like smaller should be the smaller right? Yeah, let's do it that way. Yeah.

Alexis Stephens 18:54

Like that. That feels right. But and then it's like is tiny living right for you right now is kind of the thing is like, you don't want to roll it out for anybody. But we're firm believers in that tiny living is often right for a season of your life. Some people make it a long term thing and making multiple seasons of their life but so that that's something to think about too is you know, and some people beyond the seasonal aspect of it. We get caught up in the fantasy, right? With the pretty pictures of Tiny Homes who does it we do I get suckered by this stuff all the time. But where do they keep their dirty laundry? I mean, you got to get nitty gritty. Yeah,

Ethan Waldman 19:35

yeah. Have you Speaking of which, though, since you've been home basing now for two years? Have you found that you've accumulated more stuff?

Christian Parsons 19:47

Good question. Yes, we have. Cuz as of now we've got what is it like three bikes and two paddle boards and a handful of other most adventures. Yeah, full of things to go tube down the river. Yeah, so yeah, it's Yeah, we've definitely accumulated stuff.

Ethan Waldman 20:13

Yeah, it's always the gear. Always the gear

always here and our house is so small. We never, you know, we didn't plan for those things we didn't plan for that year. Right. So we've, we've managed to put you know, our host actually has a shed that we use for those things so it helped.

Yeah. Yeah, sometimes I think that the like the ideal tiny house for me and sounds like for you, too, is like, the tiny house. That is that I already have. Plus, like a really big garage. Like bicycles and skis and woodworking and like, all that stuff.

Exactly. Yeah, we've got, you know, in our property search. The dream is to find something with just a garage.

Forget the house. Yeah, just send pictures of the garage. Yeah. Well, that's like, have you heard of the like, the barndominium kind of trend? I just heard about these recently. I'm like, That's brilliant. It's like you build a giant barn. And then you build a tiny house inside of it. And then the rest of it is barn or garage. I love those. Yeah, they're

Alexis Stephens 21:29

so cute. I'm like, I would want some soundproofing in the tiny house. So walls, you know.

Ethan Waldman 21:34

Yeah, totally. So in terms of of Tiny House Expedition like that, your YouTube channel, your your online business? What have you been working on there? Other than the bunk obviously. Oh,

Unknown Speaker 21:50

fun. This has been such an exciting period for us. last couple years, man, it runs together, but of new projects and expansion. So our Tiny House Expedition videos are now on YouTube on this great streaming channel slash app called SHG Living. And it's like HGTV. But it's free free. subscription. They curate an incredible amount of DIY Home and Garden content. Nice. So that's been fun to be a part of and they as they expand in the future, we might get to do an exclusive show for them. So that'd be that'd be super fun. Yeah. Awesome.

Ethan Waldman 22:34

Nice.

Unknown Speaker 22:35

And in addition to that, thanks to our great friends and tiny house movement legends Andrew and Gabriella Morrison. We now run tiny house builds and tinyhouseplans.com.

Ethan Waldman 22:49

Amazing. I cannot imagine running three websites. One is like enough for me.

Christian Parsons 22:57

A lot of questions a lot. A lot of questions.

Alexis Stephens 22:59

I feel you. I've been we've been so thrilled that we hired a virtual assistant. Well, she's more Yeah, I feel like virtual assistant isn't enough for her. I need a new term. But she's helped us with tiny house plans some some work around that. Which is great. Because it's like you want to do it justice. And it's a lot for you know, us.

Ethan Waldman 23:19

Totally, totally and and how is tiny house plans going? I mean, I feel like people are so interested in in custom plans if they're DIY in their tiny house. Are people still buying, like pre made plans?

Alexis Stephens 23:37

They, they really are. There's been like, it's been interesting as a pandemic kind of some ebbs and flows.

Ethan Waldman 23:43

Yeah. That it's been Yeah, it's been really funny. I feel like some people in the beginning of the pandemic, well, maybe a little after the beginning of the pandemic, pulled the trigger. Yeah, they pulled the trigger on doing their tiny house. So they bought bought plans and started pushing forward.

Unknown Speaker 24:01

And there's been other times where like, as a news have gotten worse, I feel like people pull back. And this is just our story. We're making up about it. But it's just you know, there's so much happening in the world. But we're thrilled we have two new sets of plans from contributing designers. One's called TYNY House, it's like T Y N Y house. Architectural tiny house from Australia. Okay, beautiful design with this epic picture window. That's like basically an entire wall like the whole end of the house. It's really really cool. Very modern, but so cozy. And the other is called HTH 2-Bedroom Tiny House. What makes this super special is Yeah, it has two bedrooms, but they're both access by stairs and they both have doors. Whoo. So

Ethan Waldman 25:02

very different if you got kids, you know, they need doors. You need doors. That's awesome. And,

Unknown Speaker 25:11

and, of course was designed by this wonderful single mom. Well, she's no longer single mom. Sure. Shalina Gosh, her last name just popped on my head. It will come to me. I'm sorry. Shalina. She's amazing. And she was in a big life transition. And she was trying to figure out something for her her daughter. And she has a background in design and came up with this stunning home.

Ethan Waldman 25:39

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, I looked, it's Shalina Kessman.

Alexis Stephens 25:44

Thank you.

Ethan Waldman 25:44

And we'll, we'll link to both of these plans sets from the show notes page, which I'll you know, I'll tell people after we're done recording, so people can find the the HTH and the TYNY. I know it's tiny, but I like saying TYNY.

Alexis Stephens 26:03

Perfect. Thank you.

Ethan Waldman 26:04

Yeah, yeah, of course, of course. Well, that's, that's all fantastic. I was. I was also just thinking, you know, can you talk about? Are you still involved with Thea? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 26:19

So the Tiny Home Industry Association. I sit on the board. He's board adjacent. All right. All right. And I'm part of the Communications Committee. And for a while I was communications director, which was a volunteer position, and was really trying to get some big initiatives underway. I've briefly passed the baton of a lot of the big efforts to Lindsay Wood from Experience Tiny Homes. And she's the first paid employee, which is fantastic. And that means our professional association is taking it up to the next level. But one of the things I'm helping launch right now, soon, is the new website of really excited about.

Ethan Waldman 27:09

That's great. Yeah, the THIA website has always been like a great resource in terms of just wanting to figure out, hey, what are the laws in my state? And just go there and find out?

Alexis Stephens 27:21

Thank you. We've had some really great contributors in the past, and we're excited to improve that offering and to make it more searchable and user friendly for folks. And, you know, it's been, you know, we've been advocates for a long time. So it's been fun to help rally behind some big efforts, because there's a lot of advocacy coming, you know, Dan Fitzpatrick, is the man out there and, and besides things that he does, that he leads personally, we are partnered with a lot, a lot of local groups and try to give them the tools they need to be effective in their home turf. Totally.

Ethan Waldman 28:04

Well, maybe. I know, there's been some big news. I think the last big, big splash that I saw was Maine. Could you could you give us a rundown maybe of like, what what exciting, tiny house legalization things have happened, like this year in 2021. It's been a big year. And I like I'm sorry, I'm just dropping because like, I'm just like, you are an encyclopedia. It's true. I'm just like, just like, kind of grilling you here. I hope you don't mind. But yeah, tell me about the things that are exciting that have happened in 2021.

Unknown Speaker 28:40

No problem. Happy to do it. This is why I have so many facts in my head. Sometimes. That's why I forget people's like, parts of people's names. But yeah, 2021 legalization victories. Number one, the Maine state bill, this is huge. It says that a movable Tiny Home tiny house on wheels can be allowed anywhere, a single family home is allowed. Or an ADU foundation base. ADU. Now, that doesn't mean you can put them wherever you want starting today. But what it does do is it takes a lot of the work out for the local municipalities who are like what do I do with tiny houses when I can say the state told you what you can do with them. So why don't we just hurry this up? And what's great is there are already a couple cities to set. Okay, great. Thanks state. We're doing it. And so that's, I think we're gonna see more of that there. And that's huge. I mean, because expediting that's what we need, and that's what I love about that. Portland, Oregon has been known as tiny friendly for a long time, but what people might not realize is, for the last couple years, it's been a very temporary thing. There were an emerging emergency housing ordinance that said, tiny houses and Arby's could be on private property with these minimal restrictions. But it was going to sunset this year. And advocates. You know, Kol. Peterson was a big one helped to rally some support. We submitted testimony. And now you can get an RV or tiny house on wheels permitted on a private property with very minimal restrictions. Like you don't even have to be certified. They say, yeah, hook up the sewer, if you have a bathroom, if not, you can use the main house. But they also said, we know it's expensive. So here's a grant program for some people who might struggle to pay that few $1,000 bills. So that's so so epic. And it because what they did is they finally so people got wise and they said, Okay, if we're going to talk the talk about having more shelter and housing options, then why don't we make it as easy as possible. And that's what I love about this in Oakland, California is looking to follow in their footsteps with something very similar.

Ethan Waldman 31:08

Yeah, that's fantastic. That's I haven't been in Portland, obviously, since since the pandemic started. But, you know, those cities on the West Coast that have temperate climates also tend to have just so many problems with homelessness. And it is wonderful to see cities, like actually starting to try to make it easier for people to live in tiny houses. Not that that's the band aid solution for everything, but it certainly can take the pressure off.

Unknown Speaker 31:39

Yeah, we completely agree. I mean, it's, we're just pro option. Yeah. And, you know, one of our favorite nonprofits in the movements, Square One Villages, they just opened a new, permanently affordable, co op tiny home village, in Cottage Grove, Oregon. And this is the rural model to something they did in Eugene, which is a more urban environment. Yeah. So there, I just love them so much. They're like, okay, we see all these big problems in the sheltered housing continuum. And we're gonna give you an example for each one.

Ethan Waldman 32:16

Yeah, they I had Amanda Dellinger on the show, was a few months ago. And they do community relations for square one. And I just was blown away, because I didn't really know how much they were doing. It just like, I feel like the idea of creating tiny houses like that, in my mind, it would be this like long, slow process of like raising money and figuring out and they're just like, boom, boom, boom, tiny, like tiny house village here, another one over there, like, amazing.

They're amazing. They're amazing. That's the word. And it helps that their organization that's been around for a long time, right? I know that that helps a hell of a lot. Absolutely.

Alexis Stephens 32:59

And one thing during the pandemic, as it should be, should be anytime, but there's been an explosion of tiny home shelter, villages and projects. Yeah. So that's great. And that's like nation nationwide.

Ethan Waldman 33:15

Yeah. And hopefully, those won't just go away after the pandemic, because they certainly are needed.

Alexis Stephens 33:23

Yeah, seriously, it's the problems not going. Going away. And, and, gosh, in so many places, the costs of housing has just gone up during this time. And, and that's a big thing I think a lot of folks don't realize is that it's so easy to fall into homelessness, but it's very difficult to come out. Because, you know, there are programs, but they're limited. And if you don't, you don't qualify or if you can't get in, you know, coming up with first month last month in security. You know, that's a tall order for anybody.

Ethan Waldman 34:00

Right? Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. Well, is there any any other exciting projects that you can let us in on that you're working on?

Alexis Stephens 34:11

Hmm. What can we let you in on? A good question. We got a couple little things. One is we're about to go to a super fun event with our shuttle bus.

Unknown Speaker 34:28

It's called it's called Gutted. Okay, it's, it's in southern part of Colorado. And the premise is, it's like a couple of different things. I mean, it's, it's like going to an event. But the gutted part of it is they're taking it's a competition where they're taking a bus, and RV, and a van and they're completely gutted, and they're gonna have have teams of like six people that are going to build something over the five days over the week inside each one of them and be judged on what they did. So they actually asked us to be part of it to be in a competition, but I was like, I, I'm not up for driving all that way. And then you know, really working hard for five days. Right? As we get there, I want to go and hang out or once we've worked almost every single show we've been to so Oh, we have worked everything. But you know, we're going to go and we're going to be on a couple of panels and do some talks. But other than that, I like I enjoyed doing that.

Ethan Waldman 35:42

Sounds really fun.

Alexis Stephens 35:44

And it's open to the public. If anyone can make it to southern Colorado, come out, do yoga, do workshops, learn about converting your rig, or bring a tent, bring your car, whatever you got.

Ethan Waldman 35:57

Very cool. Very cool. Anything anything else before before I let you go?

Unknown Speaker 36:05

One last thing is, you may remember this documentary series called Living Tiny Legally, yes. And we've been promising a part three. And course a pandemic slowed us down. But I will say we purposely went really slow on this one, because we want this to be all about implementation. So we want to show the permanent Tiny Homes and villages and in backyards. So we're going to be doing some pretty key follow ups over the coming months, including Lake Dallas Tiny Home Village. And so really stoked on that. And a couple others, so I can't promise any dates, but like we're probably 2022

Ethan Waldman 36:49

we and and all this and in the meantime, you still put out a YouTube video every week somehow.

Yeah, every once in a while, we might throw one. Throw one out on a Tuesday just for the hell of it. for the hell of it. Yeah.

Well, I'm I'm amazed. I'm in awe of both of you. And I just thank you for for all the work you're doing. And for coming back on to the Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast.

Alexis Stephens 37:20

Thank you so much.

Christian Parsons 37:21

Thanks for having us.

Ethan Waldman 37:23

Thank you so much to Alexis and Christian of tiny house expedition for being guests. On the show today, you can find the show notes, including a link to the beginner's guide to tiny houses, and the specific tiny house plans that we talked about at thetinyhouse.net/177. Again, that's thetinyhouse.net/177.

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.