I wouldn't hesitate to say that my guest this week is one of my all-time favorite professional tiny house builders. JP Marquis from Minimaliste Houses has been building gorgeous, modern, premium tiny houses since 2015, early on in the movement and his company really has staying power because of their pursuit of building excellence. And I'm not reading any pitch, this is all coming from me. They have continued to innovate to make their tiny houses both safer and better to live in. In this conversation, we go kind of deep on building for cold weather, why JP thinks that SIPs are the only choice for building a safe and warm tiny house on wheels, heating systems, and more.

I was really excited to invite Leslie on the show because she has just published a book called “Tiny Plants: Discover the Joys of Growing and Collecting Itty Bitty Houseplants” and I just knew I had to have her on to talk about plants that you can bring with you into your tiny house lifestyle. I had no idea that this was even a thing so I'm really excited to share this conversation! Leslie is a super outgoing and knowledgeable guest and she actually brought plants for show and tell. Members of Tiny House Engage were able to actually watch out interview streamed live, but she did send me some photographs of the plants we talked about.

I've known Sarah for close to 10 years but we only met in person last summer. Sarah is a bicycle touring professional and also a tiny house enthusiast who got in touch with me nearly 10 years ago when she was looking for people interested in both bicycle touring and tiny houses. It turns out that they are a lot in common! In this episode, Sarah will share her story of how she fell in love with bicycle touring and how it goes so well with tiny house living. I also share my story of how bicycle touring led to tiny house living for me.

My fascination with houseboats really started when I saw a video tour of Bonnie's houseboat, the River Den, on the Exploring Alternatives YouTube channel. I've been trying to get her on the show ever since. It turns out I had no idea that Bonnie was a talented entrepreneur who has multiple houseboats and unique Airbnb stays. In this interview, we go through the ins and outs of what it takes to actually build a floating house on the water and also some insight about how Bonnie thinks about designing these homes and her philosophy on building.

In their own process for going tiny in 2014, Joshua and Shelley Engberg decided to design a custom trailer for their dream tiny home. Frustrated by how difficult the process was, they went into business as Tiny House Basics and now build over 450 custom tiny house trailers per year. In this interview, we’ll hear Joshua and Shelley’s tiny story, their tips for finding an ideal Parking spot, and we’ll nerd out about trailer features, from tube steel to threaded rods.

Certification of tiny homes has been a tricky topic for years now. I’ve been skeptical of many of the certifiers because I haven’t always seen the benefit. Last week’s conversation with Jenifer Levini only increased that skepticism. But this week, I’m happy to bring you my conversation with Alex Ontiveros from Pacific West tiny homes. Pacific West has been in the certification business for a long time, and in this conversation, we’ll see if Alex can convince me whether tiny house certification is worth it.

The legal landscape of tiny homes is one of the most frustrating and confusing parts of the tiny house movement. In fact, “tiny home” isn’t even a legal term, so municipalities have had to figure out what form of existing law they fit into. My guest Jenifer Levini is a housing and land use lawyer, and author of Building, Occupying & Selling Tiny Homes Legally. I would consider this episode a must-listen: Jenifer walks us through the 6 types of tiny homes (from a legal perspective), why codes are critical for safety, RV vs. residential code, and her take on avoiding bad players.

SquareOne Villages is an amazing organization creating self-managed communities of cost-effective tiny homes for people in need of housing in and around Eugene Oregon. My guest Amanda Dellinger is the Community Relations Director, and if you’re curious about tiny home villages, this conversation is a must-listen. We start by exploring the co-op model for housing and delve into all the details of how these tiny home villages are funded, built, and maintained.

The concept of Lifestyle Design certainly predates the tiny house movement, but I see the two as very linked. Enter today’s guest, Jessica Malone, a lifestyle design coach who lives tiny herself. In the interview, we’ll talk about the difference between Decluttering versus Downsizing, life hacks for easy minimalism, and the mindset required to succeed.

One of the best ways to spend time as a family is traveling full-time. Traveling together can be fun, interesting, and educational for your children too. But it can also be difficult. My guests today are Jessica and Will Sueiro, and they are two parents who have done it successfully. They left the American rat race in 2014 and haven’t looked back. In this interview, we’ll get into the nitty-gritty details of full-time travel as a family- from health insurance and medical care to homeschooling and finding friends.