Alyssa Nolan is the founder of Tiny Houses for Camp Fire Survivors, which is an organization that is building and giving away tiny houses for the survivors of the devastating wildfire that leveled the town of Paradise, California. Alyssa is actually a wildfire survivor herself, having lost everything in the 2008 Butte Lightning Complex Fire. With no construction experience to start, Alyssa has designed and built 10 tiny houses to give away to fire survivors. In the process, she has developed a model for doing this work efficiently and affordably. Using salvaged camper trailers as the foundations for the tiny houses, Alyssa has figured out how to build super lightweight so as to not exceed the weight limit of the trailers.

This is a special live recording of a panel discussion that I gave at the Big Mass Tiny House Festival in September of 2019, all about building with reused and salvaged materials. The discussion includes an all-star panel of tiny house DIY builders and dwellers who have done amazing things with reuse and salvage materials. Featuring Alex Eaves, Vera Struck, Sarah Hastings, and Shorty Robbins.

Chris Strathy AKA The Capable Carpenter has jumped headfirst into all aspects of tiny house building. After his first tiny house on wheels “It's OK To Play”, he has worked on a horse trailer conversion, a tiny a-frame, and even repaired some damaged tiny homes that needed some love. Chris works with salvaged materials and has an amazing mobile workshop made from a converted camper. We cover it all in this interview.

Maria Saxton is the first person to have done academic research about the Tiny House Movement, and she decided to explore how the ecological footprint of tiny home downsizes change as a result of going tiny. Now we actually have some science about how tiny houses can be a positive factor for the environment. In our conversation, we dive into her research to learn more. If you’re concerned about the environment and you want to reduce your environmental footprint, or you’re just curious about the impact of tiny houses, give this a listen!

Lauren and Chris are a husband and wife team of Airbnb entrepreneurs. They own two rental properties in Southern Vermont, one of which is the beautiful Green Mountain Tiny House. They were incredibly intentional about how they set up this tiny house as an Airbnb. If you're thinking about investing in tiny houses as rentals, or you want to make sure your own tiny house will be viable as a rental down the road, this is a great interview to learn about what features it should and shouldn't have to be appealing to travelers.

Backyard cottages (DADUs) are dwellings that share a lot with a primary residence. They provide opportunities for families while increasing housing stock density and diversity. And they are becoming more common as housing costs increase and regulations are eased. Through his company, microhouse, Bruce Parker has been designing DADUs in Seattle for 10 years.

Ariel has lived off-grid in a tiny house in the Wyoming mountains for 6 years now. She has first-hand experience on how to deal with heat, water, and electricity without a reliable connection to the grid or even consistent sunshine. Ariel is a generous guest who offers an inside look at how she has set up the systems in her tiny house.

Melissa Gersin is here to tell us the tale of 3 tiny house parking spots in 3 years, one of which resulted in her actual eviction. This is not what we want to think about when we are excited about living in a tiny house, but Melissa has been kind enough to share her story and impart some wisdom to help us all avoid some of the negative experiences that she had with tiny house living.

I met Steven at the Vermont Tiny Fest and I was impressed by his contributions to a panel discussion about the future of tiny house trailers. Steven has been in the trailer business for a long time building custom trailers, and so it was only natural that when the tiny house movement took hold he started building custom tiny house trailers. He has some ideas about how we can improve tiny house trailers for the structures that we’re building on them and has noticed some problems with the common designs that are out there for tiny house trailers. It’s a great conversation and you’ll definitely learn something new about trailers! (I didn’t know what torsion axles were until our conversation.)

Jonathan Avery of Tiny House Scotland has developed an ingenious system (NestHouse) for building moveable, modular tiny houses. Jonathan shares his philosophy on carpentry and design, and we explore the tiny house scene in Scotland and the United Kingdom.