My obsession with tiny houses :)

I don't actually remember what show or article sparked my interest in tiny houses. But I do know I have been charmed by them since I first saw them. I remember sketching a little village of tiny houses for single women of all ages. And I remember talking about them to my teenage daughter and saying that we could each have our own loft. We were living in a small mobile home at the time and going tiny didn't seem like that much of a stretch. Ironically, within a month or two of even talking about it, I was offered an extra position as a house parent at the international boarding school that I worked at. The job included a 2000 square foot apartment for a subsidized rent of $400. Needless to say, it was too good a deal to pass up - and it was a job that I wanted as well. It is probably a good thing I didn't follow up on tiny houses at the time - my daughter's teenage years were challenging enough as it was and I'm not sure we both would have survived living together in such small quarters :)

I continued to watch any show about tiny houses I could find and read about them online. However, it was not until I moved back to the west coast (Victoria, B.C.) that I started seriously thinking about them again. I sort of had it in my head as a retirement project as I could already foresee that Victoria was going to be an expensive place to rent in once I retired and I wasn't quite sure how I would manage on just my CPP pension. On my 55th birthday, I arranged to spend an afternoon in a 100-square-foot tiny house (with an outside bathroom and kitchen). By the end of the day, I could definitely picture myself in a tiny home and realized that there was absolutely no point in waiting until I retired to pursue the dream. I was paying $900 a month in rent and the sooner I was living tiny, the sooner I could have a more affordable lifestyle and have extra money to retire early or travel more. The designing, planning and research stage started the very next day with the goal of making strides towards going tiny within the coming year.

It has now been about 14 months since then and - in spite of some obstacles and disappointments (which I'll revisit in other posts) - I have now found a builder, signed a contract and paid the deposit. I am involved with a tiny house meetup group that is working to make tiny houses legal in this area and another group that is hoping to build the first tiny house community on southern Vancouver Island. The trailer for my tiny home is on order and the build will start by the end of February 2017. It is a big commitment and there is some stress and fear about the finances and the not really knowing if a tiny house is for me ... but the overriding feeling is one of excitement!

Dreaming Tiny

My big dream is all about small things - tiny houses, simple pleasures (nature, birds, fairy gardens) and a little piece of the world to claim as my own!

It is exceedingly unlikely that I will ever be able to own land as I have chosen to live in Victoria - one of the most expensive real estate markets in Canada. But I am pursuing my dream of having a tiny house built and I am optimistic that I will be able to find a little corner of someone else's land to rent so that I can create my own little haven of coziness and serenity! And I am hoping that by the time my house is finished (May 2017), that it will even be legal to do just that!

I do regularly question my sanity for spending my life savings (plus an extra 15-20 thousand dollars!) on pursuing this tiny dream of mine, especially as I don't know where I'll be able to park and live in it when it's done ... but the idea of it just wouldn't let me go! I've wanted this since I first heard about tiny houses nearly ten years ago and I think any desire that lasts that long is meant to be pursued!

So, as the name of the blog says, I am officially in pursuit. And Happinest was not a misprint ~ that is the name of the house of my dreams! I am in pursuit of Happinest ~ a happy little nest for my dog (Nova - pictured below) and I that is filled with the things that are important to me and that is nestled in my little piece of the world!

I'm writing this blog primarily for myself (it is going to be a big part of my life story, after all). However, if I get any followers, I hope that pursuing my dream will help you reach out for your own - big or tiny! And, if you are reading this, welcome and thanks for dropping by! Feel free to follow my story as I move closer to making the dream real. There are already plenty of blogs, websites and videos with lots of technical advice on building tiny homes. If that is what you are looking for, I'd suggest looking elsewhere as I am not an expert on anything. My words will be much more about the emotional part of this journey ~ the highs and lows and doubts and delights of going after a dream!