The Tiny House Family | Hari and Karl Berzins
The Berzins family have been featured on the NBC Today Show & and Yahoo Finance for living beautifully and mindfully in 168 sq. ft.
They are also enrolling now for their e-course in which offers planning, coaching and a private support network to clients ready to start a mortgage-free path.
Since October of 2012 Hari and Karl, along with their two children have been completing a 1,400 sq. ft. “big” house… and from the the looks of recent photos it appears to be almost complete.
This article troubles me a bit and brings me to speaking about a trend I’ve noticed as regards tiny houses: people don’t commit to them long term.
Even Jay Shaffer, the man who popularized this way of life years ago now built at least two different tiny houses that I know of, then built a larger house for he and his family with the original tiny house as an outbuilding only. This is completely antithetical to the ethos of downsizing and living minimally both economically and environmentally. He’s now merely propagating yet another product.
Building a tiny house as an addendum to your larger house, or as a second home, or moving out of it a few years after moving into it makes it look like tiny house living isn’t sustainable in the long term. I’m afraid that the Tiny House Movement is only a fleeting ideal and not one that will stay the course as a better way of living long-term in a resource-strapped world.
I recently read that one couple’s tiny house that they hand-built was stolen off their property–the thief just hooked it up to their own truck and took it away. Before the house was found soon thereafter, the couple had already rented an apartment saying they didn’t know if they wanted to live in the house anymore after all.
I understand how dreamy it is to imagine an ideal lifestyle with less–less stuff, a simpler life, no mortgage, cheaper bills–but I hope it’s not just a passing fantasy for all the people who are hyping it. I hope tiny houses are not yet another trendy product to consume, but a lifestyle commitment for the good of the economy, the environment, and personal growth. But what I see is that they’ve become another typical American consumerist industry with more and more people selling books and workshops on how to build one yourself while losing sight of the whole point of the movement. It’s so disappointing.
What are your thoughts on this issue? Am I missing something?
The couple that did the documentary Tiny never really lived in the home. It’s still sitting empty in the middle of Colorado.
Macy Miller still lives in her home with two kids, but I think she is the rarity.
I think that tiny houses are heavily romanticized. It sounds like an amazing idea. You can find hundreds of resources on how to build a tiny house. But you would be hard pressed to find resources on tiny house living from actual experience. I am here to tell you it isn't everything it's made out to be. For some people it may only be a means to an end. And that's what it was for us. As long as it serves a purpose then that's great. Life is fluid and always changing. Who says you have to stay in a tiny house just because you built it.
