Small Spaces etc. - Introduction

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."
— Henry David Thoreau

Live deep and suck out all the marrow of life is a great Waldenesque way to think about the Tiny House movement of this past decade. Some of us live this lifestyle of small space and others find it an intriguing mental challenge.  Either way, there are now so many wonderful examples around the world it seems Encinitas You Need Us should make this a weekly item.

Housing has been in the news and in the political center of the last campaign year.  Yet absent from the discussion is much talk of small houses and other alternatives to the dominant single family residence that is nowhere affordable for a growing number of residents. There is a Kirstin Dirksen full length documentary - on YouTube here - that is really fascinating. The following is a shorter version as a good introduction to the Tiny House Movement.