Tiny House by Jay Shafer Design, REALLY tiny...
- Susan Ardizzoni
- Jun 24, 2016
- 2 min read

Gary has always wanted to be a writer. Everyone told him that that wasn't practical. So he did the so called right thing and took on a practical job in the recruiting business, bought a house and settled down. After ten years of employment, he couldn't help wondering if he would ever have he chance to do what he really wanted to do, write! Frustrated with his current situation he began to do a rethink about his future.

With some encouragement from a friend, Gary began to think of more adventuresome endeavors such as living in an RV and perhaps traveling around. Perhaps they could buy a sail boat and live on the water. All the while, Gary and his friend kept saving money for the "big day" they would break away. Then an idea popped up. Wouldn't it be nice to buy some land in the North Carolina mountains. This seemed interesting but Gary didn't know what he would do with this land. At this point, he learned about the tiny house movement. He then got the idea that he could actually build a tiny home even though he didn't have any construction experience.

Gary and his friend decided on an early Jay Shafer design of which they would attach the tiny house to a foundation halfway up their mountain side. This would make the construction somewhat physically challenging. For Gary, construction of this house became a path to self-discovery. He realized that he had missed a connection with a sense of community and with a simpler way of living and now he was able to achieve that. The small house took three years to build with a number of problems along the way. While building the house, Gary and his friend commuted from Atlanta (where they worked) to the mountains about twice a month to work on the house. With the house finally finished, Gary had to face one of his greatest fears, quitting his job so that he could become the writer he always wanted to be.

It took a few nights to become acclimated to the small house but Gary easily fell into a simple routine and he as able to write without interruption. No more rushing around and multitasking and that was what he was missing. A simpler, slower paced life.
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