Reading about our kitchen, in our kitchen. Kinda spooky, but mostly fun! We’re tickled to announce that the Milkwood Tiny House is featured in the latest edition of Green Lifestyle Magazine… get it while it’s hot!
As many of you know, the building of this Tiny House has been a looooong labor of love – but 5 years, some false starts, various small disasters, one massive learning curve, one child and one permaculture farm enterprise later, we are living in our small, natural, hand-made home. And now it’s in a magazine. Who would have thought.
Photo by Seth Buchanan
This was our first photo shoot. Ever. Photo shoots are funny things. The photographer that Green Lifestyle sent out, Seth, was very accommodating of the inclement weather and our high amusement at being photographed in our home.
Seth was also great with our three year old tyrannosaurus rex who was, at that point, rather loud and growly when asked to… well, asked to do anything that day, actually. Solution? Take lots of shots of growly dinosaur, and show them back to him. Ashar thought Seth was the best thing ever.
Photo by Seth Buchanan
Photo by Seth Buchanan
Photo by Seth Buchanan
And then, months later, there it was… the Tiny House, in pictures! Here’s the first two spreads of the article…
My favorite things about this article are two fold. Firstly, the mag came out just after our first proper house party (Nick’s 40th) where the tiny house got well and truly christened by a troupe of old and new friends for 3 days. So the house got christened, and then this lovely vignette of the results of a 5-year project appeared on our doorstep.
My other favorite thing about this article is the fact that our simple bucket style compost toilet made it to a lifestyle magazine! Yay for societal shift.
Our humanure loveable loo, the ultimate in simple bucket compost toilets… In a lifestyle mag! Yay for societal shift…
To read the full article, you’ll need to get a copy of Green lifestyle Magazine. It’s a great edition this time around with articles on community gardens, a soak and sprout poster, thoughts on mining in the kimberly, avoiding PBA and even an article on preserving tomatoes without creating a murder scene (*cough* written by me *cough*).
If you want to check out the backstory of this hand-made house build, including making compost toilets, experimenting with wattle and daub walls, making gabion rock walls, post and beam wrangling, dumpster diving for windows, doors and the kitchen sink, passive solar design and all the rest of it, the story of the build of the Tiny House is here…
Reading about our kitchen, in our kitchen…
Big thanks to Emma and Caitlin at Green lifestyle Magazine, and to Seth Buchanan (incidentally a local photographer based in Orange) for his good humor and beautiful photos.
Huge thanks (once again) to everyone who built, carved, held up, held down, drilled, hammered, rendered, sweated, cursed at and otherwise participated in the build of the Tiny House. We love you.
Particularly huge thanks to Shane Mills for being the best natural builder we’ve ever met, and to Nick Ritar for both designing and planning nearly ever facet of this house, for keeping on track through summer and winter and summer again, and for also getting by at times on sheer optimism and belief, including in the brief periods when I was totally over it and ready to pack it in. Hooray. It’s beautiful. Thank you.
>> More posts about Natural Building at Milkwood
Here’s to more tiny houses being featured in magazines… And houses that are actually tiny. I’m so sick of reading about families who live in ‘tiny’ 100 sqare metre houses. Try 28! It works! And it’s beautiful! And gentle! And easier to build, which is important when you’re hand-building. Congratulations on the spread. You guys are so out there.
Wow, congratulations! That’s so very exciting! And your home looks gorgeous (and functional!)!
One of the wonderful things about the tiny house philosophy is that it teaches all of us about the art of the possible. It challenges us to look at our own spaces and to think about how we might use them differently. We still live in a large house, but, inspired by tiny houses, we’ve shed lots of ‘stuff’ and divided our home to provide a two bedroom flat to our daughter and her boyfriend. We are all living happily in much less space and while we’re a long way from ‘tiny’ it’s a step in the right direction. Thank… Read more »
Love your work! love your site. Thank you for sharing it all and inspiring us.
Beautiful, beautiful house. And that kitchen! I aspire to build my own smart-sized house. Where everything is just right and serves a purpose.
Reblogged this on Serenity's Musings and commented:
Now this is something different AND unique too!
How tiny is tiny like dimensions?
Sent from my iPhone
i think we’re about 60 square M all up…. so not tumbleweed house tiny, but small noetheless!
Many congratulations to you! And to your toilet 🙂
Hi Kirsten,
As you can see, loads of people are so inspired by your Tiny House design that they plan to build one of their own (we certainly do!). Given this fact – and the fact that you mention the process has been wrought with steep learning curves, false starts and small disasters – any chance you could list down your main “Lessons Learnt” for everyone? We’d be ever so grateful! 🙂
If you happen to have just covered this in the magazine article then you can disregard 😛
Oh it’s a list i have long been compiling, but every time i go to post it i wonder ‘hmmm maybe i shouldn’t say that’ about so many of the items! It’s been quite a journey. Perhaps I’ll put up the PG rated list soon, thanks for the reminder 🙂
Reblogged this on janiswings and commented:
You guys should read this! I love this blog! I can’t wait to have a tiny house even if its a tumbleweed house or an original.
Love it! What a funny thing to be reading about your kitchen in your kitchen 🙂 yay for the loo making the pages too – though I must admit when I read ‘Yay for societal shift…’ I really did read the last word twice – as I thought it was without the ‘f’! lol
So famous!! 😉 I love how you are spreading the word… in style! (Coveting your honey jar still).
Fantastic! I will search out the mag tomorrow.
I borrowed the latest Green Lifestyle magazine and was reading your article thinking this sounds familiar. And then it twigged!!!
Very exciting for you guys
Hi congratulations, love your place, the mission you guys are on and courses are soooo inspiring. I did your mushroom course and looking at aquaponics but have a family wedding so hopefully catch the next one, I did suggest they change the date but to no avail LOL. Trying to source mag over here.
Go well.
Congrats you guys. Love the house, your mission, your courses and web site are all so inspiring! Thanks! Did the mushroom course, looking at Aquaponics but have a family wedding, I did suggest they shift the date but to no avail. LOL Trying to souce mag over here. Go well .
Love the post! Privileged to see it ‘in the flesh’ at the very recent Jan 2013 PDC. Most impressed with the visit – loved the view from the bath (no I didn’t have one) Thanks, Kirsten and Nick (Greg W.)
HI Kirsten. I love your blog, thank you. If you don’t mind, what are your benchtops made of? I hope one day I’ll be able to put all your comprehensive info into practice on our one-day-to-be-realised permaculture place in Victoria.
I just found your blog a couple weeks ago, and now I’m creeping the archives. That is one gorgeous bucket toilet bathroom. The one I used growing up was no where near that pretty. Maybe it was the mint walls. And counter. And cupboard. And bathtub. Might not have been the toilet at all.