Tiny Home Tuesday ~ Friday Harbor

'Less is more.' You've heard it and reacted out of wherever you are in your life, falling on one side or the other of the heart of what this means - to you. Cliches are cliches for a reason and in the following case, the truth is contained on a few levels.

Tiny home living is evolving at a public awareness pace that could almost be called rampant (the first blog about tiny homes, the aptly named Tiny House Blog, only got its start in 2007 - now there are dozens) except that statistically the actual numbers of people living in recently built tiny homes can't even be accurately documented, due in part to some pretty bizarre zoning laws in existence. There are places that will not allow a home to be built to tiny or even small standards, as they aren't considered big enough to even be a home. Crazy.

And then there are places with hardly any zoning laws that ever get enforced. That can be a not good thing. Of course, I don't mean that about the home in this photo.

The flip side of tiny home builds affordable to many is the affordable to few side, where location and high end builds meet, commanding a price that puts them on the far outside planet range of many who want to go tiny, either by finding such a home or building it themselves (don't let that stop you though, there are beautiful, sanely priced places if you hunt with passion to find them!)

Welcome to Friday Harbor, Washington's offering. One bedroom. One bathroom. 598 square feet. A living roof, 5 acres and a killer whale view. All yours for $1,850,000. If you have been to Friday Harbor, you'll understand the price point a little more. If you haven't been to Friday Harbor, you should go if you can; it really is a beautiful place in a beautiful place. 

Seeing this photo was what drew me to include this home for the post

I'd have a completely different seating arrangement but it would certainly be facing those windows

What's not to like about a wall full of books?

I like a clean look, but for me this is a bit sterile. But a drainboard sink? Oh yes!

Where's my claw foot bathtub and fuzzy rug?

You can find more photos and more info here at the Zillow listing, which was used for the photo source as well.

I always think it is interesting how much attention is paid to bathrooms in homes. Maybe it's an American thing, maybe I just notice too much. But when watching home shows or reading much about tiny homes (especially the comments), the obsession about the comfort zone of body elimination stations borders on the bizarre. 

Interestingly, to me at least, the last two shows I watched about home buying in Alaska, it was the men who were uncomfortable with open bathrooms, where the toilet wasn't shut into an enclosed space for complete privacy (of the sort where you hold your hands over your eyes and assume no one can see you). I have no conclusive point here except to compare it to the majority of the world and wonder if our sense of not wanting to deal with our own literal shit doesn't have a lot more implications.

Oops! Tiny Home Tuesday goes off the rails! There is a dawn to watch, obviously a good place and time to stop.

Have a tsk tsk not Tuesday. Do something thrivingly.