Living Large in a Tiny House - Dee Williams visits Clark County WA
Dee Williams is a Washington woman who has become a pioneer for the small, make that tiny, house movement. After suffering a heart attack at the age of 41, Williams began questioning her life and what really mattered. It turns out, she discovered what most of us probably already know, “the important stuff in life isn’t stuff.”
However, unlike the rest of us, she sold her three bedroom Craftsman home in Portland, Oregon and built an 84 square foot home on a trailer and pulled it up to Olympia where it sits, for the most part, in a friend’s backyard garden. Her monthly utility bills add up to about $8, and it takes her ten minutes to clean the entire house. Williams can list everything she owns on one sheet of paper - 305 possessions.
You’ll have a chance to meet Dee Willams, and see her tiny house, on September 6, 2014 at Vintage Books in Vancouver, WA. House tours are from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm, and Williams will be speaking, and answering questions, from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm.
The Big Tiny - A Built-It-Myself Memoir
The story of Dee’s decision to live a more simple and “stuff-free” life is chronicled in her book “The Big Tiny,” which was released on Earth Day of this year. She has now spent ten years living large in her tiny house and shares her discoveries, and sense of humor, on each page.
While many of us have a hard time envisioning life in such a small space, there is something quite appealing about living life simply and efficiently, with great awareness of community and the environment. Paring down the stuff and concentrating more on the people we love, and how we spend our precious time, sounds positive to me.
As she explains, “ Admitting that I’m “happy enough” makes me wonder if I’m falling short of my potential as a middle-class American: like I should want more out of life than this tiny house and the backyard, and the way it feels to sit on the porch and watch the sun come up…But the facts are the facts: I found a certain bigness in my little house—a sense of largeness, freedom, and happiness that comes when you see there is no place you’d rather be.”
Dee’s story intrigues and inspires - over 20-million people have toured her house virtually, and many others have toured it first-hand. Be sure to mark your calendars for September 6, 2014, and get ready to spend an afternoon learning more about this charming woman, and her alternative lifestyle.
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