11 Years in 260 Sq. Feet: How A Tiny House Changed My Life
The Journey, Lessons, & Opportunity To Try A Tiny Home
**VIDEO TOUR + UNIQUE OFFER AT END***
In January of 2015, I came back to Canada after spending three years travelling, studying, teaching, and working around the world as a Permaculture designer.
I had just finished launching a Permaculture school in Barbados where we taught how to grow food, work with nature, and create beyond-sustainable homes, lives, and careers.
I was ready to put down roots in my hometown of Edmonton, Alberta…
…but I had a big question to ask myself:
What kind of home does a Permaculture teacher want to live in? I wanted something efficient, resilient, off-grid, and designed around how I wanted to live.
But I also had another strong belief:
I did not want to spend the next few decades buried under a mortgage.
The roots of the word “mortgage” translate in Latin to “death pledge”, and I dont believe in working 20-40 years of my life so I can live.
A tiny house seemed like an answer.
Small enough that I could afford high-quality materials. Mobile so I did not immediately need to buy land. And because every square foot mattered, it forced me to get very clear about what I actually needed.
So I started researching.
And researching.
And researching some more.
Eight months later, after working with consultants, tradespeople, engineers, and a truly unreasonable number of spreadsheets and measurements, I bought a trailer and started building. The build took another eight months.
When it was finished, I was in my late twenties, debt-free, & the proud owner of a tiny off-grid home for Canadian winters.
I had no idea at the time how much that little house was going to change my life.
Designing a Tiny Home Using Permaculture
The house is only about 260 square feet. While that may sound restrictive, I found it strangely liberating! When you have very little space, every decision has to earn its place.
That is also very much how Permaculture design works. Instead of asking, “What can I add?”, you ask questions like:
What functions does this serve?
Can one thing perform several jobs?
Can each system or thing support another?
Can this work better with nature?
This way of thinking shaped almost everything inside my tiny house. One of my favourite examples is the ventilation system.
I installed an HRV, or heat recovery ventilator, to bring fresh air into the house without throwing away all the heat I had already paid for.
But I also positioned the airflow so it moved air across my kitchen dish rack and the clothes-drying rack in the bathroom. Now my ventilation system also dries dishes and laundry.
Simple. Useful. Multiple functions.
That is Permaculture design.
A Solar Array Awning
The solar system became another design example of stacking functions. I worked with a solar engineer to create a custom rack to hold & move the solar panels.
When in travel mode, the panels fold down on the roof without affecting the max height when on the road.
But when parked, the panels lift up and over the windows to be an adjustable awning. They can also pivot seasonally.
In summer, the panels help shade the windows. In winter, they are angled for better solar power & to shed snow.
One system. Several jobs. In permaculture, we say, “Design the work out.” Through design, this house works less on cooling, and I work less clearing snow.
Using the House as a Thermal Battery
I also approached the house from a passive-solar perspective to stack functions and improve efficiency.
I invested in the best windows I could afford and placed more windows on the south side of the house to capture winter sunlight. (And during the summer, I shade those windows by adjusting the panels.)
But orientation & window placement to get free heat is only half the challenge… You also need somewhere to store it.
Because the trailer frame sits inside the insulated envelope of the house, the steel itself acts as thermal mass. I also designed nearly 2,000 litres of water storage into hidden tanks beneath the counters and couch.
That water served a practical purpose, of course; one big tank and a smaller back up tank for all domestic water use.
But all that mass also helped slow down temperature swings inside the house.
Sunshine, my automatic propane heating, or wood-stove heat could be absorbed and released gradually as the house cools. And vice versa, in the summer, all that water acts like natural AC, stopping the house from overheating.
When it was time to move? Drain the tanks & the house becomes lighter again.
We don’t have to force things to work, we just have to put them in the right spots based on what they do. We all can be Permaculture designers.
Multi-functional Furniture & The Door Ladder
One of the simplest pieces of furniture in the tiny house is a great example of stacking functions. Its 1 piece of furniture, with 3 jobs. All built DIY.
Its the door to the bathroom and… well, its first and foremost a door.
On the back? A full mirror.
On the front? A ladder to go to the loft.
I built it from plywood, dyed the wood, finished it with an automotive coating, and used black iron pipe for the ladder rungs.
In good design, we say “function > form.”
But we can still have fun with form!
The Pros & Cons Of Living In A Tiny House
Making an off-grid tiny house is one thing.
… living in one for a decade is another.
Living on solar taught me how to live with seasons in a way that only an off-grid system can. There are long bright summer days when electricity feels almost unlimited. Then there are dark winter stretches when you pay attention to every appliance.
I installed backups, including a generator and a wood stove, but thankfully I rarely needed them.
More than anything else, living in the tiny house taught me how to adapt.
My water usage… because I filled it.
My power… or use a generator in -30c.
My relationship & how to communicate and share the space with a partner!
One of the underrated benefits of off-grid tiny house living is that you become more aware of your relationships with your physical, financial, and social world.
It’s not easy, but the gifts are worth the hardships. That was my experience.
All Homes Break. Custom & Off-Grid Homes? More.
Of course, the romantic version of tiny-house living leaves something out… Maintenance. All homes need it.
But when your home is custom-built and off-grid, there is not always a person you can call who understands every system. So you end up becoming your own plumber. And electrician. And solar technician. And carpenter.
No one else is going to crawl under the tiny house to work on that clever P-trap you put inside the insulated trailer frame. To be able to fix your own home… that independence is invaluable. At times, it is also stressful.
Despite the ridiculous amount of research I did before building, I still estimate I made about $10,000 worth of mistakes. That was humbling.
It also became one of the reasons I started teaching tiny-house courses. I figured if I had already paid tuition to the School of Expensive Mistakes, perhaps other people should not have to.
And as a professional teacher and Permaculture designer, I knew I could show others a way of making a tiny house that would just make more sense.
How Tiny Homes Changed My Career
I never intended to become “the tiny-house guy”… I was a Permaculture teacher. The problem is that even today, most people do not know what Permaculture is.
Tiny houses though were different…
They had shows. Blogs. YouTube.
People were fascinated by them.
And once I finished mine, I started noticing just how much questionable information was floating around online.
I had now gone through the entire process from Research –> Design –> Engineering –> Construction –> Mistakes –> Living
So as a teacher, I was confident I could dramatically help other people get through that process faster, cheaper, and with fewer mistakes than I had.
So I created A Tiny House Workshop.
The first one filled… it was a huge success!
Then I ran a second, and before I knew it, requests from across Canada came in.
I taught over 50 weekend workshops across Canada, showing people how to design and build tiny homes of their own.
But then COVID shut down teaching… but I didn’t let that stop me. In Permaculture, we say, “Turn problems into solutions”.
So I became a video producer, built a green screen room, and I turned the workshop into an online course (CLICK).
And you know what? I was still teaching Permaculture. I was just sneaking it into my tiny house courses, like you sneak zucchini into chocolate cake. 
I continued through and after COVID to use my skills as a producer to create a YouTube series to design, build, and give away another tiny house, all for free (CLICK).
What started as making my personal tiny house turned into a branch of my career. But tiny homes are career changers for more than just me. They can change any career…
Tiny Homes Give More Than Housing
Besides a roof over your head, there is another benefit that matters even more.
Freedom.
Because I owned my home without a giant mortgage and kept my living expenses low, my career decisions did not need to be made under financial pressure.
That allowed me to take risks and build my business.
I could work less and travel more.
I also volunteered more (Ex. building that free tiny home).
Looking back, the tiny house was not simply an affordable home; it was infrastructure for the life I wanted to build.
There is no one right way to live… Tiny homes help people discover theirs.
From Tiny Homes To Landscapes To Humans
Having designed and built two tiny homes from beginning to end has permanently shaped how I think about housing & design.
This includes:
- Function, form, & minimalism.
- Multifunctional design & efficiency.
- What we need and how society is shaped by our housing choices.
But most importantly, how the home relates to everything outside of it.
No home is an island. Our homes are surrounded by a world that they came from, impact, and return to.
Likewise, no human is an island.
We ARE our ecology.
But just as we aren’t taught how to build a home, we aren’t taught how to live with the world that makes our lives possible.
THAT is what Permaculture is, and it’s what needs to be taught more than any one topic like “Tiny Homes”.
This is why my work has increasingly moved from “homes” to the physical & social landscapes that hold them. And this brings me to the next chapter…
A New Chapter
This fall, I am beginning a three-year Master of Landscape Architecture at UBC in Vancouver. The goal? To help more people & have more impact.
With a Master’s, I can teach the next generation of design professionals at post-secondary. The impact is limitless.
With a Master’s, I can join a firm or start my own, to change the way we do forestry, agriculture, and city design. Our countries need leadership in this space.
While this next step in my life is exciting for my, for my students, and for my clients, this means I will be moving from my tiny house.
It is bittersweet. I love my house. It has been an enormous chapter of my personal and professional life.
But I am also excited for someone else to experience it; to also have their life changed by it.
Living in a tiny house, especially a comfortable off-grid one, changes your relationship with things. With money, your work, and your relationship with yourself, your social world, and the natural world.
Your home stops trying to contain your entire life. You begin spending more of that life beyond its walls.
Can you imagine what that would look like for you?
UPDATE: Want to Live in my Tiny House?
As I head to Vancouver, I am looking for the next person to call the house home.
It is located on a beautiful acreage 10 minutes outside Clearwater, British Columbia. (90 min north of Kamloops).
Current rent: $1,300/month
(Water & power included)
The house has new flooring and paint and comes with basic furnishings. It includes:
- A full kitchen with a five-burner stove, apartment-size fridge, double sink, and a surprising amount of counter space
- Queen sleeping loft with built-in storage
- Second loft with a double bed that can also work well as an office
- Expandable dining table that seats 2-8 when required
- Propane automatic heat (heated towel rack!) and a wood stove
- Off-grid solar system
- Private clearing on a larger acreage with trails and lots of surrounding nature
Pets may be possible depending on the animal and situation.
I am ideally looking for someone interested in staying for a year or longer, although I am open to discussing other arrangements.
Here is a video tour:
An Optional Mentorship Opportunity
There is also something a little unusual available to the right person.
If you are interested in tiny homes, Permaculture, sustainability, landscape design, building a land-based career, or planning a property of your own, I am open to including regular mentorship as part of the experience.
What that looks like would depend entirely on the person. Perhaps you want to:
- develop practical skills around growing food & living off-grid.
- plan an acreage of your own.
- become a Permaculture designer.
- have a mentor to make a tiny house.
The goal is not to create a formal internship program; this is an opportunity for the right person to be coached by a designer and teacher, based on their goals.
If this sounds like you, contact me through my contact page and tell me a little about yourself.
And if somebody immediately came to mind while reading this, please send this article their way.
I hope you enjoyed learning from my tiny house and my journey… It’s always evolving, and so is yours. Perhaps in a tiny house.
Warmly,
Kenton “not-so-tiny-impact” Zerbin