There really is no shortage of opinions in the tiny living community. And this is a great thing.
We’ve been trying to decide if we want to go for building a tiny home, or rehabbing an old travel trailer or an Airstream.
One thing I should add to explain our conflict on these options is that Philip and I may be looking at moving to Hawaii in a couple years. By that time, he’ll have finished his bachelor’s degree and earned enough hours to be a pilot for an airline. But he has some old flight instructor buddies who have started working for a flight charter in Hawaii–basically island hopping. They’ve both told Philip to get in touch if he wants a job with them.
Kristie Wolfe’s Off-Grid Treehouse
Philip and I totally love Arizona and see it as the place where we’ll put down our roots someday (in the high desert, anyway–we’re not big fans of areas like Phoenix/Yuma, etc.). But we want more experiences before we do that. And this Hawaii opportunity sounds like just the thing. Especially when we would pursue this type of living situation like Kristie Wolfe’s tiny cabin in Hawaii: http://tinyhousetalk.com/woman-builds-230sf-cabin-hawaii-2-months-11k
Living in Arizona away from both of our families (aside from a few of my relatives who live a few hours away), there would be no place to park our tiny home while we’re in Hawaii (we’re thinking we’d like to be there for a couple years, but I guess you never really know until you’re in it).
So these factors mean part of our tiny build thought process is something that has resale value so that we don’t have to worry about it when the time to go to the Pacific comes. The biggest resale opportunity seams to be with the Airstream, so we’re kind of leaning towards that right now (though my heart would really prefer a tiny house, this whole thing IS about meeting needs instead of wants and learning to be content, after all!).
We have no building experience and little RV experience, so we really don’t know what to look for when it comes to buying an Airstream. But never fear, the internet is here!
Thankfully, the Airstream community seems just as devout as the tiny house community, and there are a ton of resources out there. In about a month, (maybe 6 weeks) we should be ready to purchase a $2-$5K something (I say something, because I could easily see us buying a new trailer for the tiny home foundation instead of an Airstream, since we’re not 100% and still talking it out). If an Airstream, this would definitely mean an older, junkier trailer and a lot of elbow grease. We don’t mind hard work, but I am concerned about getting one that still has good structural integrity.
Enter this great resource I just found: Air Forums! This site has a directory of volunteer trailer inspectors by state. It also has a trailer inspection checklist. Overall this thing is a tremendous repository of information. I’m psyched such a thing exists. So we’re keeping an eye on Craigslist and hopefully will get to make a call in to an inspector in a few weeks!
The Tiny Trail 