The Big Tiny
“Visitors to [Dee Williams’] property may be forgiven for thinking someone had taken up residence in a beautifully built pine-and-cedar toolshed out back….[An] affecting memoir…she writes in The Big Tiny of finding a centeredness and peace in her little house, of being less fearful, more alive. Some of the best passages are when she describes the sensory experience of being inside: smelling raw cedar and knotty pine; listening to the weather.”
New York Times
A graceful, inspired memoir about building a home from scratch and discovering a true sense of self-in just eighty-four square feet-by Dee Williams, a pioneer in sustainable living and the proud owner of a very tiny house
After a heart condition felled Dee Williams in the grocery store ten years ago, she initially threw herself headfirst back into her old life, which included a pricey three-bedroom house, overtime hours to cover homeowner bills, and a general lack of free time. In the midst of contemplating her future, a new sense of clarity took hold. What was all this stuff for? Mortgage payments and the time-suck of homeownership felt like a waste, and no one has the money or desire to pack it in and live on an island without family, friends, or health insurance.
Discovering the sustainability movement and building her own house was just the beginning of building a new life. Williams can now list everything she owns on one sheet of paper, her monthly bills amount to about eight dollars, and it takes her ten minutes to clean the entire house. It's allowed her to slow down, scale back, spend more time with family and friends-and given her the freedom to head out for adventure, or watch the clouds and sunset while drinking a beer on her (yes, tiny) front porch. Without escaping to the wilds or going off the grid, Williams achieved a happy balance of the normal and the radical and created a new model for simple, practical living.
Part how-to and part why-to, The Big Tiny is not just a memoir of that "aha" moment posttrauma but an utterly seductive meditation on what it means to build the good life and the right life, every day.
Praise