Back in 2011, while I was sick and not capable of doing much, I started to follow two blogs, both by women building their own tiny houses: Macy Miller and Ella Jenkins. At first it wasn’t as much about them both being women, as it was me just liking their houses, and enjoying the way they wrote about the building process. But over time, I grew more and more inspired by them both. Neither had any building experience, and both were doing most of the work themselves, with a little expert advice, when needed. Their two houses could not have been more different–Macy’s was artistic and modern, and Ella’s was traditional and a little whimsical–and I loved watching it all come together, over the months, on their blogs.
Since then I’ve become friends with Macy. I help her moderate a Facebook group with over 40,000 members, called Tiny House People, and when I was building my own house, I went to her for advice on the structural engineering, since she’s an architectural designer, and extremely knowledgable on the topic of tiny houses! Her house has been featured in Dwell Magazine and TIME Magazine, and may be the most well-known tiny house on the planet.
Then tonight I came across a comment from Ella on a post on Facebook, and seeing her name sparked all these happy memories of reading her blog, all those years ago. So I clicked on her name and the first post on her timeline was a video for a song she just recorded. She plays the harp, and actually included a tiny room for her harp, in her tiny house. I remember hearing an earlier version of this song, “It Ain’t Workin,” several years ago. But this version is more polished, and her voice is amazing!
So I’m sharing that video from Ella, and while I’m at it I also want to share my favorite of all the videos that feature Macy–it was made by the Google SketchUp Team, and it’s pretty great!
I think it takes a certain kind of personality type to want to build your own house, and it takes real guts to actually make it happen, so kudos to anyone who has ever built their own dream house! And special appreciation to the people who inspire us to dream bigger, and do more–and both of these women fit that description for me, and for so many others. Both of them are incredibly inspiring, for so many reasons!
And perhaps it’s even more inspiring to see what they’ve done after they built their houses. Both have continued to dream big, and are accomplishing big things. Macy has been on the road for a year, with her family, in a tiny camper they built–so a second tiny home for the road–and she’s documenting it all. And Ella has released an album, and now a video.
Macy always says “it’s not about the house, it’s about the lifestyle the house provides,” and I agree. I also think that doing something really big, like building a house, even a tiny one, can change your life forever. Make your life bigger and better, and more fulfilling. Give you the courage to go after new challenges… Because honestly? If you’ve built a house, you can do anything!