There is a chance that you will not always live in your Tiny House where it is now. Perhaps the location is only available temporarily, perhaps the flow of tenants is desired, perhaps you would like to move to a different type of home, larger or in a different location. For TinyFindy I looked for experiences of Tiny House pioneers with moving.
Some go to another region or even another country. Sometimes they leave their house behind for the next enthusiast, there are also Tiny House residents who take their house with them to the next place. What are the main reasons for taking this step and what challenges do you encounter?
Pioneers from the very beginning
Bernhard Hörl is an anthropologist, linguist and Tiny House pioneer from the very beginning. Until this year, he lived with Maria in a self-built Tiny House and also helps others build their dream. Bernhard developed the Fri:dom building system for this purpose: ‘We lived in our Tiny House for 7 years, of which 2 years at Proeftuin Erasmusveld in The Hague, the first tiny community in the Netherlands, and 5 years in the Pionierskwartier in Delft.
This period has given Maria and me the space to get to know ourselves better and take on new challenges in life, with minimal financial pressure and a lot of love and connection around us. By living off-grid in a Tiny House community we learned a lot about self-reliance, community, nature and what is really important to us.’
Moving house and all
After living in The Hague for two years, Bernhard and Maria moved to Delft with their Tiny House about 5 years ago: ‘Our contract in The Hague ended after 2 years and this was the ideal next step for us. The municipality of Delft wanted to realize a Tiny House village and we were given the opportunity to be part of this. The municipality was able to provide a suitable location and infrastructure, and we provided our expertise in setting up a community structure.’
The preliminary phase mainly involved a lot of meetings, consultations and establishing preconditions, together with the municipality. The practical moving process from The Hague to Delft was quite simple: ‘Laying road plates through the grass to our house and having the house pulled there via a car ambulance company. Within the selection process of the first residents, we especially wanted to invite people who had already proven courage to build their own house (or were building one) without knowing where they would ultimately end up. As a result, the Pionierskwartier in Delft started with a real pioneering group, with a lot of energy, enthusiasm and perseverance.’
A new adventure: Spain!
Maria and Bernhard ultimately lived in the Netherlands for 10 years: ‘When we moved to the Netherlands, the idea was to stay here for a maximum of 1 to 2 years.This has become much longer, partly due to our tiny living spaces, because it felt very cozy and nice in our green, temporary villages – even between the railway and apartment buildings.The prospect of a life closer to nature and with more peace was always the motivation for me to be able to live temporarily in an urban environment to develop my professional skills. Now I feel I have arrived at a point where I no longer need the city and can move my work and life to a more relaxing place in Northern Spain.’
New place, new home
How did they find a new place? ‘We started dreaming, found a place and started volunteering on a farm. We were then able to buy a piece of land and built a house there, happy ever after!’
The pioneers do not take their Tiny House to Spain, this is mainly for logistical reasons: ‘Finding a new owner at our temporary home in Delft brought new energy to the neighborhood and by leaving our Tiny House there is no disruption to the landscape or neighbors’ gardens by road plates and trucks.’
Although Bernhard and Maria no longer live in a Tiny House, Bernhard still has a tip: ‘I think there should be no shame if your Tiny House no longer suits your lifestyle 100% at a certain point in your life. Many people expect that as a Tiny House resident you will never want to live bigger or different again or even be allergic to regular houses. Our decision to live tiny was never because we did not want more space, we have many hobbies that actually require quite a lot of space (arts/crafts, music), but because we wanted to live affordable, pleasant and connected. For 7 years we combined small physical space with enormous mental space to develop. Now it is the turn of the new owner of our Tiny House in Delft to experience this.’
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