Tiny Living on Wheels
In recent years, the tiny house movement has rapidly gained traction, partially due to reality TV shows, social media, and blogs — all about tiny houses.
However, the concept of tiny houses or smaller, simpler living is not a new idea. Over 150 years ago, poet Henry Thoreau made a famous experiment of living simply in a small house in his work, Walden. The 1906 San Francisco “earthquake cottages” are another example of pre-modern tiny houses. But with the modern rise of tiny houses, the movement has mostly moved off the ground and onto wheels.
A recent study noted that tiny houses on wheels have come to represent the movement itself. TH builder companies have sprung up across the country, almost exclusively building tiny houses on trailers ranging from extreme tiny homes to larger tiny houses.
Out of the types of tiny houses on wheels, three different variations are some of the most common: houses on trailers, campers transformed into tiny houses, and school bus makeovers. Each mobile TH is different, made to suit the needs of the owners.
Nicole Cascione’s tiny house journey started in 2015, when she first found out about the movement. The simplicity and minimal lifestyle was exactly what she was looking for.
“I knew I didn’t want the ‘American Dream’ lifestyle of working 40+ hours a week to pay for a house that I was barely ever in,” Cascione said. “So I knew a tiny house would allow me so much financial freedom in general.”
She started saving up money, and in 2018 started building her tiny house with her fiancé. Seven months later the home was finished, and Cascione has been living there ever since — completely loving it.
The process was not without a challenge to her, however. After the home was built, Cascione was surprised at how hard it was to find a place to keep the tiny house.
“I think the more legal tiny houses become the easier it will be but right now it’s pretty difficult to find somewhere to park,” Cascione said.
The struggle to find a parking place is not unique to Cascione. Other tiny house owners across the country struggle with the same challenge.
Summer Ginther and her husband remodeled a small camper into a tiny house and started traveling the country in it in 2019. Ginther loves traveling, but due to her and her husband’s need to have internet for their jobs, finding a good parking spot is even more difficult for them.
“Since we travel the country so much it can be challenging to find good places to stay and especially places with good enough internet for working,” Ginther said.
Despite the struggles of living in a mobile tiny house, owners are generally happy with the lifestyle.
“We absolutely love everything about living tiny,” Cascione said.
This piece is created as a sidebar story to a larger project. All pictures are used with permission from Nicole Cascione and Summer Ginther.
