Woman content living in 84-sq. ft. dream home

Woman content living in 84-sq. ft. dream home

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Story Published: Jul 14, 2007 at 2:35 PM PDT

Story Updated: Aug 28, 2008 at 1:10 PM PDT

By John Sharify

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OLYMPIA -- Talk about down-sizing! One woman is living in a house that you really have to see to believe.

"It's 84 square feet, so roughly the size of a parking spot. Actually, smaller than a parking spot," says Dee Williams, who decided it was time to move. She was living in a 1,500-square foot home in Portland, but decided the house wasn't small enough - yes, small enough!

Dee built the tiny cabin herself out of salvaged material. She picked the door out of a dumpster and retrieved the floors from a house fire. Dee's new tiny home sits in her friend's backyard.

"In exchange, I do work on their house," she says.

It takes Dee five steps, sometimes four, to get from one end of her house to the other.

"Two steps through the kitchen and you're in my living room. Two steps into the living room, you bang into the wall," Dee says, laughing.

Two solar panels provide electricity. A tiny propane tank allows Dee to cook in her $10,000 home on wheels. Do her friends think the 44-year-old hazardous waste inspector is crazy?

"My friends definitely thought, well, they had some questions for me!" she says.

The obvious question: Why?

The simple answer:

"A simpler life, time, more money. I don't have a mortgage. I don't have a big utility bill," Dee says.

Her monthly heating bill in the winter is $6, less in the summer.

"I'm able to offer money to my family if they need it, (and to) my friends if they need it," says Dee.

To get to her bedroom, she walks up a step ladder to her loft.

"Every night I look at the stars and watch it rain over and over again. So this is it. Not much to it," says Dee.

And that's the point. Not much to it. Simple. Small. A dream house tinier than a parking spot.

"Right now there's nowhere else I want to be!"

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