Me and Mi Casa

A little over a year ago I purchased an Aloha travel trailer originally constructed in 1965 just outside my current city of Portland, OR.  I knew I was looking for an old, small trailer for cheap that I’d remake and live out of with my old bird dog, Jasper.  At 91 sq. ft.  I own the tiniest of all of the “tiny homes” I’ve seen.  It’s hard to imagine what that amount of space actually looks like.  The size of Mi Casa comes in under that of a lot of closets or bathrooms out there with overall dimensions of 7′ W X 13′ L.

Two heart beats sharing that amount of space felt anywhere from cozy to claustrophobic over the 11 1/2 months that J-bird and I lived there.

I’ll start with explaining why this was an adventure that I chose to go on in the first place.

6 years ago I received a degree in architecture from the University of Texas (Hook ‘Em).  After years of working for environmental architects and feeling it wasn’t quite right, I switched courses and began on a path of community organizing and non-profit work.  Through following my passion for responsible consumption and my creative drive, I found full time employment in an arts and environmental organization whose mission is to inspire communities to reuse materials for art, craft and design.

Everything that I learned from the jobs that I loved, and especially from the ones that I hated, helped me discover my identity as a designer.
I am not an Architect.
I am not an Interior Designer.
I am not an Artist.
I am a Reuse Designer.
When I realized this, I also recognized in myself a desire for ownership in my own space because renting is, well, the worst.  So I worked up a plan.

1. Buy a trailer
2. Re-make it out of reused materials
3. Live out of it…for a year…if you don’t go crazy first.

The most important thing that I’ve learned from this whole experience is that I want to do this for a living.  Design.  Make.  Spread the word about how fabulous and how important reuse is.

I realized the plan had an important step that I hadn’t anticipated.

4. Make spaces for other people out of reused materials

Which is why I’m here writing about what I’ve made.  Because I want to make more…