First, what's with the name?! Well, we're all about the concept of going tiny...
Tami loves the minimal aspect – downsizing, having less stuff, having more time and disposable income to spend on experiences.
Kevin likes the ecological aspect – smaller footprint, easy to build with eco-materials, and lower cost to build.
But, we're also two only-children who both work from home. So living in one ~200 square foot house didn't seem practical long-term. Which is why we came up with our vision for our version of tiny living: two tiny houses with a deck between them. One tiny house has office and sleeping space, the other has the living and kitchen space. Both have tiny bathrooms, with composting toilets.
How we got here
We’ve had this clear vision of how what we wanted our life to look like since before we got married. But we were a bit complacent with steady jobs and a beautiful rental home.
Then life stepped in to push us over the edge. Kevin sustained a head injury while practicing Brazilian jujitsu. And not just like, take a month off and then right back to work. More like, in a year you can probably start working again.
Which brought up a lot of big questions for both of us. Financial questions. Life goal questions. Career questions. And the short version was that we didn’t want to delay our dream life anymore. Kevin’s injury shook all that up and really made us examine our choices and lack of progress toward our end goal.
Which is how we got here. Making tiny steps toward tiny living. Two years post-concussion, we're both still rebuilding our lives, careers, and tiny house. But there's no place we'd rather be! .
Read more about our journey at Holl & Lane Magazine.
More about Kevin
Kevin is originally from Napa, CA, went to UCSC for undergrad, majored in EcoPsychology and then never left Santa Cruz. He spent a few years working on sustainable agriculture issues before going to graduate school for psychology. That turned him into a development junkie who’s spent the last 15+ years of his life committed to being an expert in applied human development. He’s taught Warrior Yoga and Quantum Jujitsu to thousands of students at UCSC, the Santa Cruz juvenile hall, and the local school district. He was also faculty at a life coaching school in Canada where he taught dozen of students in addition to coaching his own clients.
Now that he's recovered from his concussion, Kevin is starting to rebuild his personal coaching business, working with men on finding their purpose, stronger relationships and having a positive impact in the world.
More about Tami
Tami was raised in Hayward, CA and also went to UCSC for undergrad, majoring in Environmental Studies & Biology. After UCSC she worked at the Oakland Zoo teaching kids about animals and the environment. After a few years of teaching it was time for a change of location, so she headed off to Rome for a year. While there she traveled all around Europe — thus began a lifetime addiction to traveling. After a few more years of traveling and working (and traveling and working), she went to graduate school at Middlebury Institute of International Studies for International Environmental Policy. She managed to sneak in a few more countries even during grad school, most notably Cuba. After grad school, she settled down in Santa Cruz with Kevin working as an event planner for the foundation of an organic certifier.
While Tami quit her job to take care of Kevin during his post-concussion recovery, during that time she started freelance writing and slowly built up a small business. Due to her previous health struggles and her experience taking care of Kevin, she decided to narrowed her scope to working with health and wellness coaches and entrepreneurs, helping them connect more authentically with their potential clients. Learn more about working with Tami.