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CA artist-farmer builds $25K quiet home to savor simple life
In Japanese Garden

CA artist-farmer builds $25K quiet home to savor simple life



WooNeeding a break from roommates and social work environments, L Gilbert wanted an affordable home for one in pricey California. Equally eager for construction experience, L began to build a tiny wooden home using salvaged lumber (deck, outdoor shower, furniture, doors), local cedar siding, and birch plywood interior.

After 6 months of intense work, the home was finished, costing $25,000 in materials: the savings on salvaged material were offset with splurges like a new trailer, solar panels, an efficient wood-burning stove, and a high-end compost toilet.

To find an affordable place to park the new home, L began writing to farms in Northern California asking if someone might be interested in exchanging parking on premises for rent and some farm work. After months of waiting, a Christmas tree farm that had been ravaged by a megafire responded saying they had a spot and would only charge $300 per month rent as well as some help selling trees during the holiday season.

The parking sits surrounded by 50 acres of farm (40 acres of which were burnt by the 2018 megafire) and serves as an ideal location to retreat into quiet. “I think it’s a really interesting decision to decide to live alone,” explains L. “But for me, it was a long-term desire, it’s where I thrive the most, is to live alone. I love being around people, but I think having a space that’s my own is really important. I do a lot of work in communities, and being alone is essential to recharging. I think that’s also why I want to build this space so I would have the energy to keep doing the work that I want to do with people.”

Building through the haze of at least one fire and now living on a property where 50,000 trees burnt in the 2018 fire, L is hyper aware of the increasing frequency of megafires in the state and worries about the next one.

“I’ll always live in fear here that my home will burn down. I know that if I’m going to stay I have to develop a different relationship with fire. I’ve really been looking to indigenous leaders because they know better than any of us that fire has always been a part of this land. It actually rejuvenates the soil, it gives new life to native species. The difference is we’ve mismanaged the forests for hundreds of years. What happens then are these mega-super fires, and it’s terrifying, so part of me wants to leave. I just want to take my house and leave but when I really think about where I want to be it’s here. I’m trying to figure out what that can look like in this type of climate.”

L’s Instagram @_l_gilbert_
Woodworker Dav Bell @manzanitachange_

On *faircompanies: https://faircompanies.com/videos/ca-artist-farmer-builds-25k-quiet-home-to-savor-simple-life/

47 Comments

  1. KM Writes

    This is one of my favorite houses, and persons. The home is beautifully and mindfully done and I understand her comment about the meditative process of cutting wood and other work. I hope she has many happy years there if she chooses to stay.

  4. K

    Kirsten, a big reality is living anywhere is a plasma fire danger. Do you know the difference of a fire and a plasma fire 🔥 .. keep your tiny House ungrounded

  5. sun1one1

    I wish these all these tiny house people would stop burning wood for heat. It isn't good for the environment.

  6. Mike Luit

    Great common-sense low budget self-made tiny home. Love the forethought building for mobility. Good job!

  10. Mom Puff

    I’m happy for you and your decision to live a more mining full life with less stress & have your independence!! 👏🏻❤️🦋

  11. Cheryl Anderson

    This tiny house uses space so well! I wish I could do that kind of work!

    It's located in a fire prone area, but it's such a beautiful place to live. It's a big dilemma as to whether you should move awsy from a fire prone area or stay & accept the risk of losing everything.

    To be safer I think you should begin looking for a different location.

  14. deirdre444

    This is one of my favorites of all the videos you've made. Thank you. So many good ideas to pull from it.

  15. Sigmund Groth

    Her house is very nice and well designed but I think that $25K is way too much money to do that, and she is paying also way too much to rent that space to have her home on it; $350/month? That is not San Francisco, the people who rent the piece of land to her is charging her too much. Watch what a Spanish couple built in the mountains of Portugal with $5K, yes, that is correct, look up the following video title and check out the little house: " #29 WE ARE IN TROUBLE [Living Remotely in the Woods] "

  23. Santa Monica Mike

    Great video👍😁
    Interesting statement "I wanted to be 100% off fossil fuels" I support peoples "wants" until they legislate "their wants" to inhibit "my wants".
    In California they have "banned" Clean Natural Gas in new home construction.
    I like that in this situation, common sense was used to save (conserve) money and get the little bit of comfort desired using "fossil fuels" by choice.
    Oh and nice choice in efficiency using gas stove. I don't have any heat in my tiny home so I utilize my stove top to break the chill with window cracked for fresh air ventilation and a Co2 detector. In 10+ years only went off once when I got carried away with flame height 🤣

  26. NaduellaB

    Once again, great video. It’s so nice that she followed her heart and made her tiny dream home a reality. Thanks Kirsten, keep them coming!🤩

  28. Ben Brown

    Our capacity to accomplish things is so much greater than our society seems to acknowledge. Regarding her shower she may want to investigate a diy 3 nozzle mist shower. They can use less than 0.75 gallons per entire 9 minute shower. I enjoy mine. That amount is low enough simple solar heating and an agricultural sprayer to pressurize the water may be possible for her

  35. Mstellitlikeitis48TheTea

    OK so let’s talk about the bugs and mosquitoes etc.. That tiny house looks really nice however let’s get down to the real truth the pros and the cons

  37. CARISSA GALGANO

    Would you be willing to share drawings for this? I'm very interested in what you did on the utility side (electric, plumbing, propane, etc), thanks!

  39. Emily August

    “It’s very calming for me to do stuff like this. For me, if my external reality feels organized, I think it helps me feel really calm.” I'm loving this big Virgo energy! 😉And of course I adore this serene home with its simple, honest materials. L exemplifies the injunction to "know thyself" and act in accordance. What a cool home and person.

  42. Xã Lợi Vlogs

    I got dumped by my wife just because I'm passionate about making videos. I'm in a bad mood right now…a choice that cost me dearly…I don't know if I should continue or stop😢

  43. Posi Tano

    The governor of California has forbidden the digging of reaches around homes or barns, as well as clearing out the dead, dried brush. This is why fires spread so quickly. Other states have fires but they do clear out dead, dry brush and they do dig out fire breaks, so their fires are contained. That's why you make it hear abt loss of homes and massive fires in California.

  44. Richard Raucina

    You hippies need just an old builder to teach you to toe nail the bottom plate to the deck before lifting a wall. It is a hinge and it wont let your wall go down the hillside. So much knowledge out there trying to be reinvented with screwups unneeded.

  45. Richard Raucina

    Nice little house, but the reality is detached from how California works and the fire situation. Place it out in a field and make dirt all around it during the summer. If you have water then place roof sprinklers, I saved several houses this way in various firestorms.

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