ALEXIS STEPHENS AND CHRISTIAN PARSONS ONCE TOYED WITH THE IDEA OF BUILDING a teardrop trailer, but when the thought of building a tiny house on wheels popped up, they were hooked. The pair worked with friends and family as well as a builder in Winston-Salem, NC, to bring their tiny home to life. The house was an “all-hands-on-deck” community endeavor that took eight months to complete.
Inspired by similar tiny house stories across the country, the couple was eager to get back to their filmmaking and producing roots. Christian and Alexis are the masterminds behind Tiny House Expedition, a community outreach and documentary storytelling project. For two years, they are traveling around the United States and Canada in their tiny house, documenting tiny house communities and developments. They share the stories of how tiny houses are used in eco-villages, housing for the homeless, urban infill, and everything in between. They hope the documentary will inspire discussion about sustainable and affordable housing, and encourage people to “dream big and build small.”
Photographs by Christian Parsons, Tiny House Expedition
Photograph by Christian Parsons, Tiny House Expedition
Reclaimed materials add a lot of warmth and character to Christian and Alexis’s tiny home. Inspired by 1920s bungalows and Pacific Northwest lodge-style homes, they knew they wanted to use a lot of wood and unique details in their home. A friend gave them a whole pile of raw oak boards that had been sitting unused in a tobacco barn, which they used as flooring as well as for the stairs and the porch. They got permission to dumpster dive at the local company where they bought their roof, and they found some colorful striped metal for their shower walls. Even their curtains were lovingly made from mismatched fabric remnants in shades of red and orange.
Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth County was a local sponsor that kept a lookout for secondhand materials the couple could use. The organization had been given a sixty-year-old farmhouse that was going to be demolished, and Habitat invited Christian and Alexis to take whatever they wanted. They brought friends and had a demolition party, pulling out nails and salvaging the interior and exterior wood paneling. They painted and lapped the boards to use as their wall cladding. It took a lot of time, but the character they gained for their house was worth it. As Alexis states, “I couldn’t be more in love with this house because it reflects our personality like no other place I’ve lived.”
Photograph by Christian Parsons, Tiny House Expedition
Photograph by Christian Parsons, Tiny House Expedition
Christian and Alexis kept their eyes open for reclaimed materials at all times. Aside from dumpster diving, they relied on websites such as Craigslist to find odds and ends they could use. Driving by new construction sites was a great way for them to find a lot of perfectly useable plywood that otherwise would have been thrown out. Word of mouth—both in person and on social media—turned out to be a big help in finding materials. They discovered that people in the community are eager to help as long as you’re not afraid to ask!
Alexis advises people interested in living small to do your research and dive in. She stresses how important it is to pare down your belongings. People may think that they can’t live without all of their stuff but are later surprised by how quickly they adapt once they get rid of their clutter. “You are still you with fewer things,” she says. Most of all, Christian and Alexis love the community of the tiny house movement. Their house allows them to dedicate their time and unique skills to their documentary project, which they hope will help grow the movement even more.
Photograph by Christian Parsons, Tiny House Expedition