Creativity

Gypsy wagon or 'vardo'.

Creativity is one of the fundamental human needs. It is something that I have found largely missing from our cruising lives, with the exception of our blog writing and photography. The need to do more creative things will probably drive me to return to shore-based life after spending the last 6 years (off and on) cruising on our sailboat.

Building your own shelter is surely one of the most basic ways to satisfy the need to create. I have wanted to build my own home since I was in my early 20's. I think that building a tiny house in the form of a 'gypsy caravan' would satisfy that desire.

The tiny house movement in its current form is quite recent, although I remember reading books written in the 70's that described similar structures coming out of the 'back to the land' movement of the 60's and 70's. Tiny homes typically reflect the beliefs and personalities of their builders and are often home built. They are usually less than 400 square feet on the main level, being referred to as 'small homes' if much larger than this. Many of these homes are built like miniature gabled houses but are placed on heavy trailers. Mobility avoids issues with building codes such as minimum building size requirements. Others homes are built as cubes (perhaps using recycled containers), gypsy or shepherd wagons, and even railway cabooses.