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Maker Feature: John & Rachel
Pictured: Roskilde in Cocoa, Cocoa/Red
We met up with local tiny house builders John Cole and Rachel Altman and talked about simplicity, choosing the things they own, and of course, tiny houses. They shared about their adventure in building tiny homes and what it’s really like to live in one.
On the Beginning
JOHN: The way that I got into tiny house building was through wanting to free myself financially and live a lifestyle that I believed in: living lightly and having more free time to focus on the things that I believe are important in life.
On Living Simply
RACHEL: A lot of the things that I chose to keep are things that I wanted to look at every day. So the pictures that you see and little touches are things that we both chose that we really wanted to see every single day. It also makes those little things more special, like the cup that we drink coffee out of is our one coffee cup and it's not like we have excess of all these things.
JOHN: I could go around and look at everything in here and tell the story of it, going through the building process and also the stories that Rachel and I have created together.
On Connecting with Nature
RACHEL: It shows you how little you really need. To be able to live in this field and have these views. It kind of feels like this whole land is our home and we just have this small indoor space. . . It helps me feel more connected to the natural world. And it’s so quiet here. No cars, no sirens, it’s really just birds.
On What They’ve Learned
RACHEL: It’s made us grow and see who we are in different settings. It’s also brought so much joy and so much connection that we wouldn’t have experienced if we didn’t try to do something really hard.
On the Next Project
JOHN: The new tiny house, that one I’ve been wanting for a while since finishing this house. I just had had this vision for it to have the icosahedron front, which is the geometric shape that it is. . .that was just in my head for so long. To see it finally come together and be in front of me is just so surreal to see.
Follow Along
Follow John and Rachel’s current project of building a tiny house using sacred geometry, or reach out for more information on Facebook and Instagram @icosahedron.house
Watch Our Visit
