Now, time for the real meat and potatoes. New bikes are always fun, and I am very happy to be riding full time again, but the excitement level of cycling pales in comparison to what I’ve been working on. I am proud to announce the creation of Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses, LLC. I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a Tiny House company for over a year now. Ever since I caught wind of these small living quarters I have been more or less obsessed with them. Just about every work or business related decision I have made over the past 16 or so months has been in preparation for this moment. My decision to buy a run down camper, renovate it, and live in it on a wide open farm for almost a year was no coincidence either. My personal Tiny House that I’m building now was just as much a business decision as it was for personal reasons. The “Durango” as it will be aptly named, will act as the company’s first model house. Even my decision to start Durango Bike Trailers last spring was a stepping stone to get to this point. I actually had plans to start a teardrop camper company as an “in between” stepping stone, but the momentum has built so quickly, this wasn’t even necessary.
This week I put in my resignation from Sun Peak Builders. The owner was super cool about it and very supportive of my new venture. My time spent there has been invaluable, and I’ll be the first to say I wouldn’t have felt prepared to start this new company without the experience in contracting, estimating, planning, and management that I gained while working at Sun Peak. I have agreed to stay on long enough to tie up loose ends, as well as on a contract design basis, because design still remains a passion of mine and I learn a lot from Adam since a lot of the stuff we do is alternative building.
The company is obviously in its infant stage, and I feel a little uneasy about introducing a concept that isn’t fully developed, but at least the LLC is registered, I snagged the domain name and Facebook page I needed, and my initial meetings with the Southwest Colorado Small Business Development center have been promising. In a nutshell, here is what Rocky Mountain Tiny Homes aims to do:
- Provide quality, affordable, flexible housing in the form of Tiny Houses on wheels to the Rocky Mountain region and possibly beyond
- Offer custom solutions that other builders aren’t qualified or aren’t willing to offer
- Promote resources for the DIY Tiny House enthusiast
- Develop original Tiny House plans and models that are appropriate to the Rocky Mountain region
- Push the boundaries of Tiny House technology, function, and design. Innovate.
- Publish books and videos related to advanced Tiny House topics not covered very well in other resources, such as self containment systems, solar power, minimizing weight, customizing trailers, advanced plumbing, and more…
- Work with lending institutions to try and solve one of the biggest hurdles to purchasing Tiny Houses-financing.
The list goes on, but if you didn’t get the jist of all this, I’m going to be designing and building Tiny Houses for a living. And also if you haven’t been keeping up with the housing market, the Tiny House movement is exploding. People are tired of over-sized, lifeless houses, mortgages, and inflexibility. I haven’t even come close to pinning down my numbers for one of these things, but I’m hoping the average model will come in around $35k or less. That’s the price of a new truck or higher end car. That’s the down payment on a house in Durango, and most of the US for that matter. That’s only a year’s wage for a middle class worker. Even with a 5 year personal loan it would be very easy to pay off. Some might purchase a Tiny Home as a backyard rental or other kind of investment.
Anyways, I digress. There is going to be a huge demand for Tiny Houses in the very near future, and coincidentally, there aren’t many Tiny House builders in this part of the country, so hopefully life will be good.
I should point out that I’m not starting this business for financial reasons. Sure, I hope to have good success and do all the other things in life that I love doing, but really this opportunity will allow me to pursue my many passions: design, creativity, ingenuity, carpentry, tinkering, collaboration, entrepreneurship, and helping others, to name a few.
Getting it going will be no easy task. The next few months will be filled with brainstorming, planning, documenting, building the website, finishing my Tiny House, establishing connections with suppliers, beginning the search for clients, and so, so much more. If you feel so inclined, please help me spread the word. Nothing works as well as word of mouth referrals, but social media shares are nice too 😉
Thanks for checking in on the latest and greatest. Life has been extremely gracious to me as of late, I hope the same can be said of you too. Remember, “Less is More.”
Peace
Greg Parham
Owner/Manager
Rocky Mountain Tiny Houses, LLC
Sounds good to me. Much success my son! And don’t forget, I’ll be needing one soon.
When I started Tiny Texas Houses I did not comprehend the true possibilities that come from targeting a healthy for the people and the planet house, proportionally sized for the coming times and 76,500,000 retiring baby boomers expecting to be supported by 20,000,000 of you kids under 45 years old. Given the lunacy of such an expectation due to the physical condition of most of my contemporaries who are hitting that proverbial wall, there is no chance of it happening. Thusly, your choice is right on to build tiny houses, though clearly you have not gained the momentum and experience yet to understand all of the loopholes, toxin free, un-imported building material choices, and the potential of teaching how to build the houses free.
I invite you to study my Youtube videos, music videos, and the sites I have set up to help educate and lead others like yourself who are awakening to the need, the vision, and the future of our society as the planet cleanses itself and adjusts the population, with the aid of the Sun, to accomodate its survival once again. As the new millenium begins, you and others with the foresight to prepare as you are awakened to your spirit and your true potential, I believe we will form a chain that will bind us as One at the time when we will need it most, and knowing where we are for when this medium of the internet and technology go down will be critical to many steps we will need to take to survive and teach others once that happens.
Welcome on board. Hope you clear the sleep out of your eyes quickly and fully realize the rest of your vision.
Darby