The Big Tiny

***This excerpt is from an advance uncorrected proof.***
Copyright © 2014 by Deann Williams

Happy Enough(Olympia, Washington, April 2012)

 

For months now, I ve been waking up at four in the morning. I ve got this system down: I toss about in bed for a while, left to right, right to left, then lie flat on my back to stare into the knots in the wood ceiling. I watch my dog breathe as she sleeps, watch her legs jolt as she dreams of chasing rabbits. I look out the skylight window, watch the clouds and the moon; I stare at myself in the reflection of the window a few feet from my face, and wonder if I look as shadowy and pensive in real life as I do right now, a thought that causes me to make exaggerated sad-clown faces as in an old black-and-white movie which cracks me up. I close my eyes and listen to the my own whistling breath, and wonder if have a vitamin deficiency, if I m aging ungracefully or will die in the next half hour, which leads to the question of whether I d want to be found in this position in these long johns with the elastic blown out at the waist, with dirty dishes in the sink, dog hair on the carpet, and a compost toilet full of pee. I rearrange myself, smooth out the blankets and uncrinkle my forehead, and think about the neighbors. I wonder if they are also awake and worrying about their vitamins.

Later, when I actually see the neighbors, I probably won t follow this line of questioning. Instead, I ll say something neutral like s up? Or if there s more time, I ll bring up the clouds or the wind, or one of a thousand other things I ve noticed floating around in the predawn backyard. I might describe the catfight in the alley or the way seagulls were cracking open clams by flying over and dropping them on the carport roof. I might not even mention that. People don t really want to hear about that kind of long-winded stuff when they casually ask How you doing? while they re dragging their rubbish bins out to the curb before driving

Dee Williams is a teacher and sustainability advocate. She is the co-owner of Portland Alternative Dwellings (www.padtinyhouses.com), where she leads workshops focused on tiny houses, green building, and community design. Her story has been featured on Good Morning America and NBC Nightly News, and on NPR, PBS, MSNBC, CNN, and CBC. She has also been profiled or featured in hundreds of online blogs and articles, and in print media including Time, The New York Times, and Der Spiegel. Williams lives in Olympia, Washington, with an overly ambitious Australian shepherd, in the shadow of the house of dear friends.

Visitors to [Dee Williams ] property may be forgiven for thinking someone had taken up residence in a beautifully built pine-and-cedar toolshed out back .[an] affecting memoir she writes in The Big Tiny of finding a centeredness and peace in her little house, of being less fearful, more alive. Some of the best passages are when she describes the sensory experience of being inside: smelling raw cedar and knotty pine; listening to the weather.
Steven Kurutz, The New York Times

[N]o one makes the idea of living in a home the size of an area rug more appealing than Dee Williams Williams inspiring memoir will resonate with anyone on a quest to downsize, de-stress, let go or feel at home an endearing, funny writer [The Big Tiny] is a book as intimate and draw-you-in-close as Williams' little abode. She reveals her fear and fearlessness, allowing readers to feel like visitors across her tiny table, knees touching, her dog by your side.
Janet Eastman, The Oregonian

[A] delightful encounter with the Tina Fey of the sustainability world, an empowered woman unafraid to admit she accidentally glued her hair to her house, as well as an incisive thinker on contemporary experience .a hilarious and poignant memoir Williams does more than share the travails of building, moving into and living in her bitty abode. She writes a down-to-earth manifesto for living life with intention and for geeking out, diving in, caring too deeply and trying too hard in general.
Mary Louise Schumacher, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In The Big Tiny, Dee Williams creates a portrait of humanity through her own compelling experience. That she has written about home and life with such humor and vulnerability, and in her own unique vernacular, makes her story all the more universal. Jay Shafer, author of The Small House Book

Williams has built an engaging and inspiring how-to/memoir that goes beyond the DIY perspective.
Booklist
 
The Big Tiny is irresistible. Dee