Tag: tiny house

Often we accept things we’ve been taught or told, until one day something strikes us as being a bit “off”, and we begin to ask questions. For Ross Lukeman, that something was the traditional story we’ve been taught about home ownership and freedom. That is, if you own a home, you have achieved the American Dream. It struck Ross as strange that people buy homes, believing this story, then design the rest of their lives around paying for that home – staying in jobs they don’t like to pay a mortgage, putting off the things they really want to do, and living that way sometimes for the rest of their lives. He also found it strange that he never learned about any types of “alternative” dwellings in architecture school, only the mainstream ways of building and making a home. So Ross began probing a question that gets to the very heart of how we live and enjoy our lives: What other types of homes are possible, and, specifically, what type of home will maximize a person’s experience of freedom? He created a website dedicated to this question, and traveled across the country interviewing people building and living in all kinds of homes he hadn’t learned about in school: strawbale homes, earthships, and even, vans. As it tends to happen when a person follows their natural interest, a calling emerged for Ross. What he found in his search was that the type of home that will create the greatest freedom depends actually on the individual – and what’s most exciting and expansive for them, specifically. For Ross, what quickly became the most exciting was #vanlife. He started living in his own van, and now he helps people do that – online course, van builds. This is how we learned of him, his van conversion resources that are online (see shownotes for links to all of Ross’ resources). If you’ve ever wanted to live more simply, build your own home, explore another way of living, this episode is for you. Enjoy!