When British Columbia’s Axel Whalen first heard about the tiny house movement he was hooked.
For those of you out of the loop, simply put, the tiny house movement is a growing real estate trend where people are choosing to live in smaller off-the-grid homes.
In recent years, the carefully crafted structures have started popping up all over the world and are constantly being featured on popular websites and home and garden T.V. shows.
However, it’s not just cute architectural designs that have caught people’s attention. According to Whalen, the real message behind the tiny house movement is being more conscious about how we live.
“The tiny house movement is about basically having everything you need to live off-grid, so it’s basically turned into a whole green lifestyle thing,” Whalen said. “This generation is seeing that we need to make changes about how we live. We can’t live in a huge mansion or energy-sucking houses.”
After watching do-it-yourself videos on YouTube, Whalen decided to give it a shot, building his own tiny home during the summer of 2015. However, despite being comfortable with his self-taught skills, Whalen said the feat didn’t come without its challenges.
From solar panels to stoves and compostable toilets, there’s a lot of stuff to consider when crafting your own green-energy home. And when you’re just starting out that can be a little overwhelming.
“I had a hard time sourcing material and I ended up spending a lot of money online at different stores that I didn’t necessarily trust,” Whalen said.
Looking for some wisdom, Whalen went to others involved with the tiny house movement and discovered he wasn’t the only one having trouble finding reliable building supplies.
“I knew this was something I had to figure out,” he said, adding he wanted to continue building more tiny homes for potential renters.
Hunting for solutions, Whalen called up his childhood friend and Jasperite Jake Daly. After many discussions and scrolling through numerous tiny home specific online stores, Tiny Life Supply was born.
“We’ve known each other forever. We’re family friends and then we tree-planted together and then he convinced me to work on the railroad and we both did that for bit, so we’ve been searching for something to do together that was both meaningful and that we could put our souls behind,” Daly said. “This is just the perfect, natural fit so we’re having a lot of fun.”
The company—which was founded in July—aims to cut out the middleman and hours of online hassle and helps connect potential builders with the best materials for their tiny home.
“Basically we sourced all the products from companies that I had already dealt with—so there’s already a trust formed with these companies,” said Whalen, adding that Tiny Life Supply sells everything from heat and solar supplies to kitchen and bathroom accessories.
“We’ve had a few sales so far,” Daly added. “When someone gets a hold of us it’s a bit of surprise and we give ourselves a high-five. It’s interesting to see that the tiny life movement is something that’s happening … and growing organically.”
Aside from tiny home supplies, the duo also specializes in materials for yurts and vans.
“We’re seeing that a lot in Jasper—the whole van life thing and people always on road trips,” Daly said. “With a van you can strip out everything and basically have a small apartment on wheels.
Because of Instagram culture and everyone sharing their adventures, the sky has become the limit and people are getting really into it.”
Now that the company is up on its feet, the two friends are already looking for ways to expand, touring across Alberta and British Columbia searching for others who are thinking about jumping on the tiny house bandwagon.
“We’re trying to find people that want to build a tiny house or want to renovate a van or build a yurt and we want to either help them do that or provide the gear that we sell to make their tiny dreams a reality,” Daly said.
If the demand grows, Whalen said he’ll build more houses and sell them, but for now Tiny Life Supply is all about connecting people with the right tools to build their own creations.
“A lot of us spend a lot of time brainstorming and talking about the changes we want to see in the world, but this movement isn’t just something to talk about,” Daly said. “With this you can pick up a hammer, pick up a saw and build a tiny house and build the change that you’ve been talking about for years.”
