What do four people, a dog, and a composting toilet smell like in 207 square feet?

October 27, 2014

Apparently, we smell amazing. 

We’ve had several instances where someone takes one step into the house, halts, closes their eyes and inhales deeply,

“I love that smell!”

Phew! 

It’s the smell of wood.  Natural building materials!  Most is raw, some is oiled, free of toxic stains.
One of many valid responses to the question, “Why don’t you just live in an RV?”

Today a neighbor boy stepped in, did a sniff double-take and said, “Oh, I love that smell, it smells like Whole Foods!” and then ran back out to the playground.
…I’ll take it!  🙂 

The Kimberly Stove has been burning for two days so now we get to smell a bit like a campfire, too!  We’re falling deeper and deeper in love. 

On good days it smells like a garden in the bathroom!  🙂
We ran out of our peat moss-hemp stalk mixture one day.  That day it did not smell like a garden.  I’m hyper-aware of any possible smell and have been told that whatever it is I’m smelling is not readable by anyone else’s olfactory receptors.  We’re still finding the balance of microbes, enzymes, etc” and I think there’s room for a little improvement. 

Regardless.  The rest of the house trumps.

When we were in the planning stages of our tiny house journey the smell of our tiny house was not a factor.  Didn’t come up in conversation, no expectation or anticipation.  What a pleasant surprise!  The lovely, woodsy smell is a wonderful addition to the peaceful aura of the Tiny House.  It smells like outside! 
I had no idea I would ever be so proud of the smell of my house.    

So if you want to live in a delicious smelling home that makes you feel like Laura Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie, you should build a Tiny House just like ours!  😉

This is the best picture of smell that I can get. 🙂

3 Comments

  • Reply Mrs. Martin October 30, 2014 at 10:34 pm

    I’ve been following your journey with your tony house and I love the floor plan you guys have! I’m also glad to hear the toilet is not an issue! That was a concern of mine, is there any way we would be able to get in touch with your builder to talk and possibly hire on to build for us!? We are looking to be on a tiny house hopefully within the next month or two here!

    • Reply Kim Kasl October 31, 2014 at 8:49 pm

      Hi Mrs. Martin, thanks for following! 🙂 The floor plan is a customization of Tumbleweed’s Elm 24. Our builder is my uncle Pat Mattson who own Nicholas Construction in Stanchfield, MN. I don’t know if he’s taking on building projects right now since MN is about to get very cold! But you could always ask him!!! 🙂 Best wishes on your tiny house journey! <3

  • Reply Off Grid And Green February 2, 2016 at 6:24 pm

    You don’t hear people giving out praise for the smell of a tiny home with a compost toilet very often. Mostly because they have never been in one and there is a general “icky” feeling when we start talking about poop 🙂

    Great story!

    Here’s a list of my top 6 picks for tiny home composting toilets if you want to have a look…. http://www.offgridandgreen.com/pages/best-tiny-house-composting-toilet

  • Leave a Reply