Sarana Park
Sarana Park is a private 23 acre redwood forest refuge in a mountain range that borders California's magnificent Central Coast. "Sarana" is a word from Pali, an ancient Buddhist language - it means "safe place," or "refuge."
Our intention is to offer supportive space for reflection, restoration, and solitutde for our friends (and friends of friends). We think of it as a "re-boot camp" - a place where our guests can take some time to recharge, rest, and experience nature.
Sarana House is a tiny house on a trailer that Juko built (with the guidance of a very skilled carpenter) in Los Angeles, California. It was moved to Sarana Park in the Fall of 2011, and is currently used as our kitchen/living/guest space. Another tiny house serves as our sleeping & bathroom space. Together, the two of us are living in just over 270 square feet.
Our journey to this mountain refuge from Los Angeles was prompted by our desire to respond the Great Recession with grace, bring our lives into greater alignment with our beliefs and values about the greed that caused it, and to explore ways we might use our resources to be of service to others.
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Celebrating Milestones, Large & Small
One of the ways we were able to commit to living in a tiny space is because we conceived of it as temporary, anywhere from a year to eighteen months. When we decided to change the setting and pace of our lives, we also started the process of putting plans together in order to purchase a building permit, as required by the county we live in. After a thoughtful process, we settled on a one bedroom, open, passive solar design using SIPs that is just over 1200 square feet. But we never imagined we would be as content as we are in our tiny spaces.
One of the most compelling reasons to move forward with the building of our official homestead is that it will free up the tiny houses for our invitees. In the meantime, we are moving closer to being able to offer our friends (and friends of friends) who like to camp the opportunity to come and spend some time in supported solitude.
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Sarana House Interior
The interior of Sarana House, one of two “tiny houses” we currently occupy, is finally complete enough to be photographed! There are still details to attend to - finishing all of the trim, getting one more light fixture in place, and connecting our propane boat heater - but we are happily enjoying the space we refer to as our “dining car.” I was taken with the idea of living in a tiny house since I became aware of them via the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, but my husband had his doubts - especially because our household includes pets. We finally agreed that while one tiny house for all of us would be too cramped, two tiny houses would fit us just fine.
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12 Weeks Into Our Tiny House Adventure
It is hard to believe it has been nearly 3 months since we moved our second tiny house to Sarana Park. We have just over 260 square feet of living space with both tiny houses, and we are sharing that space with several pets.
Our sleeping quarters are in a tiny house I purchased last year, and the tiny house pictured above serves as our dining car and guest quarters. We are not yet in full-time residence, and find ourselves going back and forth to Los Angeles for work and other obligations more often than we would like. Letting go of so many material things in order to fit into such a small space was not as difficult as resisting the urge to repopulate our lives with more of the same kinds of stuff. The big purge felt good, but the real work is in the day to day honoring of our commitment to live with less.
We are very fortunate to live on a large parcel of land in a moderate climate, so when I need space, I can go outside. Having “his” and “hers” tiny houses also means that if either of us needs some private space, it is readily available.
When I spend time in our soon-to-be-former 2,000+ square foot living quarters in L.A. and return to our tiny house “village” in the forest, I experience a sense of relief - I am amazed that we were ever willing to take on a mortgage in the first place. After two years of uncertainty and fear about losing our home, I am really happy with our decision to release ourselves from that cycle and to go in an entirely different direction. Mostly, I feel gratitude for how all of this has come together, from the miracle of finding this land and the privilege of calling it home to the support my spouse has shown for this idea.
A lot of people are interested in the interior of our tiny houses, and it is my intention to get some photos and description of our space up in my next post - may this moment find you moving through your life with peace, ease, and grace!
A Finished Exterior
The final step to completing our exterior was the front door. Ours is a stock door from Lowe’s. We hired a skilled woodworker to cut it down to fit our opening, build the frame and exterior casing, and install the hardware. We then stained the door, and while it turned out a little more red than we anticipated, I’m sure it will weather.
The inside of our tiny house is still not complete. We still need to plumb the kitchen and install the connections for the propane boat heater, install the lighting, and paint.
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Reclaimed Wood Casing
After a few setbacks, Sarana House is back on track. In the last three days, the front door was installed and casing around the windows is now complete. Once we stain the door, the exterior will officially be complete! We have a long way to go until we are finished on the inside. We decided to focus on completing the exterior, because Sarana House is being moved this upcoming Sunday to her new home.
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Here is footage from an upcoming film called “Face2Face,” by director Katherine Brooks (The Osbournes, The Real World, Loving Annabelle). There is some footage of the home we are leaving, and I speak briefly about how we came to become the stewards of 23 acres of Redwood forest. There is, of course. Romeo, who is pretty popular, for a Chihuahua.
Kent features tiny houses in their natural contexts, and he was kind enough to feature our first tiny house, Huling Halfway Hut. The description tells a bit more about our foreclosure story. Reading it now is also a lesson in how important it is to be flexible.
Our plans changed after we had some experience staying in the Halfway Hut, and plans for our “real” house shrunk from 800 to 480 square feet, because we are committed to doing this without taking out loans from a bank.
Something Old, Something New…
At a certain point, I realized that this was not a tiny house build, but an art project. The decision to use reclaimed barn wood for the cladding is one I am really happy about, and I am really pleased with the unique look it gives our tiny Sarana House.
Aside from the obvious ecological advantage to using reclaimed materials, it gives our tiny house a personal, unique look that is very different from most of the other projects I have come across. I drew a large part of my inspiration from Tiny Texas Houses, because I was really attracted to their exteriors.
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Additional Workspace in the Kitchen
We had an old Ikea freestanding kitchen that was not going to fit into any of our future configurations. I repurposed the drawers, but the butcher block was 4” too short to use for my primary counter top.
I knew that I wanted to have enough space for two people to work in the kitchen.
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Building a Tiny Interior
It has been really important for me to spend a lot of time just sitting in Sarana House, becoming familiar with the space and imagining what the elements I’ve planned will be like once they are in place.
