Tiny Homes—An Alternative for People with Chemical Sensitivities

[Guest guest]

Tiny Homes—An Alternative for People with Chemical Sensitivities

_http://www.comingunmoored.com/2008/11/tiny-homes%E2%80%94an-alternative-for-peo\

ple-with-c

hemical-sensitivitie/_ (http://www.comingunmoored.com/2008/11/tiny-homes—

an-alternative-for-people-with-chemical-sensitivitie/)

 

From the wide array of tiny house discussion lists and blogs I frequent, I

like to think I’m familiar with at least some of the more common reasons

people find tiny homes appealing—an opportunity to live more simply, a

low-cost

housing option, a way to have less negative impact on the planet, etc. Today,

however, I read about a reason I’d never encountered before—Multiple

Chemical

Sensitivity (MCS) _http://www.mcs-america.org/index_files/MCS.htm_

(http://www.mcs-america.org/index_files/MCS.htm) .

 

MCS is a chronic condition in which sufferers have anywhere from mild to

life-threateningly extreme reactions in response to low levels of chemical

exposure. Common triggers can include substance such as: pesticides, secondhand

smoke, fresh paint, scented products, formaldehyde, cleaning compounds, and

many others.

 

Just to give you a sense of the scale of the problem, the MCS America

website reports that over 1 million Canadians are incapacitated by MCS. And,

unfortunately, current disability laws both inside and outside the United State

do

not currently cover MCS in terms of either protection or services.

 

I had heard of MCS before, but it had never occurred to me what the impact

would be for individuals with the condition in terms of trying to find viable

housing…

 

**When one develops MCS… and needs to find a safer place to live, there is

no organized help,** reports MCS America

_http://www.mcs-america.org/index_files/MCShousing.htm_

(http://www.mcs-america.org/index_files/MCShousing.htm) .

**There are no registries of safer places, no agents who know what to look

for, few landlords who understand that even a small repair or touch up with

problem materials could result in months of ill health. Rare are the places with

safe tenants (who don’t pollute the air) or buildings with safe maintenance

plans. Too many people become very ill searching for a safe home, as each

subsequent exposure adds to a cumulative toxic load. Many become homeless, and

more than a few commit suicide as a direct result of not having access to safe

housing.**

 

Mokihana Calizar, who has MCS, and her husband Pete Little

_http://www.samandsally-vardofortwo.blogspot.com/_

(http://www.samandsally-vardofortwo.blogspot.com/) have lived through this

experience. After fourteen

moves in fourteen years, the were driven out of their final rental home by

the unannounced spraying of pesticides immediately outside their front door.

They spent the next six months living out of their Subaru Forester, **Scoutâ€.

Thankfully, they have subsequently found temporary housing with friends in

Washington state while they work on their more permanent solution… a nearly

chemical-free tiny home of their own design, crafted in the shape of a Gypsy

vardo.

 

According to a study headed by the CMHC, 86% of people with Environmental

Sensitivities improved significantly after access to safe housing.

 

Building a tiny home is either within the current skill set–or can become

with some education–of most reasonably able-bodied individuals. Tiny homes

also

tend to be lower cost (overall not by square foot) than more traditional

homes, which may be a significant concern to individuals with a condition that

limits their ability to function in the traditional work sector.

 

By designing and building their own homes, sufferers of MCS can select

materials that are safe for them. (For example Salizar and Little are using

denim-based insulation, white oak, milk paint, and a beeswax finish.) They can

incorporate items which make day-to-day living much more comfortable: such as

Hepa air filters, tightly sealing windows and doors, and appliances such as

washer/dryers that have not been compromised with fragranced laundry soap or

dryer sheets. (Quick aside: I just looked up the list of chemicals in a standard

laundry sheet and it scared me enough to take the last couple of sheets in my

box immediately out to the trash and bury them UNDER the used kitty litter,

which with my cat is a frightening toxic substance all of its own.)

 

Moreover, self-building takes times which gives the builders exposure time

with any of the products going into their house as an added check of what they

can and cannot tolerate. And necessary changes can be made midstream in the

project much easier than working with a regular builder. Salizar discovered

she had a reaction to their initial choice in insulation, which sent her back

to the drawing board. In the case of a tiny home, changes such as these are

much less cost-prohibitive than they would be in a larger structure.

Additionally, if a tiny, chemical-free home is built on wheels, it allows the

MCS

sufferer to relocate should something change in their surrounding environment

making their current location unliveable.

 

While their Vardo is not a direct Tumbleweed design, Salizar and Little

attended one of Jay Shafer’s tiny home design workshops.

_http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/workshops/_

(http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/workshops/)

 

Salizar has detailed the construction of her vardo in her blog, VardoforTwo

_http://vardofortwo.blogspot.com/_ (http://vardofortwo.blogspot.com/) . She

is a writer and storyteller by vocation and both this and her other blog

_http://www.samandsally-vardofortwo.blogspot.com/_

(http://www.samandsally-vardofortwo.blogspot.com/) are graced with beautiful

accounts of daily life with

her husband as well as poems and other stories. It’s also fascinating to me

to see the transformation of their tiny home into a work of art of its very

own.

 

Both of the blogs are extremely well written and thought-provoking. I

recommend taking the time to check them out and to follow their ongoing story

of

tiny house living.

 

(http://www.comingunmoored.com/2008/11/tiny-homes—

an-alternative-for-people-with-chemical-sensitivitie/)