She lives in a tiny house in the woods

They say home is where your heart is. For Anna Byrd, home is a 7-½-by-23-foot rectangular house atop a trailer overlooking the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. It’s tiny, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’ve always wanted my own little home,” she says, seated at the small dinner table next to the window. “It’s so much space honestly, that sounds silly but it is. I can comfortably live out of this for sure.”

On one end of the tiny house is the bathroom, still under construction, accessed via a door next to the kitchen counter and the table that sits across it. Next to the table, a fold-out desk and hidden pantry space. The living room, next to the entrance, features decorated bookshelves and a reading chair, soon to be joined by a wood stove. A few steps between the bookshelves leads to the raised bedroom, which includes closet space and a reading light. All of this sits comfortably within the 172-square-foot building, a testament to sound minimalistic design and nearly a year of hard work.

Byrd, 23, said she’s always been intrigued by the idea of building a tiny house — she’d spent hours online looking at different interior designs and gathering ideas – but it wasn’t until she talked to a friend who was designing tiny homes that she decided to commit herself to the project.

“Even if it does take 10 years, I’ve got to start,” she recalled of her decision last spring to begin the project.

Her family supported the idea wholeheartedly. Her father, Gerard, offered his shop and tools for her use, her mother, Loretta, helped design the floor plan and interior. Her brothers, Daniel and Steven, helped her secure materials and frame the floor and house.

“From my point of view, when she decided to do it, how could she go wrong?” her mother said. “It’s an investment and education at the same time, and all those dreams you have? It’s one step toward it.”

Last March she drove to Western Building Center in Whitefish and returned home with $80 of cheap, imperfect lumber, and the project was underway.

Some setbacks pushed the timeline back, but a few months later she purchased a fifth-wheel trailer frame and had the foundation for the house nearly ready to go. The trailer needed some initial work, however.

“We didn’t realize it at first, but all the tires were different,” her mother said with a laugh.

At first, Byrd thought the project would be completed in a few months, and she hoped to move in by the summer. Then fall became the target, then winter.

She finally moved in last month, and she’d learned a lot along the way.

One of the biggest challenges Byrd faced was living up to her own optimistic deadlines. When things took longer than expected the whole project felt off-schedule, despite the deadlines being completely arbitrary.

“I would lay out the whole month, like this week I’ll finish wiring, next week I’ll finish this. But really that tiny little project would take all of that whole month,” she said.

Likewise, Byrd said she learns best by trying and making mistakes, then coming back and trying again the right way, which didn’t always help with the speed of the project.

“Almost everything in this house I had to do twice,” Byrd said. “I would do it, my dad would show me ‘Ok, this is how you do it.’ Then I’d do it and he’d say ‘you did it wrong.’ That’s how I learn though, I learn from mistakes rather than from doing my research ahead of time and then doing it.”

Byrd’s original plans for the house involved using nearly all recycled materials. While she was able to hold true to the idea — the windows, insulation and a door are all reused, along with steel and lumber – she said in the future she’d need to be pickier about the quality of those recycled materials.

But in the end, the effort was worth the result, noticeable in Byrd’s beaming smile as she talks about finally getting to move into her dream tiny house.

For her, the tiny house concept is purposeful living without leaving behind a trace.

“I love the idea of it being on wheels,” she said. “Because if I were to buy land, I’m totally stuck in that place, and it’s permanent. We have so much new building, it’s just more development.”

“If I were to park it on a piece of land I can take it away and that land is still beautiful, undisturbed,” she added.

Now that she’s moved in, Byrd says she’s home for as far ahead in the future as she can see. She doesn’t necessarily know what her future will hold, but she’s hopeful she’ll be continuing her simple lifestyle in the house for many years to come.

“A lot of the negative people have said ‘oh you won’t stay there long. A few years and you’ll be out.’ But honestly, and if that’s the case and I burn out, fine,” she said. “But I’m hoping to live in it as long as I can.”