”Admitting that I’m “happy enough” makes me wonder if I’m falling short of my potential as a middle-class American; like I should want more out of life than this tiny house and the backyard, and the way it feels to sit on the porch and watch the sun come up. But the facts are the facts: I found a certain bigness in my little house—a sense of largeness, freedom, and happiness that comes when you see there’s no place else you’d rather be.” -Dee Williams

Wednesday October 28th, 7:00 PM, at Lopez Center for Community and the Arts the Lopez Island Library presents the jewel of the library’s new series SHELTER as we welcome teacher, designer, woodworker, sustainability advocate, and designer/builder of tiny houses, Dee Williams. Williams’s life changed at forty-one with a heart attack in a local grocery store. Diagnosed with a heart condition, the shortness of life, the relevance of how she spent her time and making a priority of the people she loved, became very clear. Selling a large craftsman home she had painstakingly restored she let go of mortgage payments, constant repairs, and her concepts of ownership. Extra rooms in a home, rarely used appliances, multiple trips to Home Depot became an advesary of time and space. Sitting in a doctor’s office she read an article on original tiny house designer and advocate (at the time Tumbleweed Homes) Jay Shafer who for twenty years has designed high-functioning tiny homes, meeting needs without waste or excess. Says Williams, “When I first saw an image of Jay Shafer’s little house, there was some sort of ancient DNA strand that clicked in and said everything is going to be ok.” She traveled to meet with him, bought one of his designs and built her 84 square foot home on her own. She now leads workshops, assists on other tiny home builds and advocates for tiny homes. She’s been living in hers for over 10 years. Williams is the author of The Big Tiny which is a beautiful memoir of her experience building small and the process of reassessing how we view our time on this planet. The Lopez Bookshop will have her book for sale at the event and it is currently for sale in their shop. The library also features it in their collection. Dee Williams is warm energy in motion, generous in her willingness to share and she belongs to Lopez Island the evening of October 28th. For decades Lopez Island has embraced smaller affordable homes and homes that don’t fit the conventional expectation of a home in this country. This is the night to celebrate our unique legacy. The library encourages all to take part in this exceptional evening of discovering that the important stuff isn’t stuff.