Floyd Energy Fest July 13th, 2019
The Floyd Energy Fest is this Saturday, July 13th, 2019 in Floyd, Virginia from 9am to 4pm.
“Join members of the area’s Floyd Tiny Home Innovators for tours of their hand-crafted creations, an open forum of tiny living seminars, and live Q&A discussions. Floyd’s notable tiny home designers, builders, and nationally recognized industry leaders provide:
Glampers Galore – Take a peek at prototypes of a line of classically styled glamorous campers (glampers) from long-time custom home builder and community developer, Bill La Vancher, who envisions glamper RVs and tiny homes as residences in Floyd County and beyond.
Tiny Tech House – Glimpse the future of housing by touring the home of tiny house creator, Bryan Smith of TinyHouseKits.com. At the festival Bryan opens his prototype home for work-in-progress tours showing how you can pack world-class technology and energy efficiency into a 256 low-carbon footprint.Tiny Research – Gain insight into the lives of tiny house people with a recap of findings from Maria Saxton, PhD (AKA: Dr. Tiny), and her groundbreaking research into the outcomes from those who choose to downsize their lives into smaller scale homes while blazing an alternative path to living the American Dream. We have just welcomed Dr. Saxton to the THIA board.
How to Go Tiny – Tour their home, hear stories, and get tips from Thom and Midge Stanton of GoTiny.com. The couple shares everyday experiences and life lessons discovered while downsizing from a huge house to become full-time RVers, 4×4 van dwellers, movable tiny owner/builders, and tiny home industry leaders. Thom is the President of THIA.
Tiny Community Development -Join collaborators from the Tiny Home Innovators in a panel discussion on tiny housing solutions. Hear about common successes and challenges folks face when proposing tiny homes in the mix of affordable/attainable housing solutions aimed at helping overcome the Affordable Housing Crisis.”
Thom And Maria Were Featured In Tiny Home Magazine
The town of Floyd, Virginia is an emerging hub for tiny home enthusiasts. Thom Stanton and Maria Saxton discuss the background, culture, and tiny home happenings in Floyd– including two new initiatives, Floyd Tiny House Innovators and NANO – Tiny Life Innovators.
This sign might as well say, “Now Entering (the coolness that is) the town of Floyd, Virginia.”
On the face of things, Floyd, Virginia, is a somewhat typical rural county in the heart of Southwest Virginia. At times it’s a slow haul up the hill from the college towns of Blacksburg and Radford as big logging trucks make slow turns among 4WD passenger cars as you travel up the old mountain road to the small town and county seat. Drive a few miles further, and you’re high up in the heavens on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The City of Floyd is a one-stoplight town that hosts the county courthouse on one corner and an old-school hardware store on another. Travel just 100 yards further, and the unique nature of Floyd begins to unfold as a vibrant farmer’s market, a small cluster of restaurants, an outdoor theater, and an odd mix of housing that includes fine old brick and clapboard homes with a sprinkling of aging single-wide mobile homes. In some places, this would be off-putting. Here… it’s just part of Floyd.
Take a harder look at the town and you’ll find lots of timber frame architecture proudly displayed throughout the town thanks to Floyd’s presence and support of the timber frame industry making it one of the most concentrated locations for log and timber home production as Floyd-based sawmills cut timber from huge logs while local artisans cut away wood and chisel mortise and tenon into big beams for fine homes. Old world craft meets new world architectural appeal, all from this small town housing hub.
Now peek down gravel driveways and peer into the woods where you’re likely to find lots of tiny homes sprinkled among the woodland hills of this Appalachian Mountain area. Floyd County includes large swaths of “unrestricted land” which fosters a life within a community of hand-built cabins and cottages of log, timber, straw bale, and cob in near proximity to temporarily erected platform tents, permanently placed yurts, and — more recently — movable tiny homes.
Are You Interested In Going Tiny In Floyd?
For tiny house people looking for a place to call home, Floyd offers support from a friendly network of kindred spirits engaged in research, design, construction, community development, and innovation. If living among other tiny house people isn’t attractive enough, consider the advantages of living in a laid back environment among mountains, rivers, streams, majestic views, walking trails, adventure sports, and tiny housing options with a group of fun-loving friends ready to welcome you home.
Interested in finding out about going tiny in Floyd? Contact Maria Saxton (maria.saxton@vt.edu) or Thom Stanton (GoTiny.com@gmail.com).