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Lauren Spicher is from Long Island, New York, and met her now-husband, Brian, in Lancaster. Brian is from Huntingdon County, and Lauren knew he always wanted a cabin in the woods, “since he was little.”

Three years ago, when they purchased a vacation cabin back in the woods on 40 acres outside of McAlevys Fort, Lauren recalls telling Brian, “Don’t ask me to move here. I can’t live here.”

The hustle and bustle of busy Lancaster had begun to wear on Brian, who was in high demand with his roofing and siding business. 

“Brian was getting really, really stressed with work,” Lauren remembers. “And it was causing some health issues. And I knew how much he wanted to break away from that.” 

“Lancaster’s a busy area,” Brian says. “I got caught up in the busyness.”

During the height of the COVID pandemic, the Spichers and their four little ones (now ages 9, 7, 6, and 2) started spending more and more time in the northern end of Huntingdon County, near Brian’s parents. 

The kids spent a year and a half out of school because of COVID, and Lauren homeschooled them. They visited Huntingdon County every other weekend and were spending so much time at the cabin, Lauren remembers, “Every time we’d pack up, we didn’t want to go back to Lancaster.

“It started to remind me of Long Island and why I wanted to move,” Lauren continues. “I wasn’t very gung-ho at first—no, we’re not doing it. But my heart was softened. Brian’s parents are right down the road. The kids can live outside. I knew it would be the right environment for our children to grow up in. Their cute little charter school is down the street. Being here, it started to really grow on me. Just being on the porch with our coffee and listening to the birds.”

Lauren says she told Brian, “Okay, if we’re going to move, now is the time to do it.”

Brian smoothly sold his business, and the Spichers’ house sold soon after it went on the market. 

“Everything fell into place,” Lauren says. 

A tiny home with a story

Meanwhile, Lauren “fell in love with the tiny-house movement,” watching “all the shows” and exhaustively researching the lifestyle craze online. 

“We were going to buy one,” says Brian. “I called a tiny-home builder in Lancaster, and I got a recording that forwarded me to the website that put me on a calendar to schedule a phone call, and they were 30 days out for a phone call. I forgot about it. You have to put in an application for a phone call—that’s how much demand they have. They do not take phone calls. To me, that was crazy. And I thought, ‘What the heck, I can build one myself.’”

Thus, Tiny Timbers Rustic Tiny Homes was born. And it isn’t your run-of-the-mill construction company or generic tiny-home manufacturer. 

“Brian cuts and mills the trees from our property, and then we work alongside a small team of Amish guys who actually do the true mortise and tenon construction, and they help frame the tiny homes, and they use the true wooden pegs to hold them,” Lauren explains. “Their technique is so cool, to see them do it—it’s amazing.”

“Those old barns you still see standing, [the Amish] have passed down this type of building from their great-great-great-grandparents, who passed down their knowledge from Europe,” Brian says. “I explain to our customers that these [tiny homes] are built to last a long time. They’re not RVs; they are heavy. They’re movable—they’re made to move two or three times—but are not something you want to be pulling on the back of your car to be traveling.”

The Spichers also work alongside their neighbor, Jay Yoder, who specializes in custom cabinetry and builds all the tiny-home stairs. 

“I went from doing work where I was doing vinyl and asphalt shingles, filling up the landfills with old roofs and siding,” Brian says. “That’s just the way people do their exteriors in Lancaster. And then I’d come up here and do this, and it just felt so much more real and pioneer-ish.”

“Not many people do the true mortise and tenon,” says Lauren. “And we have a story. Your tiny home isn’t just going to Lowe’s and getting your standard materials and building it. Brian is actually cutting down the trees from our property and milling them himself. So it’s a really neat process. I call it a little story—your tiny home has a story. It’s much more personable.”

“This is true craftsmanship,” Brian adds. “You aren’t going to pull up to someone and have identical homes. This is unique. 

“And, being a smaller company, we can really give our customers the attention they deserve,” Lauren says. “I feel like with other, bigger tiny-home builders, you lose that personal relationship.”

The Spichers just started their business a few months ago, and their first tiny home will become part of the Airydale Retreat glamping sites in Mill Creek. People have expressed interest in using the tiny homes for Airbnb rentals as a source of secondary income, as an “in-law” suite, or for affordable, full-time living at a fraction of the cost of a full-sized home and all the associated upkeep costs and utilities. The Tiny Timber tiny homes range from $78,5000 to $87,5000 (a price point that’s lower than those of a lot of other builders), are customizable, and currently the homes can be ready to go in eight weeks.

“It’s becoming more popular nowadays, especially with the housing market and younger people,” Lauren says. “If Brian and I didn’t have kids and we were just married now and we saw one of these—we would definitely consider buying one. Why spend and be in debt? And the whole minimalism of not having a lot of stuff and the cost of living in a tiny home is very appealing. We moved from Lancaster with a barn and an attic and a full-size basement to here and we were like, ‘Oh my word, how much did we accumulate?’” 

Brian says tiny-home living also adds a lot of flexibility for people looking to grow into a more rural existence. 

“To find a place with land—it’s a chunk to go buy a place with 20 acres,” he says. “Tiny homes are an option for people who just want to buy the land and maybe compromise on the investment in a house. Go off-grid maybe, if the utilities aren’t up yet. We’ve spoken to multiple young couples who have this dream to live off the land with their kids. They can buy a tiny home and build later. You can have a tiny home with acreage for under $200,000, minimal utilities, and rent [the tiny home] out later.”

Lauren says their future dream is to establish a tiny-home community in the area. These developments are popular in the south and out west, and the Spichers see an opportunity in the northeast for people seeking a support network with a likeminded life vision. 

“A lot of people are looking for communities,” says Lauren. “And it’s all different ages—it’s young millennials, a lot of retirees, and people looking to live in a community with shared gardening, things like that. People are looking for something more.”

By all accounts, the Spichers themselves have found the “something more” many people who get caught up in the fast-paced modern world are missing.

“There was a Reader’s Digest book at our cabin called Back to Basics that I’d read all the time,” Brian recalls fondly. “We didn’t have cellphone service for the first two years, so we would read books.”

Brian says they sometimes miss having neighbors and other children nearby for their kids to play with, but the great outdoors makes up for that in a big way. 

“In Lancaster we had a pool right by our house, and I’d worry about the kids going outside with all the cars going by—it was always so busy,” Lauren says. “Now they can go fish for two hours in our woods, and I know they’re okay.”

Brian remembers that his oldest son, Josiah, used to go sit in his kayak in the garage in Lancaster and ask him when they could get out on the water. Brian was so stressed he hardly ever had the time. Now, Lauren’s car has “I love fishing” written in the dust of the back windshield—a testament to the way the back-to-basics lifestyle has enabled the Spicher children to thrive.  

The Spichers have friends nearby who run a tree farm with a great fishing pond. Brian’s sister and her husband run an organic farm that the Spicher kids get to take part in. Brian says it’s “crazy how many people have moved back” to his homeland as they realize what a treasure the region is. 

“With the craziness of the world today, I just feel this is a neat experience,” says Lauren. “It really is, and to be able to share this with others who appreciate the simple lifestyle is really cool. In Lancaster, we were living in a richy, upscale area. I wanted my kids to be more grounded. I feel that coming here, the pressure is off of the kids. It’s been a really nice transition. I would encourage others to step out. We took a huge leap of faith, and every day is an adventure in a way.”

“I get excited when I meet young people who aren’t afraid to go and do things,” says Brian. “It is worth it.”

For more information, visit rustictinyhome.com. T&G

Teresa Mull is a freelance writer who lives in Philipsburg.

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