Our Story
thisxlife started as a tiny house blog. In 2017, we designed and built a 300-square-foot tiny house on wheels in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. We were frustrated by the lack of resources for people who wanted to build a tiny home -- not to downsize, but to trade up. To live more intentionally with less.
We documented everything. The zoning research, the budgeting, the design process, the day-to-day reality of living in 300 square feet with a growing family. The story resonated -- we were featured in Dwell, Domino, Apartment Therapy, Curbed, Cup of Jo, Business Insider, DIY Network, and more than 20 other publications.
In 2020, the Northern California wildfires reduced our tiny house to ashes. We lost everything we'd built. But we were determined to rebuild -- not the same thing, but something new.
We moved to Fairview, North Carolina -- just outside Asheville -- and started over in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We built Asheville Forest Baths -- a luxury forest-spa retreat with handcrafted cottages, cedar soaking tubs, and a treehouse sauna pavilion. Then we bought a property in Black Mountain, NC and built the Dark City Solarium. We designed every space, built every system, and operate every piece of the business ourselves.
Now we also help other people do what we've done -- through consulting on construction projects, short-term rental launches, AI automation, and website builds. We know what it takes because we've done it ourselves, from the ground up, twice.
Timeline
Who We Are
Spencer
Self-taught builder and systems thinker. Former chef at Magnolia Grill (Durham, NC) and Craft (NYC). Studied philosophy, then spent years in wine sales before going all-in on design, construction, and technology. Handles the building, the automation, the tech infrastructure, and the operational systems behind everything we do.
Bela
Executive managing editor at the American Journal of Bioethics at Stanford. M.S. in Bioethics from Columbia, dual B.A. in Photography and Philosophy from UNC-Chapel Hill. Fulbright scholar, professional photographer, Pilates instructor. The editorial eye, the design sensibility, and the strategic vision behind thisxlife.
Black Mountain, North Carolina
spencer@thisxlife.com