“I’m John Weisbarth, and I’m a huge fan of the tiny house movement that’s exploding across the nation! The average American home is 2,300 square feet, but lots of people are deciding that bigger isn’t necessarily better, and they’re choosing to live in homes that are just one tenth of the average size. Whether they’re after financial independence or desire to live with less, inspired home owners are starting to think outside the blueprints of everyday building, and that’s where I come in. I travel across the county with my partner, tiny house expert Zach Giffin, and together we help people build their mini dream homes, and get them prepared for the extreme downsizing it takes to live in under 500 square feet. Trust me, tiny homes are the next big thing!”
If you’ve seen the FYI network’s hit show Tiny House Nation, you’ve undoubtedly heard that introduction to the show, but did you know that the host, John Weisbarth, is from Coronado? Weisbarth, who towers at 6’4″, is an instantly likable host because he’s just so down to earth. He has a way of connecting to both adults and children that feels genuine, and he exudes a playful nature. The show is fascinating to watch as people move into homes that are smaller than some people’s living room spaces, but it’s also equally enjoyable to watch because of the dynamic energy Weisbarth brings to the show as he and co-host Zach Giffin bring people’s big dreams to tiny fruition. I recently had the opportunity to talk with Weisbarth to find out how he became involved in the “tiny house movement.”
When did you move to Coronado, and when did you graduate from Coronado High School?
“I graduated in 1994. My Dad [Doug Weisbarth] was in the Navy, and he was stationed in Coronado, where he met my mom [Maidie Morris Weisbarth], who was Class of ’65. They got married, and he was transferred to Florida, and I was born there. Then three years later he was out of the Navy, and moved back to Coronado. I lived in Coronado since I was three, and did all of my schooling all of the way through there.”
What activities and sports did you participate in while attending Coronado High School?
“I played soccer and baseball, and was in ASB (Associated Student Body). I was the ‘Commissioner of Pep’ for two years, which was really kind of silly, but it basically meant I got to run the pep rallies. That was kind of a precursor for performing and getting up in front of people.”
Do you still have family here in Coronado?
“My Mom and Dad [Maidie and Doug Weisbarth], and my little sister and her husband [Debra and Justin Johnson] live in town. My aunt and uncle are here as well.”
Tell me about your summers growing up, working alongside your Dad, who was a handyman.
“My Dad owned a home maintenance business in Coronado for, I don’t know, thirty-forty years. I started working with him during the summer in eighth grade. From eighth grade all the way through college I worked in the summers, and then after I graduated, when I was trying to be a sportscaster, I was working for my Dad as well. That’s what gave me the background as far as being comfortable around tools and fixing things. I’m not a builder or a construction guy, but, more than anything, what it taught me was you can figure out how to fix things. That’s the take-away I got from it.”
What did you study at the University of California Santa Barbara?
“I was a Communications major and a Sports Management minor. I loved it! I graduated in 1998 so I was there from 1994-1998.”
What did you do between graduating from UCSB and starting work on Tiny House Nation?
“I decided when I was in school in Santa Barbara that I wanted to be a sportscaster. I did some internships while I was still in school down in San Diego at NBC 739. Jim Laslavic, who is a Coronado resident as well, was the sports director at the NBC station here in town so I reached out to him, and eventually got an internship there. I did that for a couple of years.”
“I worked at a radio station in town, XTRA Sports 690, which has become XTRA Sports 1090. I bounced around doing that stuff, and then I got a break in 2000. I was called up and asked to do a high school sports show, where I would cover a football game on Friday night, and do a team-of-the-week story during the week. They paid me a grand total of $150 a month. Can you imagine? But it was great, and it was on TV, and it aired on Channel 4, and that was the station that had the Padres.
I did that for a year, and after doing that, that show went away. September 11th happened and a lot of funding went away, but they still liked me at Channel 4, and asked me to come work for them on their San Diego State show and on their charter show. I did that the next fall, and then in the spring of 2002 they asked me to help with the Padres broadcast during the pregame show. I did that as a reporter in 2002, and after that in 2003 I became the host of the pregame show, and I did that all the way through 2011. I did ten years of sports broadcasting, hosting the pregame show and later the postgame show for the Padres.
That ended in 2011, and then I bounced around for a couple of years. Then Tiny House Nation started two years ago in late March of 2014.”
How did you become involved in the show Tiny House Nation?
“My agent called, and said, ‘Hey there! I might have something for you!’ It happened really fast because they had actually already started production, and they had another host, but it just didn’t work out so they needed to find someone really fast. That’s where I came in.
I did a Skype interview over the phone with this company that I network for, Loud Television in New York, on a Friday morning. Saturday morning they called back, and said, ‘The network liked you. We’ll fly you out here on Monday. I flew out to New York on Monday. On Tuesday I met my co-host, and did a screen test with him. On Wednesday they said, ‘Okay! You’ve got it!’ I flew home on Thursday, and the next Monday I was in Tennessee doing the first episode! That was two years ago, and I haven’t really stopped since. It’s pretty crazy!”
You and your co-host Zach Giffin really seem to get along well. Tell me about your experience working together.
“He’s amazing! He really is! It’s kind of an arranged marriage because you don’t know who you’re going to get paired up with. That was the same when I was a sportscaster and the same with this. I’ve been really fortunate throughout my career to not just meet people who were nice, who you can work with, but people who really became friends, and Zach completely is!
My first year I was on the road 230 days out of the year so I spent more time with Zach than I did with my wife [Megan Weisbarth]! We are together so much, yet when we have breaks he still has come out [to San Diego] and visited me a few times. We truly have a good friendship, as I do with the whole crew. Let me tell you, it makes a huge difference! When you’re on the road as much as we are, kind of slugging through all these, it’s a big deal if you get along with the people you’re working with.”
Tell me about some of the different kinds of people you meet on Tiny House Nation, the people on the show who want to live in homes that are smaller than 500 square feet.
“We’ve seen empty nesters, who have a big home, but there are no more kids around to live in it, and they decide to either build a tiny home and rent out their big house, or just downsize altogether.
We’ve seen younger people who are just getting started, who are thinking to themselves, ‘Do I really want to start my life hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt from buying a big house on top of school debt that I already owe?’
I’m seeing young families who are working really, really hard with really long hours to pay for a big house that they’re never in for their families that they never get to see because all they’re doing is working to keep that going. People ask, ‘Is that really my American Dream? No, that’s not!’ By downsizing the biggest expense in their lives, which is housing, whether it’s a mortgage or rent, they’re able to free up time and money to do what they really want to do.”
What would you say is the most challenging part of being the host of Tiny House Nation?
“There are two answers. The real world answer is being away from my family as much as I am. That’s the only bummer about the whole thing. It’s tough to be away, and I didn’t realize that’s what it would be like. When I was a sportscaster, everything was based out of the studio so I really was never gone. That’s been a real transition, and we’ve been trying to figure that out. We have figured it out a little bit, but we have a young son [Jake] who’s three and a half, and it’s tough not being home all the time.
As far as the show is concerned, building a house as quick as we do is not easy. That being said, that’s not the part that I’m really involved in as much; that’s really Zach’s thing. For me the biggest pain is paring down. What’s the worst part of moving? Going through all of your stuff and packing up! I do that every week with other people’s stuff!
I’ve figured it out, but when it’s pare down day on the show it’s, ‘Deep breath! Okay! Here we go!’ It’s not the most exciting, but it’s an important part of it.”
What is the most rewarding part of being the host of Tiny House Nation?
“The most rewarding part is that so much of reality TV is about rewarding terrible people for being terrible. It’s like the worse they are, the more famous they get. It’s gross! But our show isn’t that! No one gets eliminated. There’s no competition. There’s no fighting! This is really about helping people facilitate a major change in their lives, and it’s really cool to be a part of it! At the end of the day, I’m gone so much, but I feel like I’m doing something important; this is helping people make a positive change in their lives.
There’s a whole tiny house movement. I don’t live in a tiny house, but I really identify with what the movement is all about from an economic standpoint and from an environmental standpoint. Having a smaller footprint literally translates to a figurative smaller footprint, and there’s so much good that comes from that! It feels really nice to be part of something like that.
The other part is just getting to meet all of the different people who I get to meet all over the country. Almost by definition, if someone decides to go tiny, they’re usually pretty cool people. I’ve made a network of friends throughout the country in places where I’d never been to before and never thought I would go, and now I have legitimate friends there.
Do you ever hear from Tiny House Nation owners once you’ve finished building their tiny houses?
“Sure! I would say seventy-five percent of the people stay connected through social media, and I would say maybe of that, maybe twenty-five to fifty percent of those people I actually still am legitimately connected to. We text one another, and we stay in touch with them to see how they’re doing. It’s cool.”
What is one of your favorite episodes of Tiny House Nation so far?
“I don’t want to play favorites because I feel bad, but the Graham family, Taylor and Jenna, is a family of five who moved into 340 square feet. Pretty impressive! They’ve done it, and they’re killing it! They’re making it work, and it’s awesome. They really have embraced it. It’s really cool! I really like them a lot. They really stood out for sure! That will always be one of my favorite episodes.
We’ve done 18 episodes that no one has seen yet. I’m about to fly out to do my 19th episode of this next season so there’s a lot that you haven’t seen yet that are a lot of fun. We did an episode with the rapper Lil Jon that was pretty interesting in Atlanta. I haven’t really had any bad experiences. It’s just a really cool thing! I’ve gotten to go hang gliding, air river rafting, hang out with a hip-hop star, and hang out with an NBA player.”
What size is your own home?
“Truthfully I don’t actually know, but it’s between 1,300-1,400 square feet, which is not huge, but it’s certainly not tiny by any stretch of the imagination. As far as the tiny movement goes, the way I feel about it is it’s not a contest to see who can live in the smallest; to me it’s about appropriate size or right size living.
I think five people in 340 square feet is pretty aggressive. I’m not going to say that’s crazy, but that’s aggressive. But I also think two people living in 5,000 square feet is aggressive. It’s more along the lines of what makes sense for you and your living situation? I think ideally I wouldn’t mind going a little smaller. I would love to be between say 800 and 1,000 square feet of well-designed space, especially in Coronado, where everyone is on top of one another, and then utilize the yard that you have rather than building on every square foot of yard that is legally allowable. I would love something like that, but who knows? Maybe someday that’s what I’ll do!”
Do you think you and your family of three could handle tiny house living?
“Could I handle that? Sure! Would that be the most comfortable thing? No. We [Tiny House Nation] define tiny as 500 square feet or under. I wouldn’t want to go much smaller than say 800 square feet. I think that would be really uncomfortable. It’s funny because my definitions of taste and what I wanted have really changed because of the show. I used to love looking at those big houses, and think, ‘How can I make it?’ But honestly now I look at them, and think, ‘That’s just too much.’ It’s not attractive to me anymore, and having been in so many houses that are between 200 and 300 square feet, 800 square feet seems like a lot now.”
On Tiny House Nation people often have a “must-have” that they want for their new tiny house, such as a dining room table large enough to fit the whole family, a private work space, or storage for essential sports equipment. If you built your own tiny house on Tiny House Nation, what would be your must-have?
“Oh, that’s a good question! I’ve thought about what my tiny house would be like a lot, and my must-have would definitely be a wrap-around porch. I really love that idea of almost a craftsman style tiny house with a big wrap-around porch. I’d like an open concept, with maybe a back wall that kind of opens up to the backyard so you kind of connect the indoor space and outdoor space.”
For the people of Coronado who’ve never seen Tiny House Nation, how do you think they might relate to your show?
“There are plenty of houses in Coronado that are not gigantic mansions. The appeal of the show is not just for people who live tiny. The idea is about maximizing the space you have, about not wasting space. There’s so much you can get away with in a large house, but in a smaller place it’s about good design. I think certain people of Coronado will look at design and efficient use of space, and think there are some neat ideas that we explore. They can definitely relate to that.”
Can you see Coronado as a setting for an episode Tiny House Nation or the tiny house movement?
“I’ve had a number of Coronado residents reach out to me, and ask about tiny houses and how they can make it happen. The biggest hurdle in the tiny house movement has to deal with zoning. There are a lot of antiquated laws that were designed to protect people, prevent slumlords from being able to shove a bunch of people into small spaces. I get why they’re there, but they don’t accurately reflect what’s going on in the tiny house movement because we’re building these really beautiful, well-appointed homes that just happen to be small. There’s nothing that’s slumlord about us or mobile home/trailer park about it. They’re really nice, well-appointed homes that I think they would fit beautifully in Coronado, but there are some legal hurdles that would need to be hurdled, for lack of a better word.”
