Local tiny-home builder loses ‘everything’ to thieves. Here’s how to help
A heavy steel gate that had been broken into greeted Traci Glidden when she showed up to work one Monday morning.
Glidden thought it was a dream.
“That whole day just didn’t feel real,” she said.
Glidden owns BiGBLiSS TinyHomes. The Puyallup resident has been a carpenter for almost two decades and started her business about two years ago.
Glidden, 48, bought a 2.5-acre property in Longbranch on the Key Peninsula about a year ago. It’s where she built her shop as well as two tiny homes. When she showed up to work around 8 a.m. Oct. 10, most of her belongings were gone.
The gate was broken into. A custom cargo trailer that she had planned to convert into a campervan was nowhere to be found. A large metal container that held Glidden’s tools, tiny home appliances and other equipment sat empty.
More than $25,000 worth of goods were stolen.
“Everything that I have collected over the past 20 years is now gone,” Glidden said.
Glidden said she understands some people are going through hard times and have needs, but it is no excuse for stealing. She’s fortunate to have a family that started a GoFundMe page to help pay for the stolen items, she said.
Some of her colleagues have also offered to lend their tools in the meantime, allowing her to continue working in some capacity.
“I just need to rebuild my shop,” Glidden said.
The idea for BiGBLiSS TinyHomes was set in motion after she and her husband decided to live in a tiny home as their children grew up and moved out. Some of her Instagram followers reached out to ask if she could make tiny homes for them.
“There was so much feedback about my designability and that I was a woman builder,” Glidden said. “I’ve always been a lover of small spaces so home design was right up my alley.”
