There’s no sacrificing style in these ingenious mini abodes

Just how far down can you downsize?

That’s the challenge of the tiny house, a 21st-century trend in simpler, greener, compact living.

Its forebears were the wilderness cabin, the Arts and Crafts bungalow, the vacation cottage, the motel court, and Thoreau’s 150-square-foot domicile on Walden Pond.

Its contemporary incarnation is a basic space stripped to its essence, but retaining strong elements of design, modern convenience and even comfort.

The small-house movement got going in the early 1990s, inspired by Lester Walker’s 1987 book, Tiny, Tiny Houses: Or How to Get Away From It All, explained Andy Lee, a proponent who came from a long line of builders and carpenters. Walker’s book provided practical layouts and dream-house drawings for hundreds of dwellings under 325 square feet, and tracked the evolution of tiny homes from Thomas Jefferson’s pre-Monticello cottage, to George Bernard Shaw’s 8-by-8-foot writing hut, to classic Cape Cods.

Most people in the 1990s adapted the little-house idea to backyard offices or guest rooms, or to add some space when local ordinances prevented additions to historic or otherwise zoning-restricted structures, according to Lee. He recalled building a tiny structure for a woman whose adult son was learning disabled, so he’d have a place to go outside their house – but not too far away.

“There were not a whole lot of people in the movement back then,” Lee said.
And the tiny house movement isn’t huge now. But it’s growing.

Converts to small living use the structures as temporary housing, vacation homes, starter homes, studios, student housing, work space, guest bedrooms, or full-time living quarters.

There are about 500 members of the Small House Society, said co-founder Jay Shafer, who is also founder of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.

Tumbleweed sells plans or finished shelters chosen from a variety of traditional to contemporary architectural styles and sizes, including the Vardo, a 40-square-foot home on wheels that resembles a Gypsy caravan; the Epu, a 100-square-foot structure with cathedral ceiling and mini-porch; and the Z. Glass House, a 392-square-foot, glass-and-wood modernist rectangle. Among the larger choices, at 770 square feet, is the Enesti, which provides sleeping quarters for four. Several models, including the Z.Glass, can be linked together with a breezeway to double their size.

The constructed homes cost $100 to $200 per square foot, depending on the custom accommodations requested. For do-it-yourselfers, plans alone are about $1,000 for each structure.

All the designs at the Northern California-based Tumbleweed are drawn by Shafer, a former art school student with a masters degree in painting who “studied architecture on the side.” These days he’s a specialist in sustainable architecture and urban planning, and an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Iowa, in addition to running Tumbleweed. His building styles were not inspired by any particular architect, but by “vernacular architecture in general,” he said. “By common people for common people has been my influence.”

Shafer built his own tiny house in 1999, he said, “because I was paying for more space than I actually needed.” Aside from the expense of heating and cooling unnecessary rooms, “I didn’t want to spend my life doing more than I needed for my living space.’

“Plus, there’s the environmental side of it. I was putting out more greenhouse gases and burning fossil fuels for space that was not being utilized.”
There were also aesthetic factors. “I could put more of my budget into each square foot and build it exactly as I wanted, to fit my needs.”

Friends admired Shafer’s efficient lifestyle, and documentary-maker and small-living pioneer Greg Johnson became Shafer’s first customer. Shafer started the Tumbleweed company in 2000, and was constructing one tiny home per year. Now, the company builds two per month.

Shafer’s 100-square-foot home has been featured on Oprah and Anderson Cooper 360. The quick tour takes visitors over the porch and into the 6-by-6 “great room,” which includes his desk and a stainless-steel boat heater/fireplace, two “puffy” chairs, a closet and bookshelves. The 4-by-4 kitchen has a sink, dorm-room-sized refrigerator, and a two-burner cook top. The bathroom has a shower and composting toilet. A ladder in the kitchen leads to the sleeping loft, which is 6 by 11 feet and 3.5 feet high at the center.

Shafer lives alone and said the smaller models are not designed well for more than one person. “Ideally, a house has a private space for every intended occupant,” but “for short stays, it’s good for two.”

The homes are structurally safe, even in extreme weather. For severe storms, tie-down cables can secure the house to the ground, Shafer said.

Decorating a tiny home is easy, too. “When it comes to a small house, the design process dictates itself. The same happens in decoration; necessity dictates how a house will be decorated. A small house is going to look lived in. Everything is necessary to the occupants’ happiness, so the intensity of life is pretty high. There is not much in the way of ornament, but everyday things serve to enliven the house.”

Andy Lee, the longtime builder who is now manager of the Tiny House Company based in Buena Vista, Va., explained that owners can make their little dwellings feel like home in a number of ways.

“Each exterior design is individual, whether it’s a Cape Cod, chalet, ranch style, Arts & Crafts, or other style – that’s the beginning of it. They can also choose porches and window boxes. Inside, it’s mostly done with paint and floor choices,” he said. The company uses green materials, including organic compounds in paints and renewable resources for flooring, such as bamboo and cork.

All the homes are built in accordance with international building codes and are hurricane resistant. “The materials we use are not toxic; there are no air-quality issues” as there were in the government-provided trailers for Katrina victims, Lee said.

Among the clients of the Tiny House Company was a Virginia hospital’s birthing center, which requested 800-square-foot cottages for mothers-to-be.

The majority of the customers for both Tumbleweed and Tiny House have been single women, although their ages have ranged from mid-30s to 60s. “Some are divorced, and not eager to go back to another relationship,” Lee said. “They want to live on their own comfortably, and the small house fits them quite well.”

Mary Jane Gore, of Crozet, Va., was looking for “an alternative living space” last year while she and her husband were separating. “I didn’t want to impoverish my family, and I wanted to find something that was just big enough, but not too big. I didn’t want to set up another household.”

Her online search led to the Tiny House Company. At first she and Andy Lee discussed a trailer for a lot Gore had purchased, but the town ordinances would not allow that in the affluent region. “Then Andy came back with three different house plans, and I picked one,” a 24-by-36-foot, two-bedroom home. They built it together, and added a large deck on the back, for a total cost of under $100,000.

The advantages of small-house living are many, said Gore, who works in the public relations department of the University of Virginia Health System. “The property taxes are lower, utilities are much lower, and there’s the feeling that you’re doing something for the environment.

“I use every room every day. And I can clean it all in a half-hour. I know where everything is.”

There are disadvantages. “When my two teenagers are there, it can reach a major noise and confusion level. I try to have them one at a time.”

A tiny house “forces you to clean up your life,” Gore said. “The whole process has involved thoughtfully looking at another way of life. Now, it’s a philosophy for me.”