Tiny House Collaborative

I was on Hawaiian Time when the Tiny House Collaborative launched, so I haven't yet taken the time to tell you how very excited I am about being part of this group of fabulous people. The short answer is pretty freakin' excited!

The Tiny House Collaborative is a team of 7 individuals, each passionate about providing the resources to design, build and dwell efficiently. We are combining our energy, time, and expertise so that we can more effectively share our love of tiny homes and our collective knowledge of living well in small spaces. It's a synergistic relationship because we can do more together than any one of us could do alone.

You have four opportunities to take advantage of this synergy right away:

• Sign up for our Tiny House 101 Workshop in Washington DC March 26-27
• Sign up for a Phone/Skype Consultation to address your specific questions
• Sign up for an On-Site Consultation so we can give you the skinny on your property's suitability for a tiny home
• Sign up for a Tiny House Tour so you can explore one of our tiny homes

So how did this group of people all join up? We think it was a little bit luck/fate/coincidence and a little bit being brave enough to act on our mutual friend crushes. When we all arrived in Colorado for the 2015 Tiny House Jamboree, we decided to kick off the weekend with a hike. We got to talking about what each of us were doing in the Tiny House Movement and how it was hard to do it alone. By the end of the hike, the seven of us had decided we had to find a way to combine efforts. And just like that, the Tiny House Collaborative became a twinkle in our eyes.

In December we gathered up to Visit Orlando Lakefront RV & Tiny House Park to explore the city where James and Kai live. We turned the trip into a retreat to figure out the details and prepare to share the Tiny House Collaborative with everyone else. That means YOU! We have created a website where you can learn more about the Collaborative and sign up for the services we currently offer. Please know there are many more good things to come!

Lina's Tiny House: The Lucky Penny

For those of you new to The Little Life, welcome! My name is Lina Menard and I live in a tiny house called The Lucky Penny. I designed and built the Lucky Penny in 2014.

This profile will introduce you to my lil' house. If you'd like to see more photos and articles about my house, read Lucky Penny's Public Debut. If you have questions, please be sure to take a peek at my Frequently Asked Questions and if your question isn't addressed there, please contact me. If you want to see a video tour, please check out the Lucky Penny Tiny House Tour by Jenna and Guillaume of Tiny House Giant Journey. You can also check out other posts about The Lucky Penny on my blog.

Fast Facts

• Name: The Lucky Penny
• Location: Simply Home Community in Portland, OR
• Location Type: Tiny Cohousing Community (three tiny houses act as detached bedrooms in the backyard of a single-family home)
• Setting: Urban
• Designer: Lina Menard of Niche Consulting LLC (yup, that's me!)
• Builder: Lina Menard & Friends (I hosted work parties most weekends!)
• Plan Set: To Be Released Soon
• Number of Full-Time Inhabitants: 1
• Number of Part-Time Inhabitants: 1
• Pets: Raffi, 10 year old red Devon Rex tabby cat

Size Details

• House Width (Exterior): 8'-4" (100")
• House Width (Interior): 7'-4" (88") 
• House Length (Exterior): 14'-9" (177")
• House Length (Interior) = 13'-9" (165") 
• Exterior Square Footage: 123
• Interior Square Footage: 100
• House Height: appox. 12'-6" 
• Weight: Unknown

Construction Details

• Style: Gypsy Wagon
• Roof Shape: Vardo (curved)
• Foundation Type: Single 5000 # Iron Eagle Vardo Trailer with side extensions, welded-on stabilizing jacks
• Construction Type: SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels)
• Insulation Type: EPS (expanded polystyrene foam)

Systems

• electric point-of-use water heater
• electric space heater (Oct-Mar)
• mini-fridge without freezer (April-September)
• one-burner induction cooktop
• convection toaster oven
• mini chest freezer 
• kitchen sink
• bathroom shower

Sustainability Features

• salvaged door, windows, and finish materials
• electric-only appliances
• SIPs construction for energy-efficiency
• liquid-applied water resistant barrier for air sealing and energy-efficiency
• all LED lighting
• energy-efficient appliances
• low-VOC paints, stains and sealants

 Budget

• Total Budget: $25,000
• Total Build Cost: $24,250
• Building Materials: $14,000
• Car & Truck Rental: $2,750 (I don't own a car, so I rented cars and trucks for my build)
• Build Space Rental: $2,250 ($250/month for 9 months)
• Volunteer Meals: $1,500 (I ran work parties most weekends and provided coffee, continental breakfast, snacks, a picnic lunch and for those who stuck with me till the end, dinner!)
• Furnishings: $1,500
• Contracted Labor: $1,250 ($750 roofer, $300 welding for flip-up porch, $200 electrical consultation)
• Appliances: $1,000
• Estimated Sweat Equity: $16,000 (800 hours at $20/hour*)
• Total Value: $40,250

Small Developer Bootcamp in Portland

Yesterday, on a gorgeous spring morning, my landie Jake and I rode our bikes down to the Native American Center at PSU to attend the Small Scale Developer Bootcamp hosted by Eli Spevak of Orange Splot, LLC and John and Jim from Incremental Development Alliance. These three incredible people teamed up after meeting at an event last year. Eli told Jim and John that Portland has lots of people eager to make our neighborhoods better places through creative, community-oriented small scale projects. They scheduled a one-day bootcamp for the summer of 2016. But as more and more people contacted Eli with questions over the winter, he realized the demand for this information was even greater than anticipated, so he convinced John and Jim to bump the training up. They agreed and had the opportunity to present to a sold-out crowd of more than 100 people yesterday! The event actually kicked off on Tuesday evening with a set of presentations by small scale developers at The Zipper, a fun new food court with local independent restaurants created by Kevin Kavanaugh of Guerrilla Development. It was fascinating hearing about all the small-scale residential, live-work, incubator, and mixed-use spaces that have been created. A special focus of the bootcamp was missing middle housing, a term coined by Daniel Parolek to describe the mid-density housing that most American cities quit building many years ago and now sorely lack. Daniel was there for the bootcamp to describe missing middle housing - you know, like fourplexes, garden apartments, rowhomes - and its role in our urban fabric.

Yesterday the ten sessions included topics like:

• Financing Your First Deal
• Site Selection & Buying Property
• Deal Structures & Money Sources
• Understanding Pro Formas
• Due Diligence & Acquisition
• Understanding Condominiums
• Property & Asset Management

It was heartening to see so many people in Portland eager to learn about how they can play a part in making better neighborhoods by filling the gaps in our urban fabric with missing middle housing and small mixed-use projects. It was also fun to recognize so many faces in the room and meet new people. I'm glad I was able to participate and I look forward to seeing what happens in Portland over the next couple years as a result of the Small Developer Bootcamp!

Biz503 Radio Show re: The Future of Green Building

Later today I'll be one of the guests for a radio show on Biz503 (a segment about business in Portland on the Portland Radio Project station). This particular episode is focused on the future of sustainable building and I am honored to be one of the panelists, along with fine folks from Sustainable Northwest Wood - which provided most of the lumber for The Breathe Building, Earth Advantage which is the standard the Breathe Building was built to, People's Food Co-op - where I'm a member, and several more! I look forward to sharing a bit about Simply Home Community and I imagine we may also discuss The Breathe Building, the ADU Case Studies Project, the Space-Efficient Housing Working Group, and other sustainable building projects I've been part of here in Portland. Read on for the blog post Biz503 wrote to preview the show and tune in if you can!

BIZ503: THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE BUILDING

Sustainable building is on the rise – in Portland and across the world. The global green building market has surpassed $260 billion, and client demand is expected to keep pushing that number higher.

People are turning towards architecture that’s harmonious with nature for many reasons: economics, health, energy reduction and an overall awareness that the spaces where we live and work can be more than toxic boxes. From tiny houses to sustainable wood, to living buildings and urban forest canopies, there’s a movement to build green.

Join us Friday, Jan. 22, at 1:00 p.m. for a live broadcast of Biz503 as we talk to industry experts about the in-and-outs of the sustainable building movement. Mark Grimes of NedSpace and Cindy Tortorici from The Link will lead a discussion about the designs, ideas and visions of those who are pushing the borders of what it means to “build green.”

Our show guests include:

• Lina Menard,  member of Simply Home Community, and Owner of Niche Consulting
• Terry Campbell, Director of Business Development, Sustainable Northwest Wood, Inc.
• Ryan Shanahan, Senior Green Building Consultant at Earth Advantage
• Tom Liptan, Board Member at the Urban Greenspaces Institute , (recently retired from Portland Bureau of Environmental Service)
• Eric Corey Freed, Author, Speaker, Green Architect and Founding Principal of organicARCHITECT
• Jenna Chen, Design Manager & Collective Manager at People’s Food Co-op
• Thomas Robinson, Founder of LEVER Architecture
• Joel Miller, Building Manager at Ecotrust

Support Living Tiny... Legally

At the Tiny House Jamboree in Colorado Springs, I met Alexis & Christian of Tiny House Expedition. They've been traveling for the past several months to make a film called Living Tiny... Legally, which explores how people across the country have worked with their cities to find ways to live legally in their wee homes. They're now running a Living Tiny... Legally Indigogo campaign to raise funds to complete the project. You can support this film so that tiny house enthusiasts and city officials have great examples of how to make tiny legal. Read on for more info from their website and then jump on over to the Living Tiny... Legally Indigogo campaign to make a contribution.  

Living Tiny....Legally!

August 7th-9th 2015: The First Tiny House Jamboree in Colorado Springs, CO. Event organizers expected a turnout of 10,000 people. 40,000+ showed up, representing all 50 states.

The biggest takeaway? People want to live tiny, legally! AND there’s a very real desire to live in tiny house communities. 

We are Alexis & Christian, the filmmakers & tiny house community advocates behind Tiny House Expedition,

and Kai Rostscheck, mover & shaker behind I Love Tiny Houses, Tiny House Lending & Tiny House Dating...

We are traveling the country to create a documentary series featuring case studies; exciting examples of how a handful of cities from all over the country are making legal tiny house communities a reality...

Our goal is to legitimize conversations about legal Tiny Housing and to provide a proactive, illustrative resource for those seeking to bring tiny houses to their city but don't know where to start...

We’ll talk with founders and city officials representing these ongoing projects, in both urban and rural settings. We’ll ask city planners about local objections & potential solutions, to zoning issues, safety certifications and more.

These communities are in various stages of development and each represents a unique kind of arrangement, but many of the issues and opportunities are similar.

Ultimately, we’ll determine why each city said “yes” or wants to say yes, to Tiny Housing, if the right conditions can be met, of course.

This documentary will be YOUR FREE resource, to help YOU, the people that want to live tiny, live tiny legally... With YOUR HELP, this documentary can be used as YOUR tool to proactively further meaningful conversations with your local municipal planners and help make legal tiny housing a reality in YOUR community.

Check out the Living Tiny... Legally Indigogo campaign to support this film by making a contribution!

Less Is More 2016 Wrap Up

It was great fun Kicking Off 2016 with Small Home Design by teaching Less Is More at Yestermorrow. Monday and Tuesday we went on field trips to small houses in the Mad River Valley and Montpelier. We got to see five little houses this year, ranging in size from about 120 square feet to 1700 square feet. All five of these houses were owner-built, which was neat because we had the opportunity to talk to the homeowners about their challenges and successes. I had been to each of these small homes before, but I learn something new each time I visit, so that was great!

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Dave and I presented slideshows to share building basics and design tricks for small spaces. We asked the students what else they wanted to learn and ended up doing a crash course in building science, a presentation on toilet options, considerations for construction and finish materials, and sharing net zero energy information. We also introduced design exercises and drafting techniques.

One of our activities was designing a tiny house together by taping it out on the floor. I was impressed by how many different considerations came up as the students deliberated the merits of putting the door in one location or another and selecting a roof style. They were excellent at weighing their options and thinking things through. It was fun to see students design exercises morph into their individual projects as their understanding and design skills evolved. (Photos forthcoming.)

On Thursday the students worked away the day designing their own small home projects, ranging in scale from a 200 SF tiny house on wheels to a 1800 ski house that can sleep 12. They presented their work on Friday to the class and our jurors, Paul Hanke and Kathy Meyer.

Other projects included:

• a small home with a movement studio for dance and aikido
• a little house inspired by medieval timber frame construction
• a Texan live-work space with a double roof for shading
• a small lakehouse to retire to
• a cabin in the woods with an impressive roof
• a round house with pop-outs
• a multi-generational home with a turret suite

It was fun to see students design exercises morph into their individual projects as their understanding and design skills evolved. And, of course, it was great to be back in Vermont and at Yestermorrow. This was my eleventh trip out there and it looks like I may have good reason to go back again this summer to help out with a Build Blitz. One of the students in the class is excited to build a tiny house on wheels and several other students are eager to help out. Stay tuned for more about that possibility!

Meanwhile, I’m scheming my next tiny house design workshop, which will be in Asheville, NC right after the Tiny House Conference. If you’re noodling through your tiny house design, mark your calendar for April 3-8^th and Contact Me to be added to the list for more information!

Kicking Off 2016 with Small Home Design

 

Happy New Year!

They say that what you do on the first day of the year is indicative of what the year will bring. If that's true, 2016 is going to bring me fun adventures! I started out the new year by hoping on a plane on New Year's day, bound for Vermont. I'm teaching the Less is More class at Yestermorrow, which is a 1-week design intensive focused on small homes. (You can also learn about past Less is More classes.)

We kicked off tonight with introductions and a design exercise to get the creative juices flowing. It was fun to hear about all the tiny house dreams and schemes that our students have. It seems this week on the drafting boards we're going to be seeing tiny houses on wheels, small cabins in the woods, and a smallish vacation home for 12. It should be fascinating!

Tomorrow we'll start out with field trips and then we'll jump right back into the design process.

It's nice to be starting class having already adjusted to the timezone. But really I planned an extra day onto the front end of my trip for two other reasons. First, I was traveling through Chicago. In January. So, you know, contingency. The second is that I've made some good friends here and one of them was celebrating a birthday. We had a fabulous day of... well, mostly eating, really... but other good fun, too! Yay for homemade waffles, fresh oysters, winter wanders, and the ridiculousness that is bowling! I've long liked the idea of secular sabbath but the past couple years I've been rather lousy at unplugging! Saturday was good practice and I plan to continue that throughout the year.

Less Is More: A 1-Week Small Home Design Intensive

Five years ago I created my first tiny house design in a Yestermorrow Design-Build School course called Less is More. Less is More is a 1-week-long design intensive that includes field trips, presentations, and design time. For the past three years, I've been teaching Less is More at Yestermorrow and thoroughly loving it! I hope you can join us this January!

Less Is More: Designing the Small or Tiny House

• Yestermorrow Design Build School (Waitsfield, VT)
• January 3 - 8, 2016
• Registration: https://yestermorrow.org/learn/courses/less-more-designing-small-or-tiny-house

Reese, who took the course two winters ago, is deep into the design phase for his tiny house on wheels, the Shred Shed. Reese looooves snowboarding, so he's designing his little house so that it can not only accommodate his lifestyle but so that the house itself can become a surface on which to perform snowboarding tricks. (You can check it out at Shred Shed.) It was great fun watching Reese go through his initial design process. In Less is More, Reese taped out the footprint of his little house on the floor and then borrowed furniture from the library so that he could rearrange the furniture until he figured out the ideal layout for his tiny house at a life-size scale!

Genevieve took Less is More last winter and she's now building her tiny house on wheels. She has lived in some truly amazing places (including spending winters in Antarctica!) and her tiny house is shaping up to be a pretty amazing place, too.

Here's what Genevieve said about the course:

"I can strongly recommend this course. Lina & David are very helpful. This course truly confirmed my design decisions before building my TH." - Genevieve

If you're serious about designing your tiny house so that you can start building this year, join us in January in Vermont for Less is More!

Here are some posts I've written about the course so you can get a better feel for it:

• Welcome to Less is More
• Less Time, More Drafting
• Less Is More Presentations
• Hello Again Less is More
• Less is More Tours & Programming
• Less is More Presentation Day

A Year Living in the Lucky Penny

It's my one year anniversary of living in The Lucky Penny! November 15th last year was my Move in Day & Housewarming. But Raffi and I officially moved out of the basement of The Big House and began living in my 100 square foot gypsy wagon, The Lucky Penny, on December 1^st of last year. So I’ve now lived in my little house for a full year. And what a full year it’s been!

I celebrated A Year of Little Living in September of 2012 and I commemorated Another Year of Little Living in 2013, but a year of Living in the Lucky Penny seems extra special because this is the house I designed and built for myself (with lots of Tiny House Helpers, of course!) After Offering Gratitudes this week, I’m especially thankful to have another year of Tiny Home for the Holidays!

I woke up to moonlight on my face this morning. It was shining right on me through my domed skylight, which someone recently referred to as my “moon roof.” I love that description! It totally is a moon roof! Of course, it also lets me see the stars, the clouds, the rain, the sun, the birds, and the mighty oak tree I’m parked under.

Here are a few things I’ve discovered after a year of living in this this little house:

• The Lucky Penny works really well for me. I don’t have any major regrets with the design or the construction though there are few things I’d do smarter now that I’ve done them once the hard way. (For instance, you’ll see in Musings on my Vardo Roof Box that I would do the roof differently next time!)
• I love that whatever activity I’m doing is what the house becomes. When I’m sleeping it’s a comfy bedroom. When I’m working the whole space becomes an office. When I’m cooking, it’s all kitchen.
• I have plenty of storage space in my little house. More, actually, than I know what to do with. The top half of my tansu is empty right now as are some of the upper cabinets and I don’t have much in the storage loft.
• When I’m here with just Raffi it’s very easy to do whatever I need or want to do in my house. Once I add another person to the mix we have to navigate around each other more. It gets to be a tango. The dance is fun when it’s my sweetie or a friend, but I can already see that it could get old over time if I shared this space. (Isha and I have talked about trying it just to see what it’s like, but we're happily scheming our Tiny House for Two.)
• I was afraid I would get annoyed by converting my multi-functional spaces, but I’ve found I actually like it as long as I’m not already stressed and in a hurry. For instance, putting My Pull Out Bed away in the morning is a nice part of my morning routine. Getting my drawer top table ready is just the first step of Setting the Table to have breakfast or tea. Isha likes this idea enough that we’d talking about designing it into our Tiny House for two.
• I find I sleep comfortably on My Pull Out Bed in either its closed up or pulled-out versions. The pulled-out version is especially nice because I’m under the moon roof, but it is also quite cozy when Raffi and I sleep on the bed when it’s in window seat mode. And no, I’ve never fallen off!
• Cooking and baking in My Plug & Play Kitchen is wonderful. Although I usually make big meals for our Community Dinners at the Big House, I make my own breakfasts and lunches in my little house. Sometimes that’s as simple as making tea and having a piece of fruit. Other times I get on a baking kick and make cardamom twists in my little house, rolling out the dough on top of My Tiny Chest Freezer and baking them in My Fabulous Toaster Oven.

There are some things still not done. I never have finished out the shower since I’ve been showering at The Big House. (This is one of the many advantages of living at Simply Home Community, a tiny cohousing community.) And still I have a punch list that’s 40 items long that includes little tasks like washing the windows and doing paint touch ups. I’ll get to those eventually. Say, this spring when it warms up again! But for now, I’m enjoying being hunkered down for the winter in my little house!

Now, to go hang my advent calendar and count down the days till I get to go visit my sisters and introduce them to my sweetie, Isha, The Guy Next Door!

Staying at Sol Haus

When I was in Ojai last weekend for the Tiny House Community Workshop, I got to stay at Sol Haus, Vina Lustado’s beautiful tiny house on wheels. And it was so wonderful I must tell you all about it!

Lee and I confessed to each other as we were driving to Vina's that night that we anticipated we'd have some tiny house envy. We’d seen pictures of Vina’s beautiful home, but of course, Vina’s house, like so many other tiny houses, can’t really be captured in photos. The feel of her house is splendid! So cozy, such clean lines, such well-thought-out details. Vina is an architect and her design aesthetic is fabulous! I loved the curve of her spacious desk, the awesome library ladder, and the way the low window in the kitchen makes you feel like you’re cooking al fresco. It was awesome curling up on the comfy bench and falling asleep to the flickering flame of her propane fireplace. (Lee slept up in the loft which has a nest feel with a circular window and an operable skylight!)

There were a few other things Vina did that I was surprised I liked so much. Here are my top three:

1. 

   A ceiling under the loft. I’m used to seeing exposed joists under a loft which I like because it shows off the structure of the house and gives a sense of spaciousness. I'd always thought that a ceiling would make the space seem too small. So I was impressed by how the clean lines and light color of her kitchen ceiling actually made the space feel larger (of course, at 6'8" Vina's kitchen ceiling is about 5" higher than normal. And somehow the loft feels spacious, too! I'm pretty sure it's Vina magic! That and having the walls tall and the roof pitch a little shallower!)

2. A tiled shower. Vina’s lovely tiled shower reminded me that maybe it’s worth considering tile for the Tiny House for Two I’m designing with The Guy Next Door. I used to think tile was a bad idea for tiny houses on the move because of the weight and the cracking potential, but for little houses that don’t move much, I think they can make a lot of sense (especially if they’re small tiles which seem to handle movement a little better). I installed tile in Tandem (under the instruction of a great teacher named Rocky) and it’s held up well.
3. A second sink. I also appreciated the handwashing sink in the bathroom. Typically I don’t feel it’s necessary to have two sinks in a tiny house if there are just one or two people, but since Lee and I were staying in Sol Haus and Vina was in and out hanging out with us and getting herself ready in the morning and for bed, it was quite nice to have two sinks. I’m now convinced that if two or more people are sharing a space it’s at least worth considering a second sink.

I feel very, very lucky to have had the opportunity to stay at Sol Haus. If you ever have the chance to tour this little house, please take it!