Читать книгу The Tiny House Handbook - Charlie Wing - Страница 9

My love affair with tiny houses began in 1972. I was teaching physics at Bowdoin College and was asked to lead a senior seminar on any subject I knew nothing about. Bowdoin was experimenting with the notion of students learning to learn through emulation of the teacher in exploring a new subject.

One subject I knew nothing about was how buildings, in particular houses, worked or didn’t work from the viewpoint of physics. I admit to having chosen the subject selfishly. The 1794 Maine farmhouse I had recently purchased was a preservationist’s dream—as free of insulation, weatherstripping, and mechanical systems as the day it was born. Situated at the very top of a bare hill, on a windy night the best it could do was lower the speed of the infiltrating wind.

The seminar proved popular, not only among the Bowdoin students (they called the course “Hammer and Nails”), but also among a growing number of auditing back-to-the-land hippies wanting to construct their own shelters.

From a personal standpoint the course was a great success, for it resulted in an overwhelming urge to build my own energy-efficient passive solar house. Hearing of my desire, two of the graduating seniors asked if they could help. Both Jan Pierson and Steve Alcaide had scored an A on the final exam, and both were strong as bulls. How could I refuse?

The employment agreement was, for the summer: a room in the farmhouse, board, and the minimum wage at the time of $2.75/hour.

On the agreed starting date the two young men arrived on motorcycles. Behind each was a large duffel bag—and an enthusiastic young lady. I was, they informed me, getting four workers for the price of two. How could I refuse?

But, as so often happens, reality soon raised its head. That evening I held a crew meeting and presented several issues. First, my family of four plus the crew of four made eight people in just three bedrooms. Second, a rainy May had extended Maine’s mud season, keeping the mile-long cowpath to the building site impassable. Third, not unexpected, and yet not insignificant, none of the crew had any prior carpentry experience.

The following morning the crew proposed a solution. If I supplied the materials, they would learn carpentry by building without pay a small cabin on site. There they would sleep and cook their own meals. At the end of summer I would have a guest house or writing shack for the cost of materials alone. The looks on their young faces reminded me of my dog’s upon presentation of the retrieved ball. The energy generated among the four could have powered a small town. How could I refuse? Off they went on the motorcycles. Over his shoulder one yelled, “We’re gonna do a charette!” (Look it up.)

In late afternoon they returned with a rough sketch for a 12’ by 20’ solar shed with two sleeping lofts. Over the next four days I produced foundation, framing, and sheathing drawings accurate to 1/8” inch while they measured, cut, and numbered every piece in my workshop. The following Monday they loaded all onto my farm tractor and trailer and plowed their way through the mud to the building site. One week later they moved into the shell of their tiny home.

The little house on its foundation of telephone poles and containing a compressed but complete kitchen, tiny wood stove, and two sleeping lofts, has now been continually occupied by single and couple tenants for forty-eight years.

Four years later found me at Cornerstones School in Brunswick, Maine, where adults from around the US and Canada would attend 3-week workshops on designing and building their own passive solar homes. Mornings, 9 to 12, would be spent in the classroom. Afternoons, 1 to 5, the students would practice construction skills.

The classroom portion consisted of fifteen lectures based on the fifteen chapters in From the Ground Up, the owner-builder text I had lately coauthored with John Cole. But what about the construction skills? How could forty students saw wood and pound nails for fifteen days without creating an immense heap of scrap?

Then I remembered the little 12’ × 20’ house. What could be more instructive, satisfying, and economical than constructing actual tiny houses that could later be sold for the cost of the materials? Over the next few years Cornerstones students completed a dozen. Construction took place in the Cornerstones parking lot in the heart of town. Upon completion, a pair of forklifts volunteered by the local lumberyard would load the completed building onto a flatbed trailer for delivery to its purchaser.

With each iteration the design improved and the public’s interest increased. Local newspapers and then television newscasts carried brief stories. It being summer in Vacationland, the national media noticed. One class completed a tiny house in a 96-hour building bee during the annual Maine Arts Festival on the Bowdoin campus. The event was recorded and aired in a 20-minute segment on the PBS MacNeil/Lehrer Report. Another PBS series, A House for all Seasons, produced a segment comparing the tiny house to a “land yacht.” Country Living magazine, not willing to wait, spent a fortune at the local nursery transforming the Cornerstones parking lot into a forest setting for the little house. The cover banner on the magazine read, “Build This House for $5,000!” (They later reported sales for the building plans set a record.)

I purchased the last of the tiny houses and moved it to its present site on an ocean cove in nearby Harpswell, Maine. I lived in it for a year. The annual property tax including the oceanfront site was $120. The winter heating bill totalled one-half cord of hardwood.

I miss that tiny house. I’m going to build another.

From the back door, southwest reading and thinking corner. Sleeping loft overhead. Corner of 36” × 80” writing desk at bottom right.

From the kitchen/dining area, looking at sleeping loft, Jotul 602 wood stove, wall-hinged writing desk over couch (in working/down position).

From the woodstove, looking toward kitchen/dining area (kitchen is behind bookcase). Second sleeping loft over dining area has been removed.

From the driveway. A 6’ × 20’ extension to the rear added—at the request of a lady occupant—a bathroom and a walk-in closet. Total floor area is now 360 square feet.