It was a frigid afternoon (below 0 degrees F!) in mid-January when Brad Cooper and six of his friends and colleagues arrived to visit my tiny house. Kyle and I and my good friend C were ready to welcome them. The heater kept the house survivable at about 60 degrees, and though nobody took off his or her coat, a few of us warmed up sufficiently to remove our hats or gloves. One of Brad's colleagues was an administrator of Brad's grant, and she and everyone else was curious and had lots of questions.
I was happy to have folks climb the (temporary) step ladder to hang out in the "upstairs" -- the sleeping loft. It was fun to have folks crawling around up there and chatting, exploring the feel of the space.
The loft truly provides a lot more usable space because of the dormers than it otherwise would. Three of us were quite comfortable sitting and talking up there, and none of us seemed crowded too close.
Brad made a number of sketches -- his designs for the two small net-zero energy dwellings in Cincinnati are not yet under construction, so I like to think he enjoyed learning how Kyle and I had solved a few design problems.
I really enjoyed hosting the visitors, and tried to answer all their questions, though my interior design process is far from over and a number of variables are still flexible.
It was a little like have friends come over for a playdate, especially getting everyone up in the loft space. Fun was had by all.
As the group prepared to leave, I self-deprecatingly gave Brad a set of my "drawings", for his tremendous architectural edification I'm sure. At least they are comprehensible to me, at the level of detail I need, to help me remember what we did with the construction along the way, and where the wires are in the walls!
Brad has a clear vision of his project, and I think he has a good chance of making an impact on the quest for providing Greater Cincinnati with more safe, decent, affordable housing. Home-ownership is part of his plan, which might help strengthen the growing mixed-income community that already exists in the urban environment.
The group, comparing notes as they prepare to leave the neighborhood of big houses, after about an hour-long visit in a tiny one.
I first read about and then made contact with Brad Cooper, a Cincinnati architect intern who had gotten a grant from People's Liberty Foundation to build two tiny houses in Over-the-Rhine, a downtown neighborhood much in need of affordable housing. After a very interesting conversation Brad and I made plans for him and some associates to come down and see my tiny house. Once the date was settled, I decided to do some mocking-up of the interior layout of the house for their visit. Kyle's son D, and his friend W, gave me a hand carting down a few items from my apartment to the tiny house, so I could set the stage better.
I took the additional opportunity to move a couple of bookshelf units to my friend C's basement, where she has graciously allowed me to house my art books, adjoining the studio area we share.
D and W did a good job carrying the heavy particleboard bookshelves down my winding stairs. For the staging in the tiny house I also had them bring my disassembled futon frame, and several other shelf units, as well as a heavy 4-panel folding screen that I built years ago to display my picture frame moulding samples.
After one quick stop along the way to check the load, we made good time to my tiny house location, where the guys unloaded everything, and then stopped nearby to pick up puppy Token for a playdate with Kyle's dog Junior. (They bonded so delightfully that lucky Token got to go and live with his now-hero Junior and roam the fields and woods and riverbanks to his heart's content.) See two following photos:
Token in the foreground is about 9 months old; Junior is about a year older. Best buddies from the start.
Yay for the apparently indestructible dog flying disc given to the boys by their Aunt Laurie.
The view out the starboard loft window, from atop horsehair mattress and memory foam topper, installed upstairs on a trial basis, from wall to wall and edge to edge. It turned out to be just toooo big, like a sea of mattress, and the mattress topper a little strange.
Here's a view of the stern, the windowseat area ready for company. The burlap-covered folding screens I used to delineate forward areas of the house may be seen better in the photos taken on the day of the visit by Brad and friends -- next post!
