Huntsville High School’s tiny house project is taking shape

Main photo: (on stairs at back from left) Nick Drewery, Kenny Horsfield, Ryan MacDonald, (front from left) Clark Jankovic, Byron Boothby, Daniel Sanderson, Max Zanetti, teacher Jeff Brady, Cody Parent, and Biagio Iannantuono

With the dedication and efforts of Huntsville High School (HHS) students and the commitment and support of the local business community, a challenging project is taking shape.

A tiny house is one smaller than 400 square feet, and often but not always portable. The tiny house movement has been growing in recent years for a variety of reasons, among them the rising costs of housing, environmental and sustainability concerns, and the desire of some to live more simply and with less stuff. So what better and more timely project to challenge students with than a portable, tiny house.

Starting with a trailer purchased specifically for the project, HHS students, led by teacher Jeff Brady and assisted by contractors from the community, have been tasked with designing, planning and constructing a livable space in a very small footprint. They are aiming to have the project completed before the end of the school year.

What does a tiny house look like inside? Picture a mash-up between an RV and a home and you’ll get the general idea. It’s finished with the types of materials you’d expect to find in a residential home but in the space afforded by a small trailer.

In this particular design, the back five feet of the home will be a bathroom, complete with tub, sink and composting toilet. Moving forward from there will be a galley-style kitchen on one side with a sink and bar fridge, with a fold-down table for meals and relaxing on the other. At the front of the trailer is a sleeping loft with a bed, accessible via a short ladder. It will have a Scandinavian feel with white-washed pine walls and a clear-coated pine ceiling.

It doesn’t look like much yet, but the interior of the tiny house will have a bathroom (behind the perspective of this photo), a kitchen at left, a bed in the loft, and a fold-down table at right

Students have been choosing materials suitable for both cold weather and transport – they need to be able to flex as the tiny house is hauled from place to place. The floor will be a laminate or engineered product to withstand temperature fluctuations, and tongue-and-groove pine is flexible enough for the walls where drywall would crack. They are still working on what materials to use in the bathroom.

A composting toilet helped to simplify the design, removing the need for a black water tank. A grey water tank will be used for the sinks and the shower, and the tiny house’s future owner could hook it up to a septic system if it will be in a semi-permanent location. The tiny house will come with a potable water tank and water pump, but its future owners will have to install a small furnace and hot water heater. The students have left room in the design for both.

One of the most challenging aspects of building this tiny house has been determining how to make the design work with the trailer, says grade 12 student Byron Boothby, who has taken a leadership role on the project.

“It’s a bit complicated due to the trailer itself,” says Boothby. “It’s not perfectly square and true so you have to compensate for that. And all the trailers have a bow in them, so that when there’s weight on them they will sit flat. So we had to work around that.”

Boothby, who has a carpentry apprenticeship arranged for immediately after high school, says he appreciates the donated time local contractors have put into the project to help students learn, particularly with the more complicated aspects of the build. And it’s giving him experience he can take into future employment.

“(Projects like this) help increase my productivity,” he says. “I’ve been working with two different carpenters and each has their own way of doing things, so I can put different ways together and find an efficient way that I like.”

Teacher Jeff Brady says that projects like these wouldn’t be possible without community support, and many local businesses have stepped forward to donate time and expertise, materials, and money to help see the tiny house build through to completion.

“Our community is amazing,” says Brady. “There are so many people that have been helpful.”

When the HHS 300 square-foot tiny house is complete, it will be put up for sale in support of future projects.

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