The quaint wooden house that sits atop the grand steps at Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) might be tiny, but it stands for something much bigger.

These little homes on wheels are making appearances across the country in increasing numbers, from the depths of mountainside forests to the backyards of residential lots. The idea is to decrease one’s carbon footprint, avoid lengthy mortgage payments and embrace mobility.

“It does speak rather universally to the time we are living in, where we are living in the middle of an economic downturn that came on the heels of a huge housing bubble, that saw a huge growth out of proportion of what people needed,” said Amy Gilman, curator of the “Small Worlds” exhibit and TMA’s associate director. “There is a movement in the other direction.”

The museum’s tiny house — to be auctioned on eBay starting March 8 — is 65 square feet. It stands 12 feet, 6 inches tall and is 6 feet, 4 inches wide. Two space heaters are all it takes to warm the interior to a cozy climate. A futon sits against one wall below a window, facing a counter with a desk chair and rows of storage racks.

Step a couple of inches forward and you’ll see the kitchen counter, inlayed with a sink and sitting above a small refrigerator while tiny frying pans dangle from the ceiling. If you turn around, you’ll see the bathroom: a miniature toilet facing a showerhead. A ladder leads to a loft where a queen-sized air mattress rests.

Collapse provoked growth

Jay Shafer, who owns Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, said the housing market collapse helped his business grow, as hundreds of new clients disenchanted with the traditional housing industry flocked to buy his floor plans.

He started out in the late ’90s, when he built one for himself. During his first year he sold two or three plans but now he is selling at least 100 a year. He will speak at the museum’s Peristyle, at 7 p.m. March 8.

But he and other designers, homeowners and prospective tiny house dwellers are running up against a wall of regulations. Just where would you park one of these things? And just how legal is it?

When Shafer first moved into a tiny house, he bought a small home, rented the house out and parked his 89-square-foot home in the backyard. He lived there for five years.

This, however, would be illegal in Toledo, according to building codes and zoning laws. Regulations forbid someone from living in one of these tiny houses on the lawn of a property, even if the property belongs to the tiny house owner, said David Golis, chief building official for the city.

One could theoretically move a tiny house into a mobile home park. Most of these places require that mobile homes on-site are Housing and Urban Development approved, which would mean that tiny house owners would likely have to ensure that their homes comply, said Tom Lemon, administrator of planning.

The tiny house living conundrum has not presented itself to many mobile home communities in Toledo. Blog sites about tiny houses contain a few posts from individuals looking for tiny houses in Northwest Ohio, but the posters have not responded for request to comment.

Ella Jenkins, a 23-year-old living in Southern California, worries about where she’ll park her tiny house when she finishes building it. She has been working on it in her parents’ backyard for months. Her little wooden home has a 10-foot high ceiling and is 6 feet wide. The wheels were the answer to another regulatory roadblock, Shafer said. Housing codes in many areas forbid people from living in something so small.

According to Ohio residential codes, legal dwellings must have at least one room no smaller than 120 square feet and no room can have any dimension shorter than 7 feet. Golis said the size regulations are to control odors, moisture and disease transmission.

Moving off the grid

Roadblocks aside, these little dwellings are becoming popular among young couples, singles, retirees and environmentalists. A wealth of tiny house forums span the Internet, with commenters writing about simply “moving off the grid” in tiny houses.

Think Walden Pond, only imagine Henry David Thoreau retreating back to a little wooden cabin with a tin roof, furnished with a propane-fueled stove and a shower inside.

Tiny Green Cabins, a Minnesota-based company that started in 2008, posts photos of cozy cabins nestled beside streams and snow-capped mountains. “Simplify, Simplify, Simplify” — one of Thoreau’s popular quotes — is Founder and CEO Jim Wilkins’ mantra.

Wilkins said some clients use the tiny green cabins for a writing hut or an outdoor office space. But those who actually live in his cabins full time tend to have jobs for which they need to move frequently. He’s even receiving a lot of requests for three to five member families.

“Especially with young people, they don’t want to have debt put into a structure,” he said. “They can buy a tiny house and take it with them so it’s a one-time investment.”

Jenkins can appreciate that. Having just graduated college, she is tired of having to pack up and move from lease to lease every year. When she moved back to California, she started apartment hunting but balked at the prices. Perhaps investing in a tiny house would be cheaper in the long run, she thought.

“I have to keep telling myself that, but it gets a little hard when you spend $1,000 on a water heater,” she said.

She’s put about $13,500 worth of work into the house and has barely finished the inside. Plans from Tumbleweed Tiny Houses can cost anywhere from $99 to more than $850. Add in all of the construction expenses and you’re looking at tens of thousands of dollars.

But here’s the kicker: Utility bills are practically nonexistent. When Wilkins moved into his tiny house, the winter electric bill was $25 a month or less. During the summer, he was charged the minimum fee.

There are other ways to get crafty with appliances. Jenkins will use a stove that operates on denatured alcohol. Shafer used solar panels on his roof. That fact gets to the root of why so many people wish to move out of big homes and into tiny ones.

“Perhaps what you have is a beautifully designed space and it doesn’t need to be 25,000 square feet,” Gilman said. “I think that’s a dialogue people need to have and we encourage our community to have that conversation.”

Struggle to build

Gilman sought to bring a tiny house to TMA’s Small Worlds exhibit to extend the art outdoors, to show how art and design can influence the real world. The museum bought plans from Tumbleweed Tiny House Company and The Lathrop Company constructed the house, while modifying some details. The Andersons donated at least 90 percent of the materials, even down to the eating utensils, said Julie Payeff, community commitment manager for The Andersons.

Construction was a struggle that took six to eight weeks to complete, about four weeks longer than expected. The Lathrop Company had to have every piece of the project custom built, from the trailer that the house sits upon to the couch cushions to the ramp that workers cut to fit the art museum steps. Only one worker could fit inside at once, said Paul Lulfs, general superintendent at Lathrop.

One worker had to lie on his back and drill every ceiling board in its place above the loft, Lulfs said.

But looking back, Lulfs, Sofia Eich, assistant engineer on the project, and Raymond Benjamin, manager of special projects, laugh about the amusing challenge that the task became.

The trio said they’d probably do it again — as a hobby.

“It would be hard to lose something in there,” Lulfs said. “It’s so small you have to go outside to change your mind.”

Benjamin added, “You’d have reduced belongings — you’d become a minimalist immediately.”

Tags: Amy Gilman, Jay Shafer, Small Worlds, Tiny House, TMA, Tumbleweed Tiny House Company

This entry was posted on Friday, February 3rd, 2012 at 4:34 am and is filed under Arts and Life, Exhibits, Housing, Toledo Museum of Art.
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The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) is exploring the concepts of size and scale with the new exhibit, “Small Worlds,” opening Nov. 18.

“Small Worlds” includes more than 40 pieces from five artists with dioramas, sculptures, photos, a video installation and many other works featuring art on a small scale.

“I wanted to think about how viewers will experience the work in the gallery,” TMA Associate Director Amy Gilman said. “Some pieces are very small, and you are very large in relation to them. When you’re around things that are really small, all of a sudden your body feels bigger.”

Despite the name of the exhibit, not all of the pieces are small.

Lori Nix, ‘Library from The City series,’ Chromogenic print, 2006, from ‘Small Worlds.’

“I was originally thinking about it only being small work and miniature things,” Gilman said. “It would be a real kind of jewel box show. As I kept thinking, I decided that would be really fun but it would be kind of one-note. I was interested in the smallness of scale. It doesn’t have to be small. It can be small in relation to something else.”

One object small in relation is a 65-square-foot house called the “XS.” It is the smallest model home built by the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, weighs 4,000 pounds and was built on a 7-foot-by-11-foot utility trailer. The house includes a kitchenette, a living room and a loft bedroom capable of holding a queen-size bed.

“One of the things I wanted to do is take the idea of smallness and bring it into our world,” Gilman said. “I wanted to highlight something I’ve noticed, which is a small house movement. It began before the economic downturn, but it has really gained momentum since 2008.

“It is a reaction to the ‘bigger is better’ view of homes. It has everything you need to live in it and is beautifully constructed and designed, but it isn’t 10,000 square feet. The smallest house I could find is this 65-square-foot home. Including that piece in the show is a way of reaching beyond the art world into design, architecture and the green living movement.”

The new exhibit also features houses from Toledo. Northwest Ohio resident Charles Kanwischer created graphite pencil drawings specifically for “Small Worlds” of houses located within a half-mile radius of the museum.

“I love that Charlie did this,” Gilman said. “We had talked about the themes for the show and how you would define a small world differently. He said he was thinking about how the show is centered at the museum and he wanted to make it something personal to Toledo. It says something about artists melding their ideas in dialogue with other things and the place that they live.”

The museum is working new ideas of its own into the exhibit with an online catalog accessible through scannable QR codes. The catalog is designed like a world map, featuring information and content from the artists.

“It’s the first time the museum has done something quite this extensive,” Gilman said. “We’ve had online catalogs for about the past year. It is much more interactive.”

“Small Worlds” is on display in the Canaday Gallery until March 25. The Toledo Museum of Art is located at 2445 Monroe St.

“This show is like my children coming all together,” Gilman said. “It would be impossible for me to choose a favorite out of the show, because I’m the one who chose them all. Some of them would not be shown together normally. It’s because of this specific show. It’s been a great way for us to bring different kinds of artwork to the museum that would not normally be shown here.”

Tags: Small Worlds, Toledo Museum of Art

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 17th, 2011 at 1:48 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Exhibits, Toledo Museum of Art.
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