The Pera house may be the first tiny house remodel.  I found an already-existing tiny house shell built on an 18-ft long trailer on Craigslist that my friend and builder, Tony, was going to finish.  Instead he ended up demolishing and rebuilding the tiny house.  For what we didn’t know before he went down to South Carolina to pick up the house was that the original owner had only built 16 feet of house – leaving one foot of unused space on either end of the trailer.  This made no sense to us, so Tony rebuilt the house to 18 feet and rebuilt the roof to include a spacious loft with dormers and windows that allow me a perfect view of the beautiful trees in the cemetery.

I also have been fortunate to work with a wonderful architect who has helped me rethink aspects of my house, and come up with some clever systems and designs, like a removable 4-foot deck, rain screen siding and roof using sustainably-harvested local lumber, storage boxes off the back of the house for my water tanks, ERV unit, and water heater, and a great ladder for getting into the loft.

Some pictures of progress from original house until now

House as it looked when it arrived on the lot from South Carolina

Showing the inside of the original shell to visitors

Original roof off, new ridgebeam on

House with longer walls and new roof

House with new, extended end walls and new roof

House all wrapped

View from the loft

House inside with windows cut out and new loft

House with deck

Windows and furring strips – ready for the siding

Cedar rain screen siding going up

Siding started, EPDM on roof

Figuring out storage boxes at back of house

Locust siding on front of house finished!

Siding almost finished

Locust rain screen siding and deck

See blog updates: May; June; July; Aug; Oct; Nov