BRATTLEBORO — Together with Chad Farnum of Farnum Insulators, the upper elementary students at Hilltop Montessori School built a “tiny house” as part of a unit examining the issues surrounding affordable housing and income security in Brattleboro and neighboring communities.
The tiny house is an actual, energy-efficient house built on wheels. The layout is perfect for a studio, guest house, or get-away home. This design, by Tumbleweed Tiny House (www.tumbleweedhouses.com), was built on a trailer and comes complete with a kitchen, bathroom, skylight, and loft bedroom.
Valerie Costa was the lucky winner of the tiny house, which was raffled off at the Strolling of the Heifers Slow Living Expo in early June. The raffle raised $14,000.
Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit Hilltop's scholarship program, and the students allocated 20 percent of their profits to Morningside Shelter, Vermont's only year-round homeless shelter.
According to Josh Davis, Morningside's executive director, the effort is set against the backdrop of new state budget cuts to emergency housing programs. He said his constituents are grateful for community support and focus on the issue.
“While it's not practical for everyone, the tiny house movement is catching on with a lot of people who are cognizant of reducing their footprint and simplifying their lives. It is a great example to remind us that there are many possible solutions to our shortage of affordable housing in this area,” Davis said.
The tiny house was completed as part of Hilltop's Practical Life work curriculum, and involved students in grades 4 through 6. Working with Farnum Insulators, the students learned to safely use a variety of hand tools; practiced measuring and other practical math (such as the Pythagorean Theorem); and got a grounding in basic framing techniques.
Leader Home Centers donated materials; Jancewicz & Sons donated the windows and roofing.