When Stephanie Arado built her first tiny house in 2003, the 3,500-square-foot modernist cabin was a necessity. With a budget of just $50,000, Ms. Arado didn’t have the means to build much.
“I’ve always had a need to get away from it all,” said Ms. Arado, now 61, a violinist and lecturer at the University of Minnesota. But after buying 38 acres of former farmland in rural Wisconsin for $130,000, she lacked the funds to build a large home. “I was much younger back then and interested in living off the grid,” she said.
The resulting structure, designed by Alchemy Architects, had no electricity or running water. The only toilet was in an outbuilding. Nevertheless, once completed and published, it inspired others who dreamed of owning a small house, and the architects received inquiries from people across the country.
This led Alchemy to introduce weeHouse, a tiny home system based on prefabricated modules. “Back then, we viewed each module as a different part of the house, so there was a living unit, a private bedroom and bathroom, and some stair units,” said Geoffrey Warner, Alchemy’s founder. “You would basically combine them into any Tinkertoy Lego building.”
Over the course of two decades, Alchemy has designed more than 100 weeHouses. But along the way, the company also learned to be flexible. Many homeowners desired additional customization, and sometimes it proved more cost-effective to simply build the home in a more traditional manner rather than have it built in a factory. The weeHouse became more of a guiding philosophy than a rigid prefabricated set of parts.
Ms. Arado loved her little house, but over time it seemed a little too rustic for her, and she also came to the conclusion that she might prefer to live in a different landscape, near water and forest. In 2015, she sold her land and realized another benefit of a tiny home.
Rather than leave the structure behind, the building was so small that Ms. Arado had it loaded onto a trailer, trucked to Minneapolis, and placed in her urban backyard. For a time, the unit served as a separate bedroom for one of her two sons. Today it continues to operate as a bicycle repair shop for their adult children.
In 2020, Ms. Arado purchased a new five-acre property in Lutsen, Minnesota, on a small lake near the rugged shores of Lake Superior, about 60 miles southwest of the Canadian border, for $72,500.
For a building, she wanted a new type of small house. Although she wanted to build small again, she hoped to improve her living experience with a modest expansion and more luxurious amenities – including a flush toilet.
“It’s 20 years later and I’m a much older person, and I thought, ‘Now I really want to take a shower and all these things,'” Ms. Arado said. “I wanted comfort.”
This time, Alchemy designed a single-story house of approximately 700 square meters, built with structural insulated panels (SIPs) and triple-glazed windows and doors. The exterior is clad in pine wood paneling that has been thermally modified for greater durability.
Inside, the company used simple, durable materials, including Douglas fir plywood and hot-rolled steel, and added thoughtful details that help reduce the need for furniture and accessories. The diamond-shaped steel floor just inside the front door provides space for removing dirty boots. A bent piece of steel serves as a light switch cover as well as a rest for keys. A floor-to-ceiling rod with hooks is used to hang coats.
“These are examples of how things in a few small key areas can really make a big difference,” Mr. Warner said from day-to-day experience at the House.
A niche offers Ms. Arado space to practice her violin and has a wall bed that can be opened up for sleeping. A simple curtain on a ceiling track can separate the room from the living room, which has a sofa bed for when her sons visit.
A small patio near the front door has a built-in bench for outdoor entertaining, and a wooden bridge leads to a freestanding, screened dining room in the trees.
Ms. Arado’s budget for the project was about $300,000, but price increases after construction began caused the cost to rise to about $450,000. Ms. Arado eventually ended her relationship with her contractor and one of her sons worked with friends to finish the job under Mr. Warner’s guidance.
“They did all the siding and completed the bridge and deck,” Ms. Arado said, among other things. “It was a stressful few months, but we just persevered,” she said. “It’s worked out.”
Now she is happy to be able to take a little escape from the city again. “Less is more,” Ms. Arado said. “Because the more you have, the more you have to care for.”
Living Small is a bi-weekly column that explores what it takes to live a simpler, more sustainable, or more compact life.
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