We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Nathan Keding poses beside his tiny house known on the internet as the Woodinville Woodie. Keding began thinking about his tiny house a decade ago. He's been in this house in Woodinville, Washington for about two years. The photo shows two features that make this tiny house unique-the garage door on the side and the balcony on the roof toward the rear of the house. The house has 216 square feet of internal living space
Nathan Keding (left) and Journal correspondent Steve Edwards stand on the balcony of Keding's tiny house. The balcony is accessed via an internal ladder through a fishing boat hatch on the roof (the hatch door can be seen propped open).
This internal view of Nathan Keding's tiny house shows Nathan sitting on the ladder that provides access from inside the main living compartment to the balcony on the roof. The moveable ladder is held in place by a French cleat and hung on the adjacent wall when not in use. Behind the ladder is a sliding door that accesses the bathroom/shower and laundry room with a combination washing/drying machine.
Last winter during the trip my wife and I make to Woodinville, Washington each year to dog sit an aging standard poodle, I got my first hearing aids. I won't go in to the runup to that decision but most husbands can guess who was pressuring me to "do something so you can hear better." For some reason the hearing specialist who was helping me and I got to talking about tiny houses.
In case you've missed this booming trend in alternative housing, tiny houses are dwellings between 100 and 400 square feet. While there isn't a set standard, a tiny house rarely exceeds 500 square feet.
Some are constructed to stay in one place, others are built on specially designed triple axled trailers to be pulled from place to place. The real purists insist a tiny house should be moveable using a standard pickup truck and not require a special permit to be pulled on a highway. I told the hearing aid guy about a young woman near where we were staying who designed and was building her own tiny house.
That's when the hearing specialist told me about his tiny house, known on the internet as the "Woodinville Woodie." He agreed the next time we were in Woodinville he would show us his tiny house and tell us the story of how it came to be. On a trip this summer to dog sit we met with Nathan Keding. Here's some of what we learned about his tiny house.
Nathan attended the Tiny Home Jamboree and later settled on a designer/builder
The Tiny House Jamboree, first held in 2015 in Colorado Springs, was attended by an estimated 40,000 people. The event showcased many model homes and displayed the newest building techniques and materials for tiny houses. The Jamboree also gave people interested in a tiny house an opportunity to get information and meet others who already live in or want to build a tiny house. Nathan came away from the Jamboree totally convinced he was ready for a tiny house.
He selected a firm to design his tiny house. After frustrations over missed deadlines, overlooked budget guidelines and "spending an inordinate amount of money" he looked to NOAH (National Organization of Alternative Housing) to help him find a designer and builder. From that recommendation and his own research Nathan selected Big Bliss Tiny Homes, LLC of Puyallup, Washington. Traci Glidden is the owner of the company, the home designer and, with her husband, the builder of about four to five custom tiny houses each year. On her website she notes, "Designing and building THOWs (tiny houses on wheels) for others is my passion." Nathan said working with Traci he learned how important it was to have the same person design and build his house.
The completed Woodinville Woodie
On his first visit with designer Traci Nathan shared his goal of a finished price for his tiny house between $120,000 and 130,000. Looking at his plans, Traci Glidden estimated a $200,000 cost. Then Traci cut to the chase and asked Nathan, "What are the two features you have to have for this house?" With no hesitation Nathan answered, "A garage door on one wall so I can open my house to nature and a balcony on the roof accessible from inside." Ultimately the finished price was $118,000 plus $10,500 for the special three axled trailer on which the tiny house is built. Nathan didn't share what features he had to abandon.
Two years ago, Nathan's tiny house was completed. It has 216 feet of living space, definitely qualifying it as a tiny house. It weighs 16,000 pounds, is 26 feet long, 13.4 feet tall and 14 feet wide. That width and height means a special towing permit is needed to move the house on a highway (he said the cost to move the house from where it was built in Puyallup to where it was set up in Woodinville, about 50 miles, cost him $2,000+). The weight of the house also ruled out moving it with the pickup he initially bought for that task.
Both features he especially wanted in his house, the garage door and the balcony, had some effects on the dimensions and weight of the finished house. The beams that had to be installed inside the house to support the hardware for the garage door added height to the house making it legally too tall to move on the highway without a permit.
The balcony hatch also added to the height and cost of the house. To assure a hatch would be weather and waterproof, the builder bought a hatch used on commercial fishing boats. Nathan said only, "The hatch was costly!" The balcony is accessed from a ladder hanging on the wall inside the house when not in use.
At some point Nathan hopes to move the tiny house to a plot of rural land. Currently he can open the garage door but cannot build the outside deck he envisioned because of the small size of the lot where the house sits. He bought the highest "R" rated (insulation capability) garage door on the market. He said he's been pleased with how well it does insulate, both in the summer and winter. He said so far this summer (we were there early July) he has only used the air conditioner eight days. The house has a 'floating floor' which he described as a good insulator, allowing him to "walk around in sock feet all winter."
So, after two years in his Woodinville Woodie, what's next? Nathan said, "I love this house. But the next one I build will be smaller and lighter. The one thing I miss is the ability to move it myself." Already talking about his next tiny house, I'd say Nathan is sold on this alternative housing.
