Page 53 - The Hunt - Summer 2021

Karen Eckard’s West Grove home.
A TINY HOME USES ABOUT 7 PERCENT OF THE ENERGY OF A REGULAR HOUSE.
Eckard has propane heat, and her bedroom is outfitted with a queen-size bed and a full bath. She had a second entry installed off her bedroom to let her dogs in and out. “The kitchen and kitchen counters are decent size, and I have decorative tiles above the stove,” she says. “Oh, and the refrigerator is full size.”
Windows are Anderson tilt-in models for easier cleaning, and Eckard has tongue-and- groove pine walls. Before winter, she had insulated panels installed around the outside “to look like concrete.”
While the tiny houses sold by Greenwood and TinyLuxHomes are the standard choices for a majority of owners, there are those
intrigued by the idea of constructing something unique. “I first got interested in tiny homes
in a high school architecture class, where our final exam was to draft, design and build a 3D model of one,” says Chester County resident Vinnie Moro, who recently began work in the banking industry. “I was instantly drawn to it from an engineering perspective—to see how much could fit into such a small space and how efficiently it could all be done.”
He and his father, local contractor Vince Moro, have had many conversations on the topic. “I think my dad and I could build an amazing one. I even think my first house could be one, due to the affordability
aspect. It would likely be somewhere in the mountains, so it could be used as a secondary skiing house. I could rent it out via Airbnb.”
For those who dream small, there are dozens of books available on tiny-home construction and design. For inspiration alone, none of them can beat Australian writer Hannah Jenkins’ Living Little: Simplicity and Style in a Small Space, which features 39 distinctive tiny houses from around the world, often in stunning settings.
And the planning doesn’t need to stop on move-in day. “I’m continuing to upgrade to my tastes and make changes the longer I live here,” says Eckard. TH
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