Residents downsize into tiny-home lifestyle
The Urban Dictionary defines a tiny home as: “A purchase made mostly by hipsters who wish to forgo the norms of society by getting rid of their apartment or other dwelling and replacing it with a custom built home that is usually on wheels and almost never more than 400 square feet.”
But a quick walk through the home makes it clear that this trend has gone mainstream, something that Mike and Mary Beth Partanna of Phoenix are counting on.
The couple started Uncharted Tiny Homes a little over three years ago. They have sold 20 custom tiny homes since launching the business.
Several of their custom homes are in place in California, and his company is presently working with an investor to open a Tiny Home Inn at the end of the year in Cave Creek, just in time for Arizona’s prime weather and popular spring events.
The cost of a tiny home ranges from about $45,000 to upward of $100,000, with the average sale price hovering at $85,000. For the most part, these are cash purchases, as financing can be challenging.
The typical size is 400 square feet of livable space. Uncharted offers eight models, and depending on upgrades, each is tailor-made for the buyer with an anticipated build goal of one month fol-
lowing design meetings and client sign-off.
The models range from a one-bedroom, one-bathroom, 150-square-foot bungalow to a two-bedroom, onebathroom, 250-square-foot model they call The Lodge. Their homes have lofts, ladders, lots of cabinets and a ton of wood accents.
There is a lack of regulations on the industry — as in zero.
With this in mind, one must be mindful of the quality of the build when purchasing. An overloaded trailer can create unstable turning, inability to slow or stop in time, tire blowout, increased downhill speed or damage to the axles. Poor wiring on a tiny home with typically only one exit could prove devastating.
A visit to their facility near Happy Valley Road and Interstate 17 revealed high-end features and workmanship gained from Mike’s years in home construction.
Uncharted homes are built on steelframed trailers. Out-of-the-box thinking is a requirement for designers, such as an exterior door that opens out and pocket doors or sliding barn doors to minimize intrusion.
One of the 200-square-foot homes under construction at Uncharted featured upgraded Pergo vinyl flooring; a 30” Magic Chef range hood and refrigerator, a queen-sized bed, solar panels, A/C, and the ability to live off the grid with self-sustaining features. Justin and Rachel Beers are among the Uncharted customers.
They don’t fit the typical mold of a tiny house buyer. They are in their mid-30s, and up until seven months ago were living the American Dream — earning corporate salaries with two adorable children ages 7 and 4, and a mortgage on a Scottsdale home.
As Justin put it, “We were living an ideally perfect life, but we weren’t happy. I was putting in 60-hour work weeks and missing my family.”
So they quit their jobs and downsized. They sold their home, eliminated 90 percent of their belongings, and moved into a 30-foot Airstream travel trailer last December to focus on living deliberately and “small.”
The Beers family, welcoming a new baby in December, recently took possession of their Uncharted tiny house. Their home is a modified Mansion model, slightly shorter than the Airstream at 24 feet by 8.5 feet. It sports a 200square-foot base and two large lofts, bringing their livable space to 340 square feet.
There are only a handful of states with progressive legislation regarding building codes and parking tiny homes on property: California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Texas. Arizona is not one of them.
The Beers hope to ignite the tiny home experience for others in Arizona. They are the investors Uncharted Tiny Homes is working with to launch a tinyhome hotel in Cave Creek at the end of this year.
You can follow both Uncharted Tiny Homes as well as the Beers family on Instagram at @unchartedtinyhomes and @WanderInnAz.