LITTLE things
Affordability, eco-friendliness make tiny homes a good buy for many
New outlook
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – When Nashville residents Dr. Mark Stanley and Nick Gowen found a beautiful, wooded lot in a neighborhood at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, they knew that was the spot they wanted to put down roots and build a house. h Stanley, who practices family medicine in Franklin, Tennessee, was fresh out of his residency and the couple had moved around a good bit with his job. But it was time to design their dream home, build it and settle down. h “We knew this was a critical lot, so we’d have to build kind of a custom home to fit on the land,” Stanley said. “We originally designed a much larger house and quickly realized it was out of our price range. We would have had to get rid of trees and flatten out a lot, so we decided a better plan was to build something that could be a guest house and live out of that for a while.” h
What they ended up with is an 837-square-foot home designed and built as small as it could be without skimping on any necessities or their sense of style. h The married couple loved mid-century modern style and worked with Nashville architect Ryan Thewes to implement that vision into their home.
The result is an amazing and incredibly stylish tiny home nestled into the woods with floor-to-ceiling windows and a view that would be the envy of most anyone living that close to Nashville. The couple built the home for less than $200,000. In addition to one bedroom, the home has an open-concept kitchen and living space, small dining area, one full bath and a small loft.
Although tiny home living wasn’t something the couple set out to do with their dog Tuck and cat Percy, they completely have embraced it. Their original plan was to live in the smaller home for three years as they worked to pay down Stanley’s six-figure medical school debt and eventually build the bigger home as their permanent residence.
But after living in the small space for 18 months during a pandemic that had Stanley quarantined to the 160-square-foot loft for 14 days, the couple agrees they could live in this home longer.
“I really am surprised that we still get along,” Gowen said, laughing. “We went through COVID in this house and we didn’t anticipate that. Not being able to go anywhere could have been tough, but it really wasn’t. This place is our little oasis. It feels like vacation.”
The couple has, however, had to learn new ways to coexist in the small space. Stanley is a gamer when he isn’t working and, according to Gowen, can get rather animated while playing.
“Headphones are a necessity,” Gowen said. “One of the gifts of this place is the woods. I am an outdoorsy person, so having the outdoor spaces gives Mark the opportunity to game his heart out.”
Gowen and Stanley are part of a growing number of people choosing to buck the big house trend.
This mentality of minimalism, practicality, affordability and eco-friendliness is driving the growing trend in tiny home living. Jim Greer is the brand manager for
Clayton Tiny, which is a division of Clayton Home Building Group catering specifically to the construction of tiny homes. It began as a start-up in 2016 and today its production is sold out through 2022.
“We are seeing an increase in interest across age ranges, including younger people and families,” Greer said. “The small-home movement appears to also be benefiting from the work-from-home movement brought on by the pandemic.”
Earlier this year, Fidelity National Financial subsidiary IPX1031 surveyed 2,000 Americans and more than half said they would consider living in a tiny home. Among survey respondents who have never owned a home, 86 percent said they would consider a tiny home as their first home purchase.
Bigger isn’t always better
The terms “tiny home” or “micro home” are loosely defined as homes ranging from 100 to 900 square feet. Some are mobile and some are permanent. The unifier, however, is they represent a massive diversion from the decades-long trend of home sizes continually getting larger.
“We are seeing individuals and families who have lived in large metro areas either move or purchase a second home in a less dense area,” Greer said. “Customers love the opportunity to live in a smaller footprint without sacrificing style.”
This is exactly what emerged with Gowen and Stanley. Their home size initially was driven by their financial situation, but it evolved into an ethos the couple fully embraced.
Because they didn’t spend their entire budget on the house, they later were able to add solar panels to the roof, which during the day provide 100 percent of
their electricity. The home is fully heated with a woodburning stove.
“We don’t have a gigantic electric bill from heating and cooling rooms we aren’t using,” Gowen said. “We are living within our means and we have money left over to do fun things.”
Drawing board
Thewes originally designed the larger home for Gowen and Stanley and used that plan as a vision for the guest house. When it switched from guest house to primary residence, the three worked together to make sure the home had everything needed for full-time living.
“We added things like the little dining nook and workspaces,” Thewes said. “Those are not something you have to have in a guest home, but you need if you live there full time. They wanted the kitchen to be situated where you could see the view, so we collaborated on that to make sure it would work in the space. We didn’t really start with a set square footage or dimension. We just looked at what we needed to make these kinds of spaces work.”
The one thing the couple didn’t downsize was their TV screen. The couple opted for a roll-down, retractable, massive screen that is 10 feet wide.
“We have the smallest house and the biggest TV,” Gowen says, laughing.