Three houses for sale, discount for local residents
The Construction and Sustainability Academy (CASA) class at Healdsburg High School has made tiny houses before, but never quite like this. Spurred on by the needs of fire victims, they have created three structures that are now ready to go.
“(After the fires) we started talking to the students and they came up with some ideas of what they’d like to do and one of them was to build the tiny houses for the purpose of having a structure that looked like a house for Coffey Park, that would have an immediate impact,” said instructor Terry Pagni.
“We’ve never built more than one tiny house a year, in fact it’s taken a year and a half (before). This year we built three in a half a year, so we’re pretty excited about it,” he said. “When (students) get to design and be a part of the whole process from the beginning, they buy into it. It belongs to them. It’s a real pride thing. They take a lot of pride in their work.”
Pagni said the original idea was for the buildings to be bought by contractors and put on lots in the process of rebuilding, in order to give people a place to go. “It was for the people who were having their houses built, where they could come during the day or the evening and have light, a little refrigerator set up, where the kids could hang out and play games while (parents) were talking to the contractor, or sort of a hang out place to watch their rebuilds. We designed three different styles, trying to figure out which one would be the most marketable one, and we actually started construction in January.”
The final designs are built on Reed single axle trailers and the “actual built” dimensions are approximately 8’6” wide and 12’ long and 13’4” high (street legal for highways). Theyt feature 130 square feet of living space, including a carpeted loft area, which is approximately 40 square feet and can easily fit a double bed. They have an adapter connection from household current to RV external electricity, with 15 amps of electrical throughout, four electrical outlets and two switches for exterior and interior lights, all wired by the students, with close supervision.
The casitas have exterior and interior lights, metal exterior doors and three windows and composite asphalt corrugated shingles.
The clear redwood decking and milled redwood exterior trim is from a redwood tree that had to be cut down on campus. The interiors have white paneling and vinyl flooring with a wood grain appearance.
“The reason it’s on a trailer — because we could have built sheds and could have delivered them — but if you put electrical in a shed, you have to have a permit, you put water in a shed you have to have a permit. When it’s on tires, on a trailer, there are no permit issues at all,” Pagni said.
“The kids came up with possible uses. One, of course, was for kids to relax and observe their house being built; others were a yoga studio, an art studio, a simple granny unit or an in-law unit. But, one of the best things is, it’s a place where they could go with their brothers and sisters and play their electrical games and have bean bags and stuff. There’s a loft area, so they could stay overnight with their friends and have a slumber party.”
The program gets a discount from Healdsburg Lumber Company, and the houses will be for sale for enough to cover costs (including the trailers, which are about one-third of the cost), though Pagni will be offering them for a discount to local residents.
“I haven’t opened up to the district yet, I always do that at the end, but I’ll probably give a discount to local residents, say $5,500 to local residents,” Pagni said. “We have $6,700 in them and I’m selling them for $6,500. It can be hauled by a lightweight pickup truck with a two-inch ball hitch.”
Anyone interested in purchasing one of the three CASA tiny houses can contact Pagni at [email protected].
