Georgia Magazine - July 2017 - 27

J&D IMAGES

BUILDING PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP
DENNIS LEE

The 200-square-foot tiny house named #TinyLab was home
to Corbett and Grace Lunsford during their 34-city Proof Is
Possible tour across the U.S.

ground or having things go into a
sewer."
In addition to having lower utility
bills, tiny houses are easier to clean.
Clint Gooch, a builder of premium
tiny houses and owner of Mustard
Seed Tiny Homes in Suwanee, says:
"We take our tiny houses to big
events like the Decatur Tiny House
festival, where up to 10,000 people
come through in just a weekend.
And it usually takes us about
10 minutes just to clean the whole
thing up."
Tiny-house owners also enjoy
the freedom of not being tied down
to a location, which is a plus when

Tiny-house builders
There are quite a few tiny-house
builders in Georgia, says Will Johnston of
Tiny House Atlanta. Below is a short list of
builders to help you get started.
* Shelter Supply Co., Villa Rica,
sheltersupply.co/ourtinyhouses
* Tiny Home Builders, Cumming,
tinyhomebuilders.com
* Hummingbird Tiny Housing LLC,
Danville, hummingbirdhousing.com
* Mustard Seed Tiny Homes, Suwanee,
mustardseedtinyhomes.com
* BigHeart Tiny House Co., Rutledge,
bighearthouses.com
July 2017

moving to another town or state.
"You don't have to get to the
place and find a new house; you can
take your house with you," Gooch
says. "Even if you decide to grow out
of your tiny house, you don't have
to sell your land and everything. You
can sell the house and either get a
bigger one or build on that property."
Although living tiny may not
be the answer for many growing
families, it can work for some. Marc
and Kimberly Frederick, of Rutledge,
and their seven children lived in an
8-by-40-foot school bus they converted into a tiny home. From 2010
to 2014, they coexisted inside their
tiny home while traveling across the
U.S. to serve as missionaries to the
homeless.
Marc wouldn't trade their "Mission Bus" experience for anything,
he says.
"When you have large spaces,
you have a family that can spread
out. Everybody's in their own room,
and they can do their own thing," he
says. "But in a tiny space, you live
life together. We often referred to the
bus as a refinery because we had
to come face to face with our issues
and work them out."
In 2013, Marc and Kimberly
parked the bus on property they
More online at www.georgiamagazine.org

Well-designed tiny houses efficiently utilize
space to provide the essentials for living while
also encouraging homeowners to spend more
time in nature and the community.

purchased in Rutledge and started
a house-rehab project. Six family
members still live in the Mission Bus.
Home-improvement consultants Corbett and Grace Lunsford,
of Atlanta, and their baby daughter traveled across the nation in a
200-square-foot tiny house they built
themselves. Dubbed the #TinyLab,
the house was the highlight of their
contractor-sponsored Proof Is Possible tour, which began in April 2016
and concluded at Atlantic Station in
Atlanta in January. The Lunsfords
visited 34 U.S. cities in the #TinyLab,
a high-performance tiny house on
wheels.
"We wanted to show people
what essentially high-performance
construction feels like and smells
like and sounds like," Corbett says.
"What we did was build a house
that was perfectly quiet. It's actually shocking to most people who
step inside. We built something
that smells great all the time, even
though we've got cat litter, baby diapers and a composting toilet inside."
Corbett stresses the importance
of quality construction when buying or building any home-large or
small. But, he adds: "I think the most
important thing for people [who are]
about to build a tiny house is to un27
http://www.sheltersupply.co/ourtinyhouses http://www.tinyhomebuilders.com http://www.hummingbirdhousing.com http://www.mustardseedtinyhomes.com http://www.bighearthouses.com http://www.georgiamagazine.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - July 2017
