In the fall we sat in Tiny House building workshops, hosted by professionals who design and construct these structures for a living. At this time, it was an informative learning experience, but the process did not seem real until the materials were first delivered on March 1st. This semester, every Monday morning, we met to discuss pre-construction planning and our plan of attack in order to complete this project in just 6 weeks. We finished in 6 weeks!
I firmly believe we finished on time due to the outstanding group of students and faculty involved with this project. Dr. Crawford and Dr. Berghorn, somehow found time Friday-Sunday to oversee and assist in the building process at the MSU Surplus store. I couldn't ask for a better learning experience than to help contribute to the building process of the first Tiny House in Michigan State history.
We had to adapt to building conditions and in some cases, I had to learn on the spot while working on tasks that I've yet to be exposed to. I was able to witness the project from the beginning stages and there were many takeaways from this experience. I was involved with work involving carpentry, electrical, plumbing, and finish work. A project to this scale creates a beneficial learning environment for those involved, and we found out each square foot counts. We were able to get our eyes on various construction activities all within 177 square feet of living space! "That's a Tiny House!"