Tiny House

During my time at the American College of the Building Arts, my roommate and I took on the challenge of designing and building a tiny house to live in—driven largely by the high cost of rent in Charleston, but equally by a desire to invest our time, energy, and resources into something lasting. What began as a practical solution quickly evolved into one of the most formative learning experiences of my education. We built the house over the course of the second semester of our sophomore year, working through hundreds of real-world challenges that demanded constant problem solving, adaptability, and persistence, with the simple reality that if we didn’t figure things out, we wouldn’t have a place to live. By the beginning of our junior year, the house was complete and ready for move-in. Every part of the build reflects a hands-on, resourceful approach—from sourcing key components like windows, a hot water heater, sink, and wood-burning stove through countless marketplace finds, to fabricating custom elements such as a butcher block kitchen countertop made from hardwood offcuts salvaged from our school’s dumpster. The finished house stands as a complete, functional living space built from the ground up, and the process gave me a deep, practical understanding of construction, material use, and the unique demands of designing within a compact footprint. It remains one of the most challenging and rewarding projects I have undertaken.

We started on January 7, 2024 and finished June 15, 2024