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What Ever Happened With The Tiny Blue Devil

For those of you who also follow Tiny r(E)volution online (or Facebook or Instagram) you may remember a joint project between Tiny r(E)v and South Lenoir High School in Deep Run, NC. With plans donated by the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, the Tiny Blue Devil tiny house was destined to be a stunner. Students began building on November 15, 2016 and started on a proper tiny house frame manufactured by H & H Farm Supply in Pink Hill, NC.

The tiny house on wheels was built both during school and after school and by students involved with the CTE (Career & Technical Education) program incorporating lessons in core and sustainable construction, carpentry, green building, and unique trends in construction fields as taught by Frank Emory, Construction Technology instructor. Said Emory at the start of the build, “This is going to a fun project bringing together students, administration, and teachers. It will be an opportunity for staff and students to give their time and building talents while working as a team and partnering with our local businesses to take advantage of a new opportunity.”

 

So what happened with the Tiny Blue Devil?

 

Because the tiny house was being built during school days Emory was responsible for no less than 5 “work crews” each day. The students would receive classroom instruction and then go into the shop to apply what they had learned. Each step of the build was carried out by 9, 10, 11, and 12 graders; male and female. I was on-site two days a week to consult and to build. Early on in the project, Emory spoke with The Lenoir County Planning and Inspection Department to find out if they needed to/wanted to/could inspect each step of the build so the students would understand that part of the construction as well. That said, the build started with a 2″x6″ floor system insulted with R-19, per code. The subfloor was LP® TopNotch® Sub-Flooring donated by LP Building Solutions and created a perfect foundation for the 20′ tiny house. The 2″x4″ walls were framed up on the ground and then lifted into place by the students. It went rather quickly with so many hands to help. The walls were then sheathed with 3/4″ OSB with cutouts for 7 Jeld-Wen windows including a unique round window that would go at the top of the door wall. As winter came and went the house continued to take shape and by the first week of April it was ready to be inspected one last time and receive its unofficial Certificate of Occupancy.

 

The home features:

 

  • exterior lap siding by LP SmartSide
  • interior lapboard by LP SmartSide
  • ONDUVILLA roofing
  • a Rinnai on-demand hot water heater
  • a unique propane system engineered by Cherry Energy
  • Simonton double-hung and crank windows
  • LED lighting
  • Nature’s Head composting toilet
  • a locally harvested, living edge kitchen counter
  • a ClimateRight mini-split unit
  • exterior GCFI outlets
  • both an interior AND exterior shower
  • a Schlage Bluetooth/keyless entry system
  • and more!

The electrical system is a 30-amp on-grid system with an interior panel box and ample interior outlets. Sleeping arrangements were in the large, carpeted queen size sleeping loft accessible by a custom boatsman ladder. The same ladder can be used to access the secondary, storage loft located just above the entryway.  The house is plumbed for on-grid sewage and water filtration as well. All in all the tiny house took 21 weeks to build with the sponsorship of 8 companies (local and national) and the labor of 43 students. The Tiny Blue Devil made its official debut at the 2017 TinyHouseNC Street Festival in Pink Hill, NC, April 21-23, 2017. In order to pay for the project, Tiny Blue Devil was put up for public auction. Although it didn’t receive the minimum bid of $28,000 it was purchased just a few weeks later by a single female in Duplin County, NC. Within a few weeks it had been transported to its current home (now home for almost 3 full years) where the new owner had a 4-1/2″ thick (with fiber strand) concrete pad poured complete with hurricane ties. The tiny house that high school students had planned out, built, and showed off, was now finding a permanent home not 30 miles away!

In the past three years, the house has been made super cozy and the interior is functional and fashionable. It is no longer a devil (the school’s mascot, by the way) but a true angel on wheels!

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