The Duck Chalet
My husband, Jeff, and I wanted to share our latest summer side-project that is now for sale – the Duck Chalet! It stemmed from our love for small, intuitively designed, and cost effective dwellings.
We are both green home designers and builders here in Northern New York, and lately we have been building smaller and smaller homes with higher energy efficiencies and more attention to the everyday feasibility of the living space to minimize wasted space and energy.
A tiny house was right up our alley and the next eventual step in our progression. Ever since the beginning of the movement we have fallen in love with tiny houses, but never had the time to build one. We started designing the tiny house a year and a half ago, and finally built it these past 4 months.
In order to get the maximum width and use out of the trailer, it had to be modified to provide load baring portions for the walls outside of the trailer frame rails. This gave us a maximum width and allowed us to save every precious inch of space we could.
In addition to the excessive attention to detail and space management, we tried to supplement it with bits of custom handmade cabinetry, cedar trim and accents, and a warm interior. Along the way we both came up with our funky little living room/dinette set system and fell in love with the idea as well. Is it feasible to switch around every day for different uses? Not necessarily, but it's great to have options – especially when you have a few unexpected visitors for dinner.
One pet peeve we both had with tiny houses is the fact that everyone has the trailer tongue hanging out of the front or back with little to no use aside from some propane tanks or A/C unit mounts. We've seen a few drawbridge style chain supported decks, but never one that completely covered, concealed, and took advantage of the trailer tongue's strength to support a deck. We think our porch deck gives you that feeling of being in a cute country home in addition to discouraging theft of the home
My husband and I have really enjoyed the entire process and therefore, we're hoping our tiny home receives a warm reception so we can further justify delegating more of our time to these wonderful humble abodes. We have so many more ideas ready to go for the next one!
The link to our listing on Tiny House Listings is: http://tinyhouselistings.com/the-duck-chalet/
Thank you so much!
-Jeff and Kalie Brady
