In the Fall of my senior year of high school, my history teacher got me interested in the tiny house movement. We would often spend first period talking about sustainable housing, renewable energy, and the benefits of tiny home living. At my school, Asheville Christian Academy, there is a week-long stint at the end of February called “Winterim,” when students are encouraged to take alternative classes, go on trips, and find internships. After some research I discovered Wishbone Tiny Homes, and Teal welcomed my interest in their work despite my lack of expertise.
I came into the shop Monday morning, greeted by the sound of indie rock from the speakers-that I would soon realize is an everyday feature of work at Wishbone. I met Gerry and spent the morning familiarizing myself with the shop and the company’s website. Later that afternoon, while busy painting the shed on their current project, I had the opportunity to meet past intern Saja and her class from Radford University.
There’s me painting the shed
WLOS interviewing Gerry
At noon on Tuesday, WLOS News 13 came to interview Teal and Gerry in preparation for their coverage of the city council meeting that we attended later that day. Victor, Teal, and I spent the afternoon in the tiny home-anchoring it to the trailer (a process by which I almost ruined the refrigerant piping, but Victor and Teal forgave me and said it was nothing, to my great relief) and installing some roofing. The city council meeting was a great experience: we watched the proposal on alleviating the affordable housing crisis in Asheville, and many citizens, including Teal, voiced their support for changing Asheville’s zoning requirements and thereby creating more tiny home opportunities.
On Thursday, we headed to the Cowan Cove location to prep a tiny home for its photo shoot. Everyone was scurrying around finishing this and that before the photographer arrived. The interior looked amazing and extremely modern, and there was plenty of storage and space to move about-with a walk-in closet, soaking tub, and even a porch for the cat!
On Friday, my final day at Wishbone, I met Jenna, and together we headed to the other location to do a bit of clean up. With the help of Victor, Frank, and Jay (and of course Lulu), we got everything separated, packed into the van, and headed to the transfer station to drop/recycle it. Working with such interesting, mellow individuals and having great conversations made the afternoon fly by.
Look at these awesome light fixtures in the finished home!
This past week at Wishbone has been a short but rewarding adventure. I was able to experience first hand the complete spectrum of building a tiny home, and the immense amount of detail that goes into constructing such a “tiny” space, and learn about the valuable opportunities tiny housing is creating right here in Asheville. Thank you so much to Teal, Gerry, and everyone at Wishbone for making my internship productive and fun, and just generally being awesome people to hang with! I hope that there’s a tiny home in my future!