August 27,  2009



When Cape Hatteras Secondary School of Coastal Studies seniors Ted Fort, Kyle Havard, Hyatt Busbey, and Charlie Lee set out to design “the smallest livable floor plan” in their Drafting II and III classes this past semester, they had no intentions of actually building the house.

But that’s exactly what they ended up doing.

There is something of a “tiny house” movement gaining momentum across the country, and the students’ design parallels that of many other houses that are popping up nationwide.

According to Fort, they didn’t build the house to make any kind of social, political, or environmental statement, they just thought they were up to the challenge.

 “We didn’t think it would be that hard to build,” Fort said.

And what’s more—they thought they could build it for free.

A self-proclaimed Craigslist and dumpster-diving fanatic, Fort needed a place to channel his passion for scavenging, and he and the others believed they could use those resources to complete the house. 

And so, spurred on by a combination of boredom, curiosity, and a spirit of adventure, they got to work building their house.

Under the supervision and guidance of their Drafting teacher, Bill Evans, the guys spent the last few months of their senior year bringing their plans to life.

They used their drafting period and an independent study to work on the house, which amounted to about three hours a day, and they used only materials that were either found or donated.

It’s actually pretty amazing what they were able to find—wood, cedar shingles, carpet, a sink, a full-size shower, a toilet, and more.

Even most of the nails that they used to construct the house were removed from the wood they found and reused.
According to Fort, about 80 percent of the materials came from the dump, and the other 20 percent were donated to them.

To date, their total expenses amount to $2.85—for a plumbing fitting they were unable to find.

As you might imagine, working almost exclusively with found materials means getting creative.

For example, the back wall of the house is constructed of 18 separate pieces of plywood, each cut to fit its intended space.  

And most of the 2-by-4 studs framing the house were originally 2-by-6 planks that the guys had to cut down. 
 “Our table saw was destroyed,” Fort said.

Not only did they have to be a little more creative than most, the guys also had to be willing to work just a little harder—such as digging for hours in the sand to find materials.

“That may be my favorite story of the house,” Fort said in an e-mail.

What happened was that the guys needed a ridge board.

“Unlike the rest of the construction, you can't really piece together a ridge board,” Fort explained. 

They needed a 14-foot-long, 2-by-6 piece of wood that wasn’t warped.

“Finding this for free is…difficult,” he said.

One day, they got to a point in the project where they were unable to continue construction without the ridge board.

When they got home that day, Busbey’s mother told them that she had seen some scrap lumber on the beach.

Excited by the prospect, they drove Busbey’s truck out to Lighthouse Beach to check it out.

What they thought was “some scrap lumber” turned out to be a section of a boardwalk, and with four 16-foot, 2-by-6 pieces and some decking, it was everything they needed and more.

They spent the next four hours digging the boardwalk out of the sand and taking it apart. Then they hauled it a quarter of a mile across the beach, loaded it into the truck, strapped it down, and took off.

“It was amazing timing. It sort of reminded me of the old days of the island, where when a shipwreck would wash up they'd take all of the lumber a build a house,” Fort said.

 “Just kind of shows you never know where you'll find materials. Sometimes you just get lucky.”

Though the school year ended with the house unfinished, and two of the four students have already left for college, Fort says that they still plan to finish what they started.

The next step in the project is to move the house from its current location at the school to Fort’s front yard.

Here again, they will have to get creative—the house stands 13 1/2 feet tall, and the cables they have are only 15-feet long.

After the big move, Fort says they plan to finish the exterior of the house, which is mostly done, and then tackle the interior, which will require quite a bit more work. 

When completed, the 8-by-12-by-13.5-foot tiny house will have a living room, a carpeted sleeping loft, a shower, a toilet, a sink, and some kitchen appliances, which, when the house is completed, will be fully functional.

It might even have air conditioning.

Not too shabby for what Fort and the others describe as their “glorified tree house.”

Fort says they don’t really have any plans for the house once it’s finished, though he said someone from Arizona has already offered to buy the finished product.

To keep up with the house’s progress and to see more photos, visit Fort’s blog chronicling the adventure at http://www.thescraphouse.wordpress.com


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